Quick Query on Rangefinders

tylerv · February 6, 2006

This is for anyone out there who owns a rangefinder. I am looking to buy on e and have one question. Are they able to focus on a single ball. For example, if i was practicing on a flat range and hit 10 balls, coul di record the distances of each shot to find my average? J/W ... thanks

KingOAces · February 6, 2006

Very Doubtfull. They're only accurate to so many yards. Your best bet would be to go into your local pro and set up a swing session and get your average yardages there. If your looking for a goof rangefinder for on-course use, the Sky Caddy works best for me, but the price tag is a little high.

ramsey_steve · February 7, 2006

Very Doubtfull. They're only accurate to so many yards. Your best bet would be to go into your local pro and set up a swing session and get your average yardages there. If your looking for a goof rangefinder for on-course use, the Sky Caddy works best for me, but the price tag is a little high.

I'd agree with this comment's initial conclusion, ie "Very doubtful", BUT ONLY because of the difficulty of holding the laser steady enough on such a small object to get a reading. The accuracy of laser rangefinders is unbelievably good (my Nikon 500g is rated at +/- 1/2 yard up to 500 yards, which is far more accurate than Sky Caddy), and really much more precise than we really need to guage what club to hit. Lasering a flag from 150 to 250 yards takes practice, while 150 yds or less is pretty easy. At over 200 yards you need something a bit bigger really - a member of the group ahead of you works well :drinks: At those distances the yardage to a pin is less interesting to me.. I'm more concerned with the distances tocarry greenside traps, etc, and those are very easy to measure.

As for measuring on the range, a laser can still be helpful - you can laser the marker flags or poles out there and pick one out that 's roughly at the distance you want to hit and use it as target. You'll learn quickly enough how far certain clubs are going, assuming you see where the shots finish. Do you go to a commercial range or to a deserted area where you can walk off your shots? I used to do the latter, and what worked well for me was to leave my stand bag out there as a target, walk off my distances from it and then play back to it.

By the way, SkyCaddy's are terrific, but unless you have the range to yourself to be able to walk out to where your shots landed, they're of no practical use as a range tool. I used one for three years, and got a great kick out of it, but I find a Laser more versatile overall, and unaffected by atmospheric conditions (a weakness with GPS). An advantage of the skycaddy however, is that you can 'walk off' every shot during a round, which over time will give you an accurate sense of how far your clubs really go. With the laser you can walk out to your drive and take a laser reading back to the tee box, but that obviously doesn't work with shots from the fairway. Both devices have strengths and weaknesses, and both are great fun to have.