I am getting addicted to rangefinders

[Bravo]

Two guys I play with have satellite rangefinders. I need to make note of the brand.

Our course is very well marked...I cannot complain about this. Markers down the center with front back and middle yardages and markers on the sprinkler heads (to the center of the green) running down the left and right sides of the fairway. So I cannot complain about that.

These guys show up with "Sky King" last year when these gizmos were declared OK by USGA/R&A. I am thinking that its largely a waste of money.

Both of these guys attach them to a vertical bar on the golf cart...and I find them addicting. The instantaneous yardage to the middle of the green is fantastic. Just do the plus/minus from the daily pinsheet and you are on the money.

BTW, the yardages calculated manually by pacing off markers and then adding/deducting the pin sheet markages vs Sky King is usually within one yard...so there is no advantage to be gained as long as you are in the fairway...

Its when you stray........off course a bit....like I sometimes do, that makes these gizmos really nice when you are 25 yards offline.

One of these widgets is in my near future.

What about you guys? What are you using???

[Slingblade61]

I use a few plucked blades of grass and a prayer.

Linky?

[ezra76]

I just play by all feel. I can guage how far I need to hit it on the green just by looking, choose my club and leave it 8yds. short and right.

I have asked questions about them. Maybe a rangefinder in the future but just a cheaper used one. I'm not doing too bad though. Hit the green last round from 205 with a 3/4 choked down 5W 7yd. high fade. lol. Ever had a 5W spin back?

[Rockford35]

I'm the same as Ez and Bob. I go with feel and instincts. It's gotten me this far with little to bitch about.

Courses around here are quite often well marked, even "over there", should you start fooling with the wilderness....

My favorite marker of all time is on Dakota Dunes. It's about 340 out on a 600yard par 5. It has this written on it:

"Hahahaha"

Cuz at 340, I doubt many guys need to pace off yardage...LOL.

R35

[ThatCanadianGuy]

I don't think I could benefit from one. All I do is look to see were I am in relation to the 200, 150, or 100 yard marker and then I + or - what I think the distance is. I'm surprisingly accurate. I NEVER pace anything off. EVER. So un necessary.

But of course if someone handed me a Sky Caddie I would gladly use it. Even though I have no idea how far I can carry any of my clubs. Photographic memory, I'm a very visual and feel player.

If you say 135, I need to see how much ground is in between me and the hole. 135 means nothing to me. The picture in my mind means everything. I don’t even need yardage markers to be honest.

[chemboy2]

Most of the courses around me don't have much more than the 100, 150, 200 type stuff so I fall somewhere between a numbers and feel kind of player. I played on Wednesday with a couple of guys I've not played with before. One had a Bushnell and one a Skycaddie; I could see myself getting used to the exact yardage stuff.

Rock, I've heard a few stories very similar to that when in the 250/300+ yardage range and I have a problem with that (assuming that the yardage isn't next to "ha ha ha"). I don't want to know the yardage to the pin because I think I have a prayer; I want to know the yardage to the pin so I can figure out which club to hit to the 100yd marker.

[goatster]

myself i ask my league partner.sinve we have played golf together for about 6 or 7 yrs he knows my game as well or better then me.other wise i usualy over club myself.

[Eracer]

I use a laser rangefinder for one thing that the SkyCaddie can do:

Measure par 3's. The laser and the SkyCaddie do this equally well.

And for some things it can't do:

1. Measure distances to reach or carry water, trees, bunkers, or carts ahead of me.

Frankly, I have no use for the SkyCaddie. My laser rangefinder does everything it does, and more. Slightly more work for grabbing a distance, but it's actually somewhat helpful in focusing me on the shot at hand.

[dave.]

They would hurt my game.The whole pacing out thing is part of a routine and gives me thinking time,I couldn't replace that now after 25 years of golf.I am sure they work,but golf is played in the mind as much as the course and they would screw me up.

Example.My last round,last hole 150 yards out in trees.I had a shot but needed to keep it low and draw it around a tree.The shot felt like a low punchy 3 iron to get it up there 150.It was one of the best shots I've hit for a while,got it to 6 feet.Where in the process I went through woudl the rangefinder have slotted in? How would knowing it was 154 insteadd of 152 have helped? I felt the shot,it was more important to be connected by feel than the mechanical approach that may have crept in had I been using the rangefinder.

Thats my worry,getting to mechanical on the course

[Sandpiper3]

On my course (swan-e-set), theres one par 5 that is reachable distance, but is never a smart play to go for the green from where this marker is (only 265). On the sprinkler head, it says "NO WAY"

I'd like to get a bushnell pinseeker for this year... dont know how the funding is guna work though....

[Fourputt]

Never paced and never will. I learned how to judge distances when all you could hope for was a stake on one side of the fairway at 150 yards. Got pretty good at judging in 5 yard increments, and that's all I really need. If someone was giving them away, I would take one, but I'm not spending $300 and up for either a rangefinder or a GPS. Science is already too invasive in the game with computer designed clubs and balls... as long as I have my eyes, that's all I need.

[SiberianDVM]

Laser rangefinder, but I'm thinking of switching to one of these multifunction devices also capable of searching for lost balls and running for help:

[Bravo]

Fortunately for most of you, it seems you have a tremendous visual sense of distance. This is something that I clearly do not have....I can probably estimate yardage by sight to no more than 10-15 yards.

Therefore I have depended heavily on green pinsheets and pacing from fairway markers during my entire golf career to get my yardage to the hole.

It's weird because with my contacts, I have 20-15 vision. I can see a ball 200 yards away on the ground easily....my sense of distance though really stinks. If I didn't pace and use pin sheets, I'd probably shoot 4-5 strokes worse per round....

[Pa Jayhawk]

I have the Bushnell Yardage Pro Tour Range finder. The iGolf GPS is "On the vehicle for delivery", so I will have it tomorrow. Will post a comparison review in about a month after it warms up enough to get a few rounds under my belt with the iGolf.

[JEFF4i]

Well, why not just pace it off? Pacing it off works as well for me, and I don't like the idea of getting used to a rangefinder.

I understand if it helps, but seeing as how you are a good golfer anyway...