[Dale_McCallon]

I'm not suprised so many on here use a rangefinder.  Deep down we are all golfers who want to improve their games.   I figure about 98% of posters on here are more concerned with their scores than bunker placement on some obscure course.

That being said, do these things really help your game?  I have no problem with them ( I think they should speed up play), but how many golfers need to know an absolute true yardage.  I figure if you are good enough to worry if you've "about 130" to the pin vs 132, then people would be knocking on your door to caddy for you.

I also am amazed that anyone would need one on their home course.  I guess since I've been known to hit it just about everywhere on the course some time or another, I've played just about every shot imaginable at my home course.  I can't imagine playing there and trying to get a yardage.

[Mike Hendren]

I probably spent an extra 15 minutes per round looking for sprinklers, adding numbers, etc, compared to using a laser. Maybe more.

Sounds like you need a calculator instead of a range finder.  My old caddie at Shoal Creek a few years back had a speech impediment and simply wrote a number down and showed it to me.  Perhaps he's available to tutor.  

The lack of rangefinders made hitting the fairway more important because there were no marked sprinklers in the rough. Getting an accurate yardage from the rough was a chore.

Kinda reminds me of the old joke:  Doctor, my arm hurts when I do this.

Players weren't penalized much for a wayward teeshot - but they were inconvenienced.

What a pity.  Convenience is an essential element of the game.  Perhaps Al Gore's movie had a scene on this?


So, a question for the anti-laser crowd: There's a system in place for getting exact yardages - marked sprinkler heads, pin sheets, pacing, measuring. Using this system takes a long time. Lasers provide the same information but in less time, improving pace of play. Therefore, lasers are good.

I took logic at Tennessee and remember this distinctly:  Some dogs are black. My dog is black.  Therefore, my dog is some dog.

Where do you see a flaw in that argument?

I'm envious of good players such as yourself.  Tell me, how often to you hit it within ten feet?

I'm just teasing, sort of.

Mike

[Mike Hendren]

I'm not suprised so many on here use a rangefinder.  Deep down we are all golfers who want to improve their games.  

Then take a lesson.  Oh my gosh, I'm channeling Kavanaugh.

Mike

[Brent Hutto]

So let's say you're no Angel Cabrera. You don't hit it where you're aiming very often and a lot of your shots just plain stink...

You're standing in the middle of the fairway after hitting your best tee shot of the day. You can see the flag on the right side of the green about 140 yards from you. You step up to the ball, take a look at the flag and realize you're aiming several yards off the right side of the green. What should you do? I guess you ought to just swing away and if you hit it straight it misses the green and leaves you short-sided in the rough. But what the hell, maybe if you aim straight at the flag you'll miss the green anyway. Aiming where you want the ball to go is just for Tour pros.

Better yet, don't take a look at the flag at all. You've played this hole before, you know where the green is. Just step up to the ball and hit it. Even if you aim at the flag you might top the ball anyway. Heck, why not go all out and close your eyes. Seeing the flag will probably just confuse you, after all you can't hit it like a pro anyway.

If the difference in 135 yards and 142 yards doesn't matter, then the difference in aiming at the flag versus aiming off the green doesn't matter.

[John Kavanaugh]

If you have just used your optical enhancer and find yourself in a divot after hitting your best drive of the day what do you do?  I would guess you take it out of the divot, go home, and try to be the first guy on GCA to post the pics of Tiger and his new baby.  It is just a matter of time before divot relief is allowed in the embarrassing world of golf today.

[Brent Hutto]

Yeah, first they started with letting people carry their clubs in a bag instead of loose in their caddie's hands. From there it's just a slippery slope down to letting us carry the ball to the green and drop it in the hole for an ace every time. If you're going to allow any technology at all, then the whole game is damned anyway.

Tell you what, John. I'll get a crooked tree limb and a nice round rock and you do the same. We'll get together at Victoria National and play for a beer. You can give me six a side, that ought to be fair.

[Mike Hendren]

Brent,  there's a big difference between aiming at the flag and pursuing radar lock.  

Some guy named Hogan said:  "This is a game of misses.  The guy who misses the best is going to win."  

Mike

[Brent Hutto]

How many shots in a typical tournament do you think Ben Hogan hit without knowing the distance to the hole? I'd say the over/under is around one.

His comment implies that the guy who misses the hole and leaves an uphill 20-footer will beat the guy who misses the hole and is chipping from over the green. That's true but it informs not at all as to how one goes about missing on the correct side of the hole. One step toward that end is knowing how far it might be to the hole in the first place. It's kind of hard to miss it short if you hit a 140-yard shot and the hole's really only 135 yards away.

[Dale_McCallon]

How many shots in a typical tournament do you think Ben Hogan hit without knowing the distance to the hole? I'd say the over/under is around one.


His comment implies that the guy who misses the hole and leaves an uphill 20-footer will beat the guy who misses the hole and is chipping from over the green. That's true but it informs not at all as to how one goes about missing on the correct side of the hole. One step toward that end is knowing how far it might be to the hole in the first place. It's kind of hard to miss it short if you hit a 140-yard shot and the hole's really only 135 yards away.

I had always heard that Deane Beman was the player who started the whole exact yardage sensation--he passed the secret on to Nicklaus and the 5 hr round was born.

It seems like if you hit it 140 yds on a 135 yard shot, you have a 15 ft putt--I'll take that all day long and be happy.

Do you really make a markedely different pass at the ball when the finder tells you 140, but it looks 135?  I know I'm not that dialed in on yardages.

[George Pazin]

I don't care for them, though it doesn't bother me when others use them.  We go out sometimes in the late afternoon to play, when caddies aren't required, without yardage books and no indications of distance anywhere on the course.  It doesn't take long to figure out approximate distances and play by feel.  It is possible to learn distances from trees or other landmarks and approximate from there.  We can go out in a fivesome and finish in 4 hours.  There's no walking back and forth to sprinklers, pacing off more accurate distances and standing there mulling over what club to hit in between club situations.  It is old fashion golf and lots of fun.  I think also it makes for a better player.  

That isn't to say that I don't ask for distances from my caddy when I use one or I don't check indicated distances on our other course.  But the freedom of playing with less information is enjoyable.  I would use the information at hand, but have no interest in relying on an electronic device.  To each his own, but I would never get a range finder or GPS system.  It introduces more of the modern world than I care to let in.  OK, I use a Titanium driver and steel woods.  However, I draw the line at electronic aids.  That is what they are and are not information available to all...especially at those prices.

This is probably closest to my feelins.

And it's nice to see Brad's gettin' out!

It's kind of hard to miss it short if you hit a 140-yard shot and the hole's really only 135 yards away.

Here's what I don't get - do you really know how accurate you are with distance control, down to the single digits? I know I'm nowhere close. That's why "about 145" is more than good enough for me, personally.

[Kalen Braley]

George,

Yes, even for a not-so lowly 13 handicapper as myself, there is a big difference between 141 and 149....  

Especially if its to a blue pin and going long is wrong...

[Matt_Cohn]

Shane,

No, it didn't make a difference to my score. I suppose that's my point. Same information, same score, more hassle, more time.

[David Wigler]

The moment of truth is when the clubhead strikes the golf ball - not when you pull the trigger and get some digitally displayed number.  A gizmo that reads the green is next.  

I'm astonished that anybody that belongs to this web-site would own one.  Honestly.  Why not just call your mommy up and have her send your blankee over.

Fie on ya'll.

Mike

Bogey,

You will have to explain this one to me.  I worked the fairway at the Ryder Cup.  On every shot, the pro's asked their caddies distance to pin, certain places on green, clearing the bunker, etc.  They pay their caddies a ton to walk with range finders and get them all this info and then get pin sheets with all of this info.  I walk 90+% of my rounds and have a caddie for 80+% of my rounds.  Why would I not want the same data if I could get it in five seconds and insure its accuracy.  The more confident i am, the better my stroke.

[Matt_Cohn]

edit: actually Shane it affected one shot. A par-3 over water was 206 to the middle on the tee plate, but 202 to a back pin according to the yardage book. I went with the longer (safer, but it turned out, wrong) yardage, hit the back of a mound over the green, and one-putted for bogey.

[redanman]

Yips?

Let's putt for quarters, shall we?

Whatever .....

A little defensive today, Bill?

Naw, just funnin'.  No yips.

I liked the rangefinder, but it was just too much work for me.

[Brent Hutto]

Dale and George,

I think we hashed through this is last week's GPS thread but what the heck...

No, I can not hit one shot 135 yards and the next one 140 yards and count on them ending up 5 yards apart. But yes, I may indeed make a different swing if I know it's 135 versus 140. Or maybe not, it depends on what the target is and whether it's between clubs or not.

When I'm hitting the ball decently I can hit a 6-iron pretty comfortably 135 yards but I'll bet I wouldn't make it 140 more than one time in ten, if that. So for a 140-yard shot I'd use a 5-iron virtually every time no matter what (and I might still come up short if I make a bad swing). But if it's 135 to the hole and, let's say, 142 to the rough over the green I'd be foolish to hit that 5-iron, wouldn't I?

The point being, there's some distance at which a certain club ceases to be the smart one to hit and the next longer club is the right play. Not every shot matters. If the hole is dead center of a 10,000 square foot green I care not whether the exact distance is 132 or 134 or 136, I'm going to hit a plain old 6-iron shot. If you have a decision between clubs, surely the odds are in your favor if you make that decision based on correct information.

For me, it really only matters when there's some boundary between "safe" and "trouble" that happens to be near the hole. If the hole is six paces from the front of the green and there's water short of the green then I'm much more attentive to getting it past the hole than if short of the green was just closely-mown fringe.

[George Pazin]

Brent, I get the feeling we each play a game that the other is not familiar with.

I tend to make decisions quick.

135-140? Where is the trouble? Short, take more club; long, take less. Where the ball ends up is anybody's guess.

I feel like I can eyeball any distance close enough for my (lack of) distance control. In other words, if I'm not in the vicinity of the target, it's more likely it was my swing than my knowledge.

P.S. Sorry if we're rehashing last week's argument that I didn't see, last week I was only thinking Oakmont.

[Brent Hutto]

I tend to make decisions quick.

135-140? Where is the trouble? Short, take more club; long, take less. Where the ball ends up is anybody's guess.

Me too. That's pretty much the process I go through when I look down at the yardage displayed on the GPS. I take the number, translate that to a club (ten-yard range) and then maybe take one more club if there's no trouble long or maybe once in a while take one less club for odd reason.

I feel like I can eyeball any distance close enough for my (lack of) distance control.

That's the only difference in the way we play. Your eyeballs work good enough, my don't. I know from experience that my eyeball is way less accurate than my distances with something like a wedge, 9-iron or 8-iron. Or even a mid-iron if it's teed up on a Par 3. If I've got 100-yard and 150-yard markers in plain sight then there's no need for more exact distance in between that range. But with no yardage plates or whatever, a 120-yard shot might "eyeball" as 90 or just as easily as 160.

As I stated in an earlier thread, I'm perfectly happy using my SkyCaddie in exactly the way I use those red and white plates in the fairway marking 100 yards and 150 yards. Glance down and get the idea give or take a few yards and hit the shot. The advantage is that the GPS is sitting there strapped to my push cart any time I need it, even when I didn't happen to walk by a yardage plate.

Although I will say this...there's no better feeling than checking the yardage for a full sand wedge shot and it happens to fall exactly on "the number" for that club. If I had a caddie I'd probably tell him to say "95" any time it's between 90 and 100 because that's how far I think I hit my pitching wedge  

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