GPS DEAL Finder

OnPar Golf Touchscreen GPS

$349.00

User Reviews about OnPar Golf Touchscreen GPS

I agree with most of the comments in other reviews found here. I haven't had any freezing problems in the several months I've had the unit. But several of my regular courses, including a league course, are unavailable. And getting them on the company's to-do list appears impossible. As of today there are about 15 courses in my state listed as available in 4-5 days. Most have been listed that way for weeks/months. Also, they are mapping a bunch of par 3 course insttead of requested courses. What is that about? I'd never buy another unit until they improve their service. Is there only 1 person there mapping? -- Check For Your Courses Before Buying

I will try not to cover previously addressed issues; however, I have additional feedback on the software.

The good:
- Great GPS, accurate, fast, and reliable. I've played 20+ rounds with the OnPar and the GPS is rock solid accurate.
- Best screen available, readable in any light condition, bright, and details are easy to read
- Excellent features; drag to locate shot distance; pre-load pin locations from pin sheets; scorecard; shot statistics; club selection and power; next hole; etc are all great ideas.

The "less" good:
- I've seen the GPS drop the signal
- Touch screen is not ready for prime time. It is not nearly as accurate or predictable as your iPhone, iPad, Droid, or similar smartphone. This becomes extremely irritating as you scroll through courses. Scrolling is extremely unpredictable and you will often find that you unexpectedly open a course when you thought you were scrolling.
-- The scrolling issue can cause delays in your play especially since it manifests itself again if you must modify the club used for your last shot, a feature explained on the OnPar site. You should be progressing up the course, instead you are repeatedly trying to scroll to the correct club, and likely increasing your stress. This would be a simple fix (addressed later in "the really bad.")
- Failure to record the end of a shot after highlighting the beginning of the shot will destroy your club averages. You can indeed enter your tee shot location on hole #1 and fail to record the start of your 2nd shot until hole #3 and record a 1200 yard drive, which necessarily gets captured in the average club distance. I once played a round with a 127765 driver average.

The "really bad - this sucks"
- Maybe GPS developers should use more software because the user interface and common user access model for OnPar software is some of the worst I've ever used.
- There is no undu if you make a mistake, except in the scorecard. If you accidentally record the wrong club, fail to record a stroke from a highlighted starting point, etc, you are hosed. If you accidentally highlight the wrong hole (9 instead of 8) where the default start point would be the back tees, you cannot correct your starting point once you arrive at the 9th hole. Providing an undu is baseline software functionality. I think this points to OnPar's heritage as a GPS company 1st, a golf GPS company 2nd, and a software company 3rd. GPS is great, scorecard function is solid, but the rest is suspect.
- The support staff is largely unhelpful and defensive regarding nearly any topic - course availability, product availability, distribution, software, etc. The desktop software installation will likely produce a filename that your antivirus software will identify as a possible trojan, due to the naming convention used by OnPar. They know the problem exists, but refuse to address the issue.
- Catastrophic failures are too common and manifest themselves as GPS failures or power failures. In either situation, the software does not recover, will not allow to you end the round gracefully, but will assume you quit on whatever hole the device last completed. The ramifications are significant since the recorded results feed into your scores, statistics, and club averages - rendering what would otherwise be terrific tools, useless. Golf data must be tracked over many rounds to be of much use. If you must constantly reset the device, erasing previous data, what is the point?
- The synchronization process is iffy at best with limited accurate feedback about course downloading or updating

In short, if all I wanted was a GPS and scorecard, I could make any number of alternate choices. OnPar promises a lot, but the firm's lack of software heritage undermines the brand's promise. -- GPS + Software Not Always Match Made in Heaven

Pros:
When I bought OnPar over a year ago, I did so because it was the only model I found that kept detailed scoring (putts, GIR, FIR). Like other users have said, you have to read the entire manual to fully understand how to use the device. It is not complicated, just take the time to read the manual and you will get the hang of it quickly. I know at least on my home course, the yardages are accurate to within at least 5 yards. I am not Tiger Woods nor Arnold Palmer, so that is close enough for me. I love that the device allows you to zoom in, as well as move your target around. If you are on the tee box and want to be 100 yards out on your second shot, the touchscreen allows you to set your target distance in order to set up the 100 yard second shot. Another great feature is the ability to measure each shot and apply a club to each shot. This will give you an average/min/max distance for each club as well as make suggestions based on your averages. You also have the ability to mark the clubs you carry in your bag. The only con to this is that it still shows EVERY club when applying a club to a measured shot. The list should be narrowed to the clubs you have selected as being in your "golfbag". So far the battery life has been as advertised. I can go an entire round and not even use up half of the battery life. You do have to download courses, and if there is a course they don't have, you can request that course be added. I did this once and it took only about 2 weeks for them to add. Sounds like some users have had a much longer wait, but my experience with getting courses mapped has been positive. There is one negative to this and I have listed it below. At least there are no extra fees for downloading courses.

Cons:
The device firmware does have some freezing issues. This usually happens to me around the 14th hole. It still works but will not automatically update your position/distances to the green. I wasn't sure if it was a bad device or the software. I emailed customer service about this and they said they are working on an update for the freezing issue with the software. The only other main issue I have is that I have a Macbook Pro and the device is not compatible with Mac yet. I even have Windows on my Mac, but CS said you have to have a PC. The OnPar website states "(Mac version coming soon)" and has said this since I first bought my device over a year ago. When I first emailed CS about a release date for the Mac software, they told me by the end of 2010. I emailed them again on this issue and they now tell me that it will be the first half of 2011 before the Mac version of Synchro is released. I do not have regular access to a PC so this makes it difficult to update the device firmware, add/delete courses, and check my stats. I guess I do not understand how it can take so long to create the Mac version. I guess they have a few other issues to work out first. OnPar also maps their courses via satellite images. They do not "walk" the courses as Skycaddie claims. I live in TX and at my home course, there are a few holes where rivers/creeks/ponds were obviously dried up when they did the mapping because they do not show up when using the device there. I know where they are so it's not huge issue for me, but a golfer who has never played that course, may have no idea the hazards exist and that there may be water in them. You can also send a request to UPDATE a mapped course (which I need to do), but you are still relying on a possibly inaccurate interpretation of the hole. I question whether Skycaddie has really walked all the courses they have available for download, so I do not know how much more accurate it may be than OnPar.

I paid $400 for this thing and would not recommend paying that much for it. Knowing what I know now, I would probably pay about $200 for the device as it is right now. I know it's cheaper now, but with the Skycaddie SGX (I have read very mixed reviews on this as well) now available with many of the same features, do your research before buying either one. As I have yet to see a retailer who buys/sells used GPS units, so once you buy it you're stuck with it (short of selling it on ebay/craigslist). I love my OnPar when it does not freeze up. I rate this as 3 stars now, and will update to 5 stars if/when they fix the freezing issue and the Mac compatibility issue. With the kinks worked out, this could be one of if not the best, golf GPS units available. Well, that's my take on the OnPar GPS device, I hope it helps you one way or the other. -- 3 with potential for 5

Let me start off by saying I did not buy this on Amazon, but I bought the OnPar from my local club about two months ago and feel it is important to share my experience with other potential buyers.

I will also admit I have not used any other GPS units, so I cannot provide a head-to-head comparison. I did, however, do quite a lot of research and can explain why I feel this is the best unit for me, and why I bought it instead of one of the many other similar items. Let me start with that...

Why I bought the OnPar:
The two dominant features that I used to select the OnPar were: (a) no subscription and/or per course fees, and (b) a beautiful hole map that allows you to see at a glance where you are, where you are going, and what the distances are. I know some other units have these features, but the OnPar in my research was the only one to have both AND has a large course selection that includes ALL of the courses I tend to play at home and in my common vacation location.

I have used the OnPar now for almost two months and there is a lot to like....and some frustrations. Let me share both ends of the spectrum...

What to LIKE about OnPar:
1. The screen is indeed beautiful, and the holes are wonderfully depicted. I saw some feedback in here about zooming being a pain. This is true, but the hole pictures are so good I never even feel I need to use the zoom function!

2. The customer service is OUTSTANDING. My first try with the OnPar I felt some of the holes at my course were inaccurate (comparing the plate yardages to the OnPar). I wrote them about it, and within 2 days they wrote me back that they had *remapped* my course for me and asked me to try again (and yes, the results in my next round were MUCH better)! I then went on vacation in Michigan and also found some discrepancies with maps (yardages and missing traps, etc.) at three different courses. I wrote them, and bingo within 2 days they again had remapped the courses I mentioned! So, the feedback on Amazon that says they do not respond to course requests is OLD information. Now that their "backlog" of courses is cleared out, I am finding them VERY responsive to course requests.

3. The BEST unexpected feature on the OnPar is the ability to MARK spots on the course and have it remember them "forever" and then give you yardages to those spots from wherever you are standing. Do you have a hole with a creek running through it you want to lay up for? The first time you play, walk up to the creek, tap on "Mark" to place a mark where you are standing, and that spot will show up on your hole map from then on, with yardage indicated. So the next time you play, you know how many yards away that creek is and can club accordingly. VERY handy!

4. OnPar allows you to measure the length of any shot with ease, and it stores that info for download into your computer for later analysis. It will even suggest clubs, if you turn that feature on (I don't, but it's there). This is handy if you want to get a feel for your club distances, and as far as I could tell in my research this device is the only one that will measure, store, and later output your club distances and averages.

What is FRUSTRATING about OnPar:
1. Freezing. I've seen the comments here on Amazon, and sadly it is true. The OnPar does have a tendency to freeze up at times. I had hoped the issue was older generation units and/or software they had resolved. It is not. My OnPar was bought in May 2010 and has frozen up solid in more rounds than not. When this happens, the screen is unresponsive and your only recourse is to shut it down and "reboot". In the process you lose all data from that round so far (scores, shot lengths, etc.). This is the MOST frustrating part of owning the OnPar. As another example of good customer service, OnPar accepted my unit back and replaced the "firmware" to try to resolve the issue. Sadly, in my second round after being "fixed", it still froze on me. I am still working with them on what to do next. I suspect the real issue has to do with spots on my course where the satellite signal is weak, the OnPar is in "suspend" mode, and when it "wakes up" for me to check a yardage and cannot find the satellite again, the underlying software gets confused and crashes. But that is a guess. This issue as of today is still unresolved.

2. The touchscreen is sometimes a bit less responsive that you'd like. They are quick to point out this is NOT an iPhone/iTouch (with its amazingly versatile touchscreen), so some of it is probably user error. But I find sometimes the "tap/drag" action of moving the screen misses my tap or selects something I don't want. This leads to unnecessary delays on the course as you fiddle to get yourself back to where you want to be. Not horrible, but annoying at times.

3. The interface is at times "quirky" and not as intuitive as you'd like. For example, when measuring your shots, there is a menu that pops up with a series of clubs to ask you which club you hit. Well, I only carry 14 clubs in my bag and told the unit at initial setup which 14 they are. But this menu always presents me with an expanded list of all possible clubs to select from, forcing me to scroll around to get passed those I do not carry. Another exmaple: the OnPar tracks if you hit the green in regulation and your score.... then asks how many putts you have. Ummm, it seems to me it should be able to do the math and tell me how many putts it thinks I had...which I can change if for some reason it is wrong. Instead, I have to enter everything individually with multi-taps, which feels cumbersome and consumes time.

In summary, some minor interface quirks aside, I LOVE this device...when it doesn't freeze up. But the freezing issue is still unresolved and a major problem (even after a return for repair), so I just cannot give it as high a rating as I would like. And potential buyers need to be aware that at least in my case, the comments I have seen about potential freezing problems are still true even with a unit purchased recently and with the most updated firmware installed. I will update this report if the problem is resolved in the near future. -- I love it...and get frustrated by it!

I have used the OnPar approximately 10 times and I am technologically adept.
My previous GPS was the original Golflogix which only gave distance to the hole.

Pros: - Bright, large screen, easy to see in all lights.
- No annual subscription for courses.
- Large database of courses.
- Tech support easy to reach.
- Beautiful pictures of the holes.
- Able to zoom in on parts of the fairway.
- Can permanently mark a position on a hole for future use.
- Rechargeable battery which easily lasts two rounds for me.
- Thin profile so it fits in back pocket.

Cons:
- Unit goes into suspend mode after 3 minutes of inactivity. This means
I have to wake it up each time I want yardage.
- Does not automatically go to the nearest course although it knows which one
it is. The closest course will be highlighted in the list but you must scroll
to it and you can accidentally choose the wrong course.
- Takes a long time to find satellites.
- Hangs up and must be power cycled about once every third round and you lose
the score.
- The device is feature rich but not intuitive. You MUST read the manual to
figure out things like how to clear a position or how to find how far you
hit a shot.
- I installed the OnPar software on a netbook and could not login to get the
courses. I called tech support but they were unable to help with Windows
issues. Turned out to be a problem caused by Skype which caused the Flash
software to have problems. Figured this out because of a previous problem
with google maps.

Summary:
The thing I dislike the most is the automatic suspend mode. I would like to
increase time interval to longer than 3 minutes. I don't mind
charging it after each round. Maybe they could add it to the settings in a
future software version.

I am not sure I would buy this again although my research did not find any
other GPS that seemed better. The Garmin Approach was my second choice but
I hate removing the batteries for charging and it was too thick to fit in
my back pocket. I was not going to pay a fee per course or annually.

-- Could be better.