SkyCaddie is legendary for going the extra mile to map golf courses on foot. Make that 16,000 miles!
SkyCaddie’s chief mapper Steve Winstone has just returned from Vietnam after surveying the Nha Trang golf course in readiness for next week’s Vinpearl DIC Legends Vietnam 2023 tournament on the Legends Tour.
Winstone’s marathon round trip took him to the cities of Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, via Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Saigon, to map multiple golf courses in the country before returning to London Heathrow to work on producing the new course maps with SkyCaddie’s technical team in Mississippi, USA.
As a keen golfer himself, Winstone was charmed by what he found: “I would love to go back and play Nha Trang one day myself!” he said. “The sea views there are beautiful, especially on the signature 3rd hole.
“But of course this was a working trip, and I didn’t have my clubs with me. It can take up to nine hours on foot to map a championship golf course properly, as during the process I walk completely around every fairway, bunker, water hazard, green and other notable features. This means that a 6,800 yard course like Nha Trang is approximately twice that length for me!
“We do this so golfers can have absolute trust in their SkyCaddie yardages. We offer so much more than you can get with a laser, and we are golf’s only GPS company to provide this comprehensive level of on-foot mapping.”
After its GPS devices helped many players to secure victories, prize money and Order Of Merit points in recent years, earlier in 2023 SkyCaddie entered into an official partnership with the Legends Tour.
Head of Tour David Adams said: “SkyCaddie is the official distance measuring device for the Legends Tour, and with this level of commitment it is easy to see why.
“It is the go-to GPS brand for the majority of our competitors. Next week at Vinpearl Golf Nah Trang, as at other tournaments, Legends Tour officials will use SkyCaddie’s ground-mapped yardages to set pin positions and supply daily pin sheets to the players – which they can then download onto their SkyCaddies.
“As well as helping our competitors to plan how they will play the hole ahead, we believe that the SkyCaddies also improve pace of play, improving the already great viewing experience which our fans enjoy!”
Steve Winstone’s thousands of X (Twitter) followers regularly notify him of golf courses which have made changes to their layouts around the world, prompting a trip to update SkyCaddie’s course information. “Most of the time I am updating golf course maps in Great Britain, Ireland and Western Europe” he said “but every so often I find myself somewhere slightly more exotic!
“The Legends Tour players will find Nha Trang very playable. There are plenty of blind areas where they will absolutely need their SkyCaddies, but it’s a well thought-out golf course on which I think they will score well. There are some great risk and reward holes, but the greens aren’t crazy so there will be plenty of birdies.”
The Legends Tour, formerly known as the European Senior Tour and the Staysure Tour, is the most prestigious golf tour in the world to allow the use of DMDs during competitive play. The Tour is open to male competitors aged 50 and over, and is run by the PGA European Tour. Follow the 2023 Legends Tour at www.legendstour.com
See all SkyCaddie details at uk.skygolf.com or call +44 (0)1844 296360.
