When I played Omni La Costa’s all-new North Course in Carlsbad, Calif. two weeks ago, I put my clubs in the back of my buddy’s cart and walked the course. His dog got to sit in the passenger seat. And it was great, except that many of the holes were deemed cart-path-only that day. So I was constantly walking from the cart path to my ball to catch a distance, then back to the cart to grab a club, back to the ball to hit it, and then back to the cart to tuck away my club. But when I played there this past week, I got to use the MGI Ai Navigator GPS+ electric caddie.

What a difference it made, being able to walk with it right to my ball and having my clubs immediately available. Mind you, I’ve carried my bag on this course many times – it’s fairly flat and a long-yet-easy walk. I prefer walking any golf course when possible, as I get a much better feel for the course. Plus it’s great exercise. But carrying a bag is always taxing on my shoulders and lower back by the end of the round. So the MGI caddie — essentially an electronic push cart that debuted in America last year — made this round a relative breeze.

The caddie features an integrated GPS system with a super responsive high-resolution 4-inch full color all-weather touchscreen display that can bring up live hole yardage maps of 40,000+ courses worldwide. It delivers fast and accurate distances to all parts of the course. And there’s a companion MGI smartphone app for Apple or Android phones that in my round was very in sync with the cart map, with respect to yardages. You can also keep your score on both the cart touchscreen and the app. The cart also comes with a fully directional and detachable handheld remote control that can be used from 110 yards away, allowing you to walk the course with ease. The furthest I tested that range was about 80 yards and it was flawless. With the brand’s patented gyroscope straight tracker technology, the MGI Ai Navigator GPS+ stays on track across any terrain. While you can certainly operate everything right on the cart handle with the remote, I opted to use the remote the entire round — finding it super easy to learn and very intuitive to operate. My only suggestion is that I’d love to see a steering wheel dial rather than the current left and right buttons that I found to be a bit choppy to use. But aside from that, using the caddie was a pleasure. It operates super quietly and its 24V lithium battery gets you 36 holes per charge. The entire unit weighs 33 pounds without the battery – 38 with it – and easily folds into a compact footprint that can fit into the average car trunk.

The brand itself has been around for 30 years, having originated in Australia where it reportedly remains extremely popular among golfers. The model I used has five wheels, including a stabilizing wheel between the rear two tires. It came in handy twice during my round, when I tried sending the caddie up very steep hills. I saw it tip all the way back to the stabilizing wheel before quickly leveling back off. I wish I could say I deliberately tried that, but it was just sheer carelessness on my part. Regardless, I’ve used quite a few of these types of units on golf courses the past few years and found this one to be perhaps the easiest to be my companion around the course.