Slopes and Distance - SkyCaddie and Laser Rangefinder - Sensor Fusion gives slope

[1ftput]

Different information from different techniques

Let's begin with THE RULES:

http://www.usga.org/news/2009/November/USGA-R-A-Joint-Statement-On-Electronic-Devices/

"The change introduced in 2006 permitted the committee in charge of a competition or course to introduce a local rule allowing distance-measuring devices. A very important proviso of this permission is that the device must measure distance only; it must not measure other conditions such as wind speed or direction, the slope of the ground or the temperature. "


So... Imagine a par 3, with a very steep uphill layout and the hole high up in the sky. The uphill is not totally smooth, some ups and downs.

A) If you "walk" the distance you will measure the total distance of the contours etc. from you to the hole.

B) A laser range finder will give you the distance from where you stand to where you aim in a straight line.

A is greater than B.

C) Using a SkyCaddie it will calculate the distance for you. But from what I understand it ignores the Z-coordinates. So even if they did catch the Z-coordinate of the green when they mapped the course, and even if your hand unit can measure 3 coordinates, it disregards the Z in the distance calculation.

Thus: you're at X1Y1Z1, the hole is at X2Y2Z2.
Skycaddie calculates distance = sqrt((X1-X2)^2+(Y1-Y2)^2)

[in general the GPS system is not as good at measuring the Z coordinate as the X and Y, but that's another discussion.]

Therefore C is less than B.


From what I understand all these three methods A, B and C are legal. But they give you different results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_triangle#Terminology

The laser gives you the hypotenuse, and the SkyCaddie the catheti. Using these two legal methods thus gives you a good approximation of the slope. And there we return to the beginning of my text.

Sensor fusion from two legal devices has given you information about the slope - something you wasn't supposed to know...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor_fusion

Any comments?

[highergr0und]

Probably would work if you knew the exact location of the pin on the green and could nail it with the sky caddy..... although if you had the new model where you can "move" the pin on the green you might get pretty close. I'd prefer to leave my calculator at home and just ballpark it though. Rarely do I find myself on holes that have enough elevation change to move more than one club in either direction and it's usually pretty apparent if the hole is moving up or down.

[TM_HOYER]

Do all that in our group and at the best, no one would want to play in your foursome because you would be taking to long to determine your distance and making your shot. At the worst, you would end up with a 5 iron shaft replacing your spine for taking to long to hit your shots.

[SwingBlues]

lol, and let's not forget, you still have to hit the shot the right yardage. GPS, laser and "sensory fusion" or whatever IS USELESS if you duffy it 5 yards, or hook or slice the crap out of the ball

Today, my bud got a yardage from me and then hit the ball with his 1 hybrid and -SOMEHOW- made the ball fly backward. This is off the rough. ROFL. He had a bad day, 118.