You Need This: Golf Gear for Christmas

Most men get lost. Malls, parking lots, country roads, the Galleria—no way can we make it from point A to point B without some unnecessary detour. I’m hesitant to admit it, but most of us need a map, a guide, a GPS. Even Tiger Woods couldn’t find the end of his driveway last week without hitting a fire hydrant and a tree at 2 in the morning. If only he had a GPS. Or his caddie.

That’s why, on the golf course at least, PGA Tour players use caddies and yardage books, and that’s why I’m in love with two hand-held, high-tech gadgets that keep me on the straight and narrow:

Callaway’s uPro ($399) and Garmin’s Approach G5 ($450). Both know which hole you’re playing because, like military drones, they know your GPS location.

The uPro is a little 3-ounce gem. It has a rechargeable battery, a zoomable and scrollable hi-res color display, and it’s small enough to fit in your pocket. The uPro stores 50 courses of your choice and can be configured to display terrific aerial photography of the courses; the Approach uses cartoon graphics, which are equally accurate but allow the unit to store data for many more courses.

Either way, if you’re playing on the TPC Four Seasons today but find yourself in, say, Pebble Beach tomorrow, you’ll be ready.

Each uPro hole starts with a tour-style video flyover showing the layout so you can plan your attack. As you move along the fairway, so does a custom view of the hole based on where you’re standing on the course. Superimposed on those aerial images are precise distances to any point you choose. The Approach is a larger and heavier unit, but it’s also waterproof, more rugged and sports a touch screen.

Both the units have the ability to track shot distances, so you’ll be able to prove once and for all that you really do hit your driver 340 yards.

And your buddy doesn’t.