The G9 is the bee's knees! However, I have a few issues with it.
If you play a course with lots of trees, it does not keep the
GPS fix very well, and therefore you will not be able to play a full round without bringing a spare battery and the information can be relatively useless..
The instruction manual is not desperately clear either, and I would rather have an idiot's guide than missing information as it currently stand; e.g. the datums have no influence on the basic operation of the watch but clearly becomes important if you involve a map - which most of us do not use on the
golf course....
I think that as with most things in life, the better preparation, and the better result. I would advise potential buyers to do the following: Charge the watch for 24 hours prior to use. Bring the watch to your club and leave it for the initial fix for thirty minutes, as this will ensure that the G9 receives all the relevant data from at least four satellites. Do not move the watch during this initial fix! Then it is time to map the course. Do this without bringing your clubs as the temptation to both play and map it too high - I did and got basically nowhere. Hey presto, now we are in business! Do follow the manual and keep it simple in the beginning until you know how to navigate the around the menus.
The after sales support from
Suunto is excellent and the
Golf Manager program is good. I was not able to install it properly on my Win 98 platform, but it works very well on an alternative Win 2000, which I have.