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Is there anyone out there that does NOT use a rangefinder?


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Why guess the yardage when you can know for sure what it is? Laser take 5 seconds to shoot the pin. It gives you confidence in the shot you are going to play and lets you know how far you really hit your shots.

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I use a laser. It take no time at all, most shots I have my number and I am standing at my ball before it is my turn to hit. I could get by with out it, but in close I find it make the biggest difference, or I will use it know carry distance for bunkers or other hazards.

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The guys I see playing from the tips that skull their 200 yard drives into the rough and then wait for the green to clear from 350 yards out on a par 5 - pretty sure they aren't using one.

 

All too often I do see them using them. Even if they aren't it's not hard to see that a 200 yard marker is over 100 yards away. Even when those groups are behind me, I always just want to tell them that if they run a shot up on the green from 300 yards away I will personally give them a high five and will not be mad that they hit it close on that amazing 300 yard fairway wood.

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In my area it seems like when a course puts the reflectors on the flags they take out the 150 fairway poles. A couple courses have also peeled the yardages off the sprinklers too. It appears they're assuming most golfers are now playing with some form of technology, or soon will be. Also I'm seeing some courses not renewing their lease on the cart GPS units (which is fairly costly to a course).

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I've been out of golf for a few years (just lost the flavor for it). Now that I'm back, I'm trying to get my gear sorted. Two of the first things I've done is to get a LRF and a small GPS. I walk most times and despise having to guess distance or walk half way across a fairway searching for a sprinkler (if even marked). I look at it as an investment so get quality and keep/use it for years. It can't hurt your game, only improve it.

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I had a laser range finder for years but lately it was hard to get a lock on anything above 150 yards so I got myself a GPS watch.

 

What I like with the GPS watch is that it gives me near-center-far distances. With that information I can guess a lot better what club to take in order not to fly the green or be too short. If I can't make out if the pin is towards the back or front, then I use my range finder.

 

So Laser and GPS is a good combination. But when you select a GPS make sure you get one that gives you near center far distances (near and far location changes depending from where you approach the green (e.g. Going over a lake or playing it save and playing asking the lake).

 

A lot of the watches (e.g. Bushnell) only have front center back distances (these are distances to fixed points)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't use one, although I've considered buying a GPS primarily for blind shots or ease of finding a yardage. I do not need to be super precise as I generally find myself playing my higher-percentage conservative shots (i.e. fat part of the fairway, middle of the green below the hole when practicable). I get very precise with my short game and putting which is where I do all my scoring anyways.

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It's not that difficult to WAG it off the 150 stick when you're within 170 or so. One of my friends has a GPS/range watch and I'll occasionally "cheat" and get the number from him (he'll call it out if we're close). It's nice on par fives when you don't know whether you're 190 or 210 out (3 iron vs. 5 wood approach for me), but other than that...I could do without it.

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A laser is essential when hitting your approaches from adjacent fairways. It helps

to shoot the right pin too.

 

Hey Rad, good on you that you can hold a laser still enough to get a good reading at your age ;-o. I can't. I like my gps app. I use it mainly when I'm in no man's land between or away from the fairway markers, or as you said off the fairway. Nice thing about gps is that it can mark without line of sight..

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A laser is essential when hitting your approaches from adjacent fairways. It helps

to shoot the right pin too.

 

Hey Rad, good on you that you can hold a laser still enough to get a good reading at your age ;-o. I can't. I like my gps app. I use it mainly when I'm in no man's land between or away from the fairway markers, or as you said off the fairway. Nice thing about gps is that it can mark without line of sight..

 

LOL, I was.........well I have a Garmin GPS watch but I sometimes hit the ball

where a laser gives me a more accurate number, especially with some of the

large, weird shaped greens on the Trail, where what is considered front, middle

and back by the GPS may be just wrong.

 

I'm not talking 3-5 yards but as much as 15-20 yards I have been off when

compared to the laser rangefinder. I can't tell you how many times on a par 3

I would just look at my watch and gauge the pin distance and grab a club,

then a compadre lasers the pin and announces a number 15 yards different

than what I had guessed.

 

That isn't always the case but it does happen enough that I've lost trust in

my Garmin watch.

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I used to be quite good at eyeballing yardage, such as 65 vs 75 or 150 vs 160. Once I got my rangefinder, I really lost my ability to accurately eyeball yardage. Now I am a slave to my rangefinder.

I agree. Came up doing all estimating from makers and sprinkler heads. No gps or lasers back then!

 

Have a bit of experience making range estimations for slightly different projectiles. Big part of estimating still includes eyeballing, wind calls from watching leaves and grass. The new tech is awesome- no doubt about it. But if your battery dies, device takes a crap... it's nice to have a handle on doing it the old fashioned way.

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I really enjoy my Garmin G8. I really wasnt in the market for one but my girlfriend thinks I'm tough to shop for and ended up grabbing me one for my birthday this last year. Took me a while to remember to charge it and keep it in the bag because I had never used one or a laser before but now that I can remember those things Ive grown to like it. I can tap the screen and know the distance to the trap I need to lay up behind as well as the distance the next shot will require if I lay up. Little things like that and knowing how far to the middle of the green seem to help put my mind at rest. I can't hit it 166 on command but if I know the center of the green is 170 I can hit it between 165 and 175. If I'm not guessing at the distance its one less thing to think of while standing over a shot and for me less things to think of means a better shot 99% of the time.

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Not using a gps since my Golf Buddy died an early death.

The course currently being played has distance markers recessed into the fairway.

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I have a watch, a Garmin G6 and a Bushnell rangefinder, and use all 3 at various times with good results. On an unfamiliar course I might use 2 of the three. Takes me no time to use and the Bushnell has no problem finding the pin quickly even with a little shaking. Walking around finding sprinkler heads is more time consuming.

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I'm the guy who is too cheap to buy one and plays with guys that have them. (Kind of like boats - I am happy to use my friends' but will never own one)

 

If I'm playing one of the courses around town that I frequent, then I can pretty much feel my way around the course. Anytime I'm playing an unfamiliar course I really like knowing what kind of carry I need to shoot for.

 

--Jay

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Been using the Garmin S20 since it came out. I find I play much better with a GPS watch than I do rangefinder.

 

S20 provides distances to hazards and layups in addition to the regular front/middle/back.

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I use a GPS watch - I've found it to be within 2 yards of various laser rangefinders my fellow players are using. It might not factor in the slope/height compensation of the very best rangefinders but on the course i play it seems to make less than 5 yards difference.

 

I get an instant number as I arrive at the ball - none of the nonsense taking the RF out of its case, turning it on, taking a measurement, putting it back in the case - personally I think my colleagues use of RFs is adding up to 30 minutes to a round of golf, by the time they measure to hazards and lay up point too.

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I use a GPS watch - I've found it to be within 2 yards of various laser rangefinders my fellow players are using. It might not factor in the slope/height compensation of the very best rangefinders but on the course i play it seems to make less than 5 yards difference.

 

I get an instant number as I arrive at the ball - none of the nonsense taking the RF out of its case, turning it on, taking a measurement, putting it back in the case - personally I think my colleagues use of RFs is adding up to 30 minutes to a round of golf, by the time they measure to hazards and lay up point too.

 

Anyone who is adding five minutes to their round (let alone 30) by using a range finder simply doesn't know how to use one correctly.


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I'll echo some other thoughts here- I've used some sort of phone GPS for 5 years. I find it helpful for 2 reasons- I don't have a home course where I play exclusively and know intimately, and you just can't find sprinkler yardages like you could 10 years ago. I can't remember the last time I saw a front/middle/back on any on course yardage.

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I use a watch. It seems like courses aren't making distances as much as they did prior to GPS.

 

My TomTom watch died a few weeks ago. I downloaded a golf app on my phone and promptly lost it in the rough on the 16th fairway on the next round. Bought a new watch on Amazon that night.

 

I play a lot of different courses or new courses and it's nice to have hazards, dog legs, and green distances. Nothing worse than hitting a good shot into a bad spot because you misjudged the carry.

 

I can't hit 132 on command either, but knowing it's 118-127-139 front to back may be the difference between picking GW or PW.

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I used to use a handheld GPS which allowed for moving the pin location on the green. Combined with a daily pin sheet I was able to get a pretty good idea of distance on some pretty big greens. The last couple of courses I have belonged to don't use pin sheets and only color code the flags to indicate front, middle or back. Many times the color of the flag doesn't really correspond to what I would consider front, middle or back.

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Come to think of it we all carry rangefinders. That little bit of gray matter in the noggin.

Gets its input from sensory perception.

 

Being tounge in cheek there.

 

I actually think, unless you have really good command of your ballstriking, and distance control an exact distance measuring device could be detrimental to your game.

Far too often, I have seen high handicap golfers fret over the yardage with their electronic devices, forgetting about such variables as wind, elevation, tempature.

There are times when you just know you should hit a hard seven instead of an easy six. A rangefinder doesn't tell you that, but, your eyes, the conditions, and experience does.

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