Having been exclusively a Rangefinder user throughout my career, with the occasional printed course guide thrown in, I was intrigued to see what the SkyCaddie Pro 5X had to offer, so I ventured out onto the links to see if it could rival some of the best GPS devices in the game.
The SkyCaddie Pro 5X is a digital course guide, around the size of an iPhone, that comes pre-loaded with 35,000 courses that SkyGolf has ground-verified for accuracy. An ultra-fast multi-core processor is designed to give you an exceptionally fast response time while the HD graphics with multiple views hopes to provide a high-quality visual experience.
The first thing I noticed when taking it out of the box was the new larger 5.5” screen, up from 4” with the SX400 model. Given the level of detail the Pro 5X provides, this is a welcome and necessary upgrade.
The setup experience was straightforward, a short power charge, and off I went. Once you turn the unit on there are some handy short tutorials to get you up and running, which I found very helpful. The PRO 5X comes with a 12-month Birdie Membership included in the purchase price but you will need to sign up for a SkyGolf subscription plan once that period ends. The annual subscriptions range from $29.95 to $59.95 depending on the level of detail and features required.
For my first test round, I played on the West course at Saunton Golf Club. The Pro 5X picked up the course quickly using GPS location, but had it not, there is also a search feature if required. Once I had chosen my course, I was then directed to a selection screen where I could customize my preferences such as tees, flag positions (more on that later), and many more options. When you are ready to start the round, you just need to make sure that you have a clear view of the sky for the satellites to pick up the signal, and off you go.
In terms of features, the Pro 5X is jam-packed. One of the first that caught my eye was the Intellipath technology. Once you have dragged the cursor to your intended aim point and yardage, the Intellipath feature will kick in and show you all of the distances to any other relevant course feature within the vicinity such as bunkers and water hazards. I really enjoyed this feature and it was a real time saver for me when I would normally need to laser multiple individual bunkers to decide on my club.
Once I had hit my first tee shot (straight down the middle I’ll have you know), the next high-quality feature became apparent. Dynamic Holevue technology rotates the fairway and orients the green from wherever you are as you move from the tee to the green. This genuinely improves the experience as you see everything situated directly between you and the green instantly, giving a much better perspective. As I didn’t have a pin sheet for the day, I was unable to take advantage of the Pinpoint feature that allows you to input flag positions before the round ensuring complete accuracy, however, I could see the pin on the 1st was towards the back right portion of the green so I was able to drag the marker to my best estimate.
Another green-related feature I enjoyed was the updated Intelligreen Pro. This allowed me to see all of the major contours of the green from the fairway to inform my club selection better while staying within the rules as it doesn’t factor slope or gradient into distance calculations.
As well as giving you plenty of information, the Pro 5X allows you to record a lot of information too. The scoring area of the software is very easy to use and you can also gain some real statistical insight into your game by utilizing the impressive stats feature.
The Pro 5X can even help you select the correct club using the Dynamic Rangevue feature whereby you can pre-load your club yardages. Then, as you play, you will see your club range next to the RangeVue ring on every part of the course which can be a handy visual. Obviously, this is more of a rough guide as it doesn’t factor in slope, temperature, or wind so the player would need to make those adjustments and calculations themselves.
I could go on for pages and pages naming all of the features, but I want to talk more about my personal experience using the Pro 5X. Speaking as a PGA Pro, who still plays somewhat competitively, I was genuinely impressed with the level of accuracy of the unit. In my testing, I only played a couple of courses, both of which I knew reasonably well so some of the features weren’t as crucial as they would be on a course I didn’t know. I am legitimately excited about using the Pro 5X on a few courses I am less familiar with as the season progresses as I really do feel it could save me strokes and most certainly time.
Whether it is figuring out a run-out to a ditch or working out how much of a dog leg you can cut off, it is extremely quick, easy, and most importantly accurate with the SkyCaddie Pro 5X.
One of my personal favorite features was the Intelligreen technology that adjusts its own orientation and pin location yardages depending on the angle you are hitting from. For example, if you were hitting from the geometric center of the fairway, at that angle the flag may be 10 yards on from the front edge, however, if you have hit a wild tee shot and you are coming in from way left, then the amount of room between the front edge and flag from your angle would alter i.e. if the pin was positioned tight to the left edge of the green, you would have less green to work with and vice versa. The Pro 5X calculates this and adjusts accordingly.
I’ve been fortunate enough not to have tested the SkyCaddie Pro 5X in the rain as of yet, although SkyGolf says that it is “highly water resistant” for those with concerns.
The SkyCaddie Pro 5X is a very impressive, interactive digital course guide. One of the main points of difference with SkyCaddie products is that all of their yardages are ground verified by SkyCaddie staff who walk the courses with measuring equipment rather than just relying on satellite imagery which can be unreliable.
Whilst I am in the early stages of my relationship with the Pro 5X, I can fairly confidently say that it is going to be one of my essential items when packing my bag for tournaments this year.
The price of the unit varies somewhat from $399.95/£399.95 device only, or up to $579.90/£579.90 depending on whether you buy it with a subscription plan or not.
