A range finder on my BlackBerry? About time!

After months of suffering the indignity of watching your rangefinder-wielding buddies dial in exact yardages to the pin while your approach shots continue to fall short or soar cell phone number list long, maybe you’re finally ready to drop the hundreds of bucks necessary to get a laser yardage finder or GPS device of your very own. If that smartphone you’re packing is an iPhone or comparable model of BlackBerry, take a long, lingering cell phone number list look at GreenFinder GPS, a low-cost, low-frills, downloadable app by Itinerant Software based in London, Ont., that uses global positioning technology and accurate, pre-existing measurements from more than 11,000 golf cell phone number list courses in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. In the old days, the knock against software-based GPS systems was the availability of courses. Those days are clearly over, judging by how difficult it is to stump the GreenFinder system. Unless cell phone number list you play nothing but backyard goat tracks and farm pastures, it’s a safe bet the course you play most often will be available using the software. Even if it isn’t, there are ways to make it happen _ either by notifying Itinerant directly or by entering cell phone number list your own waypoints the next time you play. The only real downside to GreenFinder, of course, is the lack of visuals.

Expensive GPS systems like SkyCaddie and the Callaway cell phone number list to give users a handy overhead perspective on the hole they’re playing (the uPro in particular, which actually features video flyovers) _ undoubtedly an advantage when trying to determine how to play a hole, particularly on an unfamiliar cell phone number list course. But if you’re an old-schooler who’s generally playing the same tracks time and again and like to get by with numbers like carrying distances and the measurement to the front, center and back of the green, Green Finder GPS is all you need _ on a device you probably already have (and, if you’re like me, end up looking at a dozen times over the course of around anyway). Play 10 different courses in a single season and at $35 a year, we’re talking about cell phone number list something that costs less than a Pocket Pro for each layout. Arrive at your course and fire up the GreenFinder, and it will ask you if you want to locate a course using the GPS. Click Yes and the software starts comparing its database of courses against your coordinates, and if it cell phone number list finds the course you’re at, it will usually be listed first. Otherwise, it’s usually just a scroll and a click away. With a friendly admonition to play well, you’re on your way. Hit the first tee and GreenFinder gives you carry yardages to any hazards in play, and with a flick of the finger, your distance from the front, middle and back of the green. Just don’t ask it to cell phone number list help you hit the ball. One fun feature is you don’t have to be playing golf to have fun with GreenFinder. Case in point: My living room cell phone number list armchair is just shy of 28,000 yards from the front edge of the first green at Eagle’s Nest Golf Club, which is just north of Toronto.

Number 1 green at Bethpage is more than 637,000 yards away. If you’re already cell phone number list packing the appropriate phone, GreenFinder really is a no-brainer for the committed or regular player who’s content to work with just the basic numbers and doesn’t need fancy graphics or laser precision to calibrate how cell phone number list far they need to hit the ball. The Gear Head has for a number of years now been packing a Bushnell laser rangefinder, which is designed primarily to provide yardage to the pin itself _ something the GreenFinder can’t do, since cell phone number list pins move around. Having yardages to the front, center and the back, however, is the next best thing, and if you’re packing both devices, you can paint a complete by-the-numbers picture of the hole you’re trying to play. The nicest cell phone number list thing about the GreenFinder is how effortless it is to use. Lasers can be finicky and demand a steady hand; all one needs to do with the smartphone is scroll between fairway and green in order to get carry yardages and cell phone number list distances to the green. Once you get your round underway, you don’t even need to cycle through – the GreenFinder is smart enough to know that once you’re past a certain distance, you’ve moved on to the next tee, and changes the hole accordingly.