At the PGA Show in Orlando this year I spent some time in the GolfBuddy booth and was introduced to their latest GPS tool: GolfBuddy Voice GPS Rangefinder. This is a very cool device. Unlike most GPS units that require you to stop and read a screen filled with diagrams and units of measure, the VOICE is a beautifully designed GPS device that actually speaks to you, giving you the distance to the green from the point on the fairway where you are standing.

The GolfBuddy Voice GPS Rangefinder clips onto your cap, pocket or belt and with the click of a button, reads off the exact distance to the front, center or back of the green. It’s less than 2 inches square and weighs only an ounce and is super simple to use. Just click and listen and the VOICE speaks. No more fussing with dials or trying to read a screen in the bright sunshine. You can adjust the volume as well so the VOICE can speak loudly enough for your golf partners to hear, or you can drop the sound back so only you can hear the distance. (Helpful in tournament play, I should think — provided the rules of the tournament allow GPS aids.)

Small and very convenient to use, the VOICE comes with more than 40,000 golf courses already installed!!! No matter where you play on the planet, you will find your golf course on the VOICE. But before using the unit for the first time, you should go to the GolfBuddy online course library just to double check and be sure the course you are going to play is online and to download any new course information.

The unit comes with a power adapter for charging the battery and a USB data cable for connecting to your computer for downloading the latest updates. (The GolfBuddy crowd are always updating courses and if you don’t find your course online, let them know and they will add it.)

I played three rounds of golf using the VOICE and shared the unit with my golf partners. Almost everyone loved it. In fact, two of the golfers liked it so much they are buying a VOICE of their own. If you’ve been thinking about purchasing a GPS device, you should seriously consider the GolfBuddy VOICE.

Positives:

• Easy to use, easy to update.
• Battery easily lasts through 18 holes (We played a slow round the other day. Not only did the unit last the four and a half hours, but it was still working 2 hours later!)
• Multi-lingual… you can play in Spanish, Japanese, German, etc!
• Volume control
• Easy to set yards or meters
• Choose distance to front, center or back of green
• Measures distance of your drives
• Measures time of your round

Negatives:

• The only negative is that the VOICE focuses on your distance to the green from the point at which you stand. It does not measure distance to hazards, or bunkers. But the whole point of the game is to get in the hole, right? And if you’re focused on your game, you won’t end up in a hazard anyway, right?

Bottom Line: We give the GolfBuddy VOICE our highest recommendation! Five Tees!

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Do you use a GPS or a rangefinder on the golf course? Comment below and tell us which model you have and how it performs for you.