GolfLogix Green Book Review

GolfLogix Green Book Review

GolfLogix Green Book Review

GolfLogix Green Book
Grade: B+
Teacher’s Comments: There’s a place for these, even in the era of laser rangefinders and GPS. Expensive.

GolfLogix Green Book Review

Traditional yardage books are old school analog stuff; GolfLogix Green Books are the digital upgrade.

In addition to the usual staid images of a course’s holes with yardages mapped to various landmarks, the GolfLogix Green Books feature digitally mapped views of the greens.

Since half the shots on a par 72 course are allocated to putts, a better understanding of greens is a good way to better scores.

The heat map view of the green shows how fast you can expect a putt to roll as it passes through each zone. Ideally, you would examine the map before hitting an approach, studying where the flag is located. From there, you can see the likely outcome of a ball that hits each area. The arrows show which direction the ball will roll, while the color maps the speed.

Each green view also shows a putt break chart. This shows what should happen to a putt as it moves from its location toward the hole.

Once on the green, use both images to locate the position of your ball and the position of the hole. From there, you can plan your shot accordingly.

The GolfLogix Green Book I tested is for the Washtenaw Golf Club, a course I know very well, having played on a regular basis for more than twenty years. I thought that comparing the digital analysis to my own experience would provide a good test of its accuracy.

Washtenaw is an old school course that dates to 1899. The greens are tough, with breaks that range from subtle to rollercoaster. What I found is that the GolfLogix Green views do a good job of capturing each green’s contours.

GolfLogix Green Book Review
GolfLogix Green Views Offer A Heat Map And A Break Chart.

If you have any trouble at all reading your home course’s greens, the GolfLogix Green Book is worth an investment. It’ll clear up any of those lingering questions and doubts

I also think that it would be really useful to have a GolfLogix Green Book if I were playing a competitive round at an unfamiliar course. Such data would offer a real edge.

Of course, so much depends upon a golfer’s ability to putt to a spot with the proper speed. If you can’t do that within reasonable margins, then there’s no hope. But if you can, the GolfLogix Green Book could be an effective tool.

GolfLogix Green Books are printed on sturdy paper, and if kept in a case, should last a long time.

They’re not cheap, though. The GolfLogix Green books run to $40 through the website. It is possible that they would cheaper if purchased at a course. Golflogix has a resellers program for course pro shops.

On a side note, the (perhaps unavoidable) choice of “Green Book” as a product is title is somewhat unfortunate. Green Books were — as the recent movie has made famous — guides for African Americans who were traveling in the United States during the Jim Crow era. (You can see a photo of the cover of a Green Book in an article I wrote on golf’s desegregation court cases.) In this “woke” era, someone is sure to complain about “appropriation.”

As an investment for improving play on your home course or courses, I recommend the GolfLogix Green Books. I even recommend them if you plan to play a competitive round — say a local or state championship. The Golf Association of Michigan runs a large number of these, and I actually wish I had one when I recently played an event at Plum Hollow. You may even find it useful if you’re playing in a money outing. But I couldn’t possibly justify the purchase for a one-off round (at this point, I’ve played and reviewed some 200 Michigan golf courses. That would have run $8,000)

The GolfLogix Green Book review was first published on GolfBlogger.com on July 21, 2020.

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