It’s summer again, which of course means Wimbledon, rain, and a Legends Tour winner lifting a trophy to the heavens after using SkyCaddie’s ground-mapped GPS yardages.
In the latest domestic Legends Tour event, the OFX Irish Legends 2025 at Mount Juliet, South African James Kingston was that SkyCaddie user.
As his dramatic final round drew to a close, Kingston peppered the flagstick with a series of dialled-in approach shots, accelerating past his fellow countrymen Darren Fichardt and Keith Horne, plus England’s Peter Baker, to claim a one-shot victory.
To help him attack the greens Kingston had downloaded the day’s exact pin locations to his SkyCaddie PRO 5X Tour Book rangefinder.
“It’s an absolute fairytale finish to make five birdies in the six holes” said 59-year-old Kingston, who is now a four-time winner on the Legends Tour, adding to his two wins on the DP World Tour and a prolific winning career on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.
“With nine holes to go I didn’t think I was in it. I was playing well but hadn’t made any putts. My wife encouraged me to hang in there, and I hit a great shot into 18 for my winning birdie” he said.
18 out of the top 18 finishers and ties used SkyCaddie GPS during their rounds at Mount Juliet, continuing a trend of players adopting the technology through choice, not obligation.
Now in its third season as the Tour’s official Distance Measuring Device, SkyCaddie is on a remarkable run going back to 2021 with the last four winners of the Legends Tour Order Of Merit being SkyCaddie users.
Tour players who use SkyCaddie GPS have now won dozens of titles and secured hundreds of Top Ten finishes since the technology first started gained popularity on the Legends Tour.
In 2024, 80% of the Top 40 in the O.O.M used SkyCaddie GPS for yardages during tournament play. And last season, SkyCaddie users won 12 of the 15 Legends Tour events where rangefinders were allowed.
Kingston himself has been using SkyCaddie GPS since late 2021, and won the Legends Tour Order Of Merit in 2022.
The Legends Tour presented by Staysure, formerly known as the European Senior Tour, remains the world’s most prestigious professional golf tour to allow – and embrace – the use of rangefinders in tournament play.
“James Kingston has consistently shown his ability to win at the highest level, and in Ireland he delivered a thrilling late run to overtake the leaders when it counted most” said SkyCaddie’s James Holmes, Director of Sales & Operations EMEA. “What a finish! It’s so vital that he has the right course information when hitting into the green, and his SkyCaddie PRO 5X provides that.
“Like most Legends Tour players, James can also rely on his SkyCaddie to plan tee shots and layups, and he knows he can use it when he’s out of position as – unlike with a laser – you do not need direct line-of-sight to get an accurate yardage when you have a SkyCaddie” he said.
SkyCaddie became the Official Distance Measuring Device of the Legends Tour after a period of steady growth, starting with just a few players. As word spread among the professionals, usage rose to over 70% of the field — making it a natural next step for SkyCaddie to become a Tour partner.
Legends Tour officials now use SkyCaddie’s ground-mapped GPS yardages and its revolutionary SkyPins service to create pin sheets when setting each day’s pins, enabling competitors both to download the day’s accurate hole positions onto their SkyCaddies, and also to get a printed pin sheet for the day.
“The vast majority of the players on the Legends Tour actively use SkyCaddie products through choice” said David Adams, Legends Tour Chief Marketing Officer. “That tells you everything you need to know about the competitive advantage a SkyCaddie gives to even the most demanding golfers.”
“Legends Tour players rely on the yardages we give them because of our industry-leading course mapping methodology, where we professionally walk every golf course to plot every part of every hole, including the greens, with advanced GPS technology” said James Holmes.
“We congratulate James Kingston on his latest victory, and whenever he or the other Legends Tour stars use their SkyCaddies in competition it validates our belief that SkyCaddie GPS can help even elite golfers score better.