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Range Finders on Tour


Lodestone

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I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I don't remember having seen it. It seems to me that it would pose no great insult to the integrity of the game to let the pros use rangefinders during tournament play. I'm pretty sure they know where they are, and if they are unsure they take enough time to become sure, by pacing it off, or having the caddy pace it off. Why not just let them use a rangefinder, and save some time, since pace-of-play is such an issue?

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> @Lodestone said:

> I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I don't remember having seen it. It seems to me that it would pose no great insult to the integrity of the game to let the pros use rangefinders during tournament play. I'm pretty sure they know where they are, and if they are unsure they take enough time to become sure, by pacing it off, or having the caddy pace it off. Why not just let them use a rangefinder, and save some time, since pace-of-play is such an issue?

 

Because people like Bryson would bring out 6 range finders (one of each major mfg'er) and acquire and average the distances.

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I'm really in favor of them using rangefinders. If everyone has them... It's not an advantage for anyone and I'd think it would cut quite a bit of time off a round.

 

Additionally, I was reading/listening somewhere a while back that the caddies are so good they are pretty much spot on with the yardages as it is.

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Sounds reasonable. Though I wonder if they'll figure out a way to make it take longer. Like wildcatden's scenario above. Sounds silly but then think about aimpoint and plumb bobbing and all that nonsense...

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> @wildcatden said:

> > @Lodestone said:

> > I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I don't remember having seen it. It seems to me that it would pose no great insult to the integrity of the game to let the pros use rangefinders during tournament play. I'm pretty sure they know where they are, and if they are unsure they take enough time to become sure, by pacing it off, or having the caddy pace it off. Why not just let them use a rangefinder, and save some time, since pace-of-play is such an issue?

>

> Because people like Bryson would bring out 6 range finders (one of each major mfg'er) and acquire and average the distances.

yes, but faster than pacing it off 6 times and taking the average.

 

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Yes it's been discussed quite a few times. And the answer is usually that it would not really sure up pace of play. The pros don't want just the number to the pin. They want to the front edge, to the back edge, to the backstop ridge in the green, to the sideboard ridge in the green....... And so on.

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> @Shilgy said:

> Yes it's been discussed quite a few times. And the answer is usually that it would not really sure up pace of play. The pros don't want just the number to the pin. They want to the front edge, to the back edge, to the backstop ridge in the green, to the sideboard ridge in the green....... And so on.

Don't they have the pin placements , green dimensions, paces onto the green, etc on a sheet, or in a book? Those things don't change with wherever they hit the ball. But you are probably right, in addition to the actual number of yards, I'm sure they feel they get valuable mental insight with regards to "touch" when they actually pace it off and see the terrain. Along the same lines of why a blind shot over a hill is tough, even if you "know" it's an exact distance, compared to the same shot when you can actually see the landing area.

Good point.

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> @Lodestone said:

> > @Shilgy said:

> > Yes it's been discussed quite a few times. And the answer is usually that it would not really sure up pace of play. The pros don't want just the number to the pin. They want to the front edge, to the back edge, to the backstop ridge in the green, to the sideboard ridge in the green....... And so on.

> Don't they have the pin placements , green dimensions, paces onto the green, etc on a sheet, or in a book? Those things don't change with wherever they hit the ball. But you are probably right, in addition to the actual number of yards, I'm sure they feel they get valuable mental insight with regards to "touch" when they actually pace it off and see the terrain. Along the same lines of why a blind shot over a hill is tough, even if you "know" it's an exact distance, compared to the same shot when you can actually see the landing area.

> Good point.

 

Yeah, believe it or not, pro's rarely go totally flag hunting unless they have a wedge in their hand or they are shooting toward a flag that absolutely fits their eye/shot shape and hits their number on the nuts. Otherwise they're usually aiming for a spot on the green to putt from where it gives them the best chance to make birdie or two-putt for par and move on....greens on Tour are usually so hard and so fast and the pins on many greens are protected in a way where that is really all they can do. And that doesnt take into account the calculations they make for wind, weather, uphill/downhill, etc.

 

If anything, rangefinders for a tour pro during a round could actually SLOW play, not make it faster. You'd have pro's lasering landing spots from the tee box, or lay-up spots on a par-5, etc. And they would still consult a yardage book, talk to their caddie, and do all the pre-shot routine stuff they do right now.

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When Johnny Miller was at his peak, he says he controlled his irons to half a yard. Imagine would he could have accomplished had he had a laser rangefinder.

 

On the other hand, Johnny's full of ****.

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> @3jacker said:

> When Johnny Miller was at his peak, he says he controlled his irons to half a yard. Imagine would he could have accomplished had he had a laser rangefinder.

>

> On the other hand, Johnny's full of ****.

 

> @3jacker said:

> When Johnny Miller was at his peak, he says he controlled his irons to half a yard. Imagine would he could have accomplished had he had a laser rangefinder.

>

> On the other hand, Johnny's full of ****.

 

Greg Norman said the same thing - that he was good to half a yard. Maybe he too was full of....

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Make the lazy, sniveling pros play by amateur rules. Yardages only in general to the front, middle and back of greens. No pin sheets, half-assed conditioning, play behind groups of drunken bachelor parties, balls in 15 packs from Walmart, no rules officials, now we're talking golf. Well, OK, maybe not, although sometimes the bachelor parties have amusing cart accidents.

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Justin Rose made one of the best cases not against the use of rangefinders but against the idea it would speed up play on the PGA Tour. He argued that it wouldn't speed up play because when PGA Tour players are assessing their shot they don't just get a yardage to the hole they do various different yardages then make a judgement depending on all the various factors.

 

When I heard Rose's comments I completely agreed with his argument, the scale of information players now have at their disposal during the round clearly impacts on the pace of play and a rangefinder wouldn't speed up play.

 

I guess a rangefinder would be useful in the instance where a player has hit it way offline and the caddy would normally pace it out manually.

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I'd be in favor of pro's using rangefinders if they replaced yardage books. If not, then it's just going to slow the game down even more.

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> @new2g0lf said:

> I'd be in favor of pro's using rangefinders if they replaced yardage books. If not, then it's just going to slow the game down even more.

 

I like that. And no green reading books. Take all the books out of the game.

Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing-glove.  P.G. Wodehouse
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Hell I couldn't care less if they used the Hubble telescope to have the yardages pop up on their phones...

 

I just wanna see the shot don't care bout all the flim flam around it. Maybe caddy getting yardages used to be something people cared about as part of the game....but we ams don't care about that in our games as long as we get the yardage from laser or carts so its not even on radar for something to care bout....

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