Fitbit surege mileage with golf

[Carrie53562]

I have worn my fitbit surge twice while golfing 9 holes (walking, NOT riding a cart) .  I know that the rated distance of the course is a little less than 2 miles--that is just measing a straight line from the tee box to the center of the green.  Of course, you don't walk in straight lines on golf courses, and you need to walk between holes, so the actual distance that you walk is probalby more like 3+ miles.  However, each time my fitbit surge showed the total mileage that I walked as being less than 1 mile.  The GPS tracked my walking route correctly, but it did not measure it correctly.  Am I doing something wrong?

[RobertoME]

Hello @Carrie53562, it nice to have new users, so welcome aboard to our Community. My recommendation in case you are tracking your walk with the golf field is wait until your GPS have fixed your location. Otherwise If you start moving before the signal is found, Surge uses your step count to estimate the distance you traveled before GPS tracking began. Therefore, the total distance calculated for the activity may be slightly less accurate than if you'd waited for the GPS fix before you started moving.

The other recommendation in case the issue persist is by updating your stride length information on your account. I will let you know how to measure your walking stride length:

1. Go to a track or some place where you're sure of the distance.
2. Count your steps as you walk across that distance, making sure you travel at least 20 steps.
3. Divide the total distance (in feet) taken by the number of steps to get your stride length.(Your running stride can be calculated the same way if you run instead of walk)

Now with this information, using the fitbit.com dashboard, click the gear icon in the top right and go to Settings > Personal Info. The stride length fields are in the Body Info section. Once you enter your measurements, the changes take effect after you sync your tracker and the accuracy regard distance should improve.

In the Fitbit app go to Account tab > Advanced settings > Stride length. 

Hope this works for you and see you around my friend.

[Carrie53562]

Thank you for the reply.  I do not think that stride length is an issue.  The third time that I golfed I just used the regular step tracking setting and it tracked 4,000+ steps as opposed to the 1,200 steps that I got with the GPS golf feature.  I used the GPS hiking app this weekend for an 8 mile hike and that seemed to work fine, so I think the problem is with the GPS golf app.  However,  I am golfing again tomorrow and will make sure that the satellite is fixed before I start to move and let you know if it works.  Thanks.

[Carrie53562]

Thank you for the reply.  The golf app still does not report distance or steps accurately.  I have twice just used the regular fitbit step counter for golf and got over 4,200 steps plus over over 2.2 miles walked each time.  I have twice used the golf app, and the first time got .83 miles sistance and last night got 1.2 miles and around 1,000 steps both time.  Last night I made sure to let the satellite lock before I started the golf app, and it still was not accurate.

[SantiR]

@Carrie53562 I hope you're doing well! Have you tried logging the golf activity manually? (check @GisselleM's steps on that post). This option should give you accurate data for your golf activity. I left a picture below showing how it looks on the online dashboard. 

Try that out and let me know how it goes!