What do you do when you are even with the 150 mark? (Laser and/or GPS)

[bkuehn1952]

You are playing a course with which you are reasonably familiar.  Your tee shot is 4 feet right of the 150 yard marker in the center of the fairway.  Yardage markers measure to the middle of the green.  The green is moderate size.  The hole appears to be in the center of the green and the flag is white, designating a center pin position.  Do you shoot the flag with your laser or look at your GPS?

I am relatively new to using a GPS.  I have found lately that in the above described situation, I don't bother with checking the yardage.  At my skill level, I am just as likely to hit the same club 147, 150 or 153 yards regardless of the actual yardage.  Knowing the hole is 152 yards away would not change my approach.

What about everyone else?

[MEfree]

If it was a serious round and not raining, I would probably shoot it just out of habit and because I feel that I have gotten more and more dialed in on my distances (at least before the courses around me closed).  Even at courses that I play regularly, I have not verified that all the 150s are correct.

The situation you described really doesn't happen that often- usually I am on one side of the fairway or the other and/or the pin is not exactly in the middle of the green, so geometry issues come into play.

[MiniBlueDragon]

Always. I don't have binocular vision so depth perception isn't as good as it should be and I'd rather be sure.

[Golfingdad]

Most courses I play use the red, white, and blue flags for the front, middle, and rear pin positions.  If I am right at the 150 marker, and its a white flag, then I don't bother checking with the GPS because there really isn't any extra info I can get from that.  If it's a red or blue flag, I'll do some sort of quasi-precise calculation in my head.  A thought process that goes a little something like this:

"OK, it's 150 to the center, gps says 147 - close enough - and gps also says that it's 168 to the back edge.  The flag is blue, and it appears pretty far back there, so I'm gonna say it's about 163 to the pin.  I'd rather be short than long, so my number for this shot is 160."

If I ever get a laser, I'd always shoot the pin to get that exact distance, even when it's a white flag. :)

[Fourputt]

You are playing a course with which you are reasonably familiar.  Your tee shot is 4 feet right of the 150 yard marker in the center of the fairway.  Yardage markers measure to the middle of the green.  The green is moderate size.  The hole appears to be in the center of the green and the flag is white, designating a center pin position.  Do you shoot the flag with your laser or look at your GPS?

I am relatively new to using a GPS.  I have found lately that in the above described situation, I don't bother with checking the yardage.  At my skill level, I am just as likely to hit the same club 147, 150 or 153 yards regardless of the actual yardage.  Knowing the hole is 152 yards away would not change my approach.

What about everyone else?

If I know that the course is marked accurately, as my home course is, then why waste the time?  If I know that the course markings sometimes are off, then yes I'll use my GPS.  When I first started using a GPS and laser, I often took readings just for fun and practice, and to see how my readings matched up with the course.   Now I don't carry a laser, and I only use the GPS when I feel that there is a reason for it.

[scratch wannabe]

It takes 10 seconds to use my laser, I play on a course with red, yellow and white but I look at it, if I'm in range of the green by anything more than 100 yds. then ill use my laser to get exact distance why try and guess, you shouldn't be slowing play down by using one if you are then don't use it at all, I would still check distance even if you are next to 150 yd. marker as I've played on courses where they are to the front of green and I've messed that up before by guessing

[boogielicious]

About half the time.  I use it really to check the flag position relative to the center of the green.

[Dave2512]

I always have my GPS running or I am in a cart with GPS. But I've never seen a course marker that was more than a few yards different from the GPS. If I can see a course marker I don't bother with GPS. For me it's only handy when I'm not sure what the yardage is. Even then there is more to it than yardage. I make club choices with elevation, weather, hole placement, lie etc. in mind. From 150 I play 3 different clubs. The dark days of bushes at the 150 and colored stakes here and there was a long time ago. Even old courses have been re-rated, measured and updated.

[Meltdwhiskey]

I use a laser, but would not pull it out in this instance.  I only use it if I am not near any course markings or can't see them - the exception being if I have to hit over a bunker or hazard or something.  Nice to know what I need to clear it.

[MS256]

I always look down at my GPS out of habit. Most of the time I find the yardage markers match the number I have but occasionally there is a discrepancy.

At the course where I work on the 18th hole the 150 yard marker is about 15 yards off. I don't know how that happened and the course owner didn't even know it until a few weeks ago when he was in my group.

Just last week one of my team members was getting ready to hit a shot from what appeared to be 140 yards by that 150 yard marker. Before he hit the shot I told him he had 155 yards. He looked at the yardage marker and I told him it was wrong so he got a different club. Good thing because he barely cleared the water with the longer club.

I know there have been comments claiming the GPS is not accurate but I'll go by my GPS over a course yardage marker every time if they are showing different distances.

[billchao]

I laser every approach. It's just part of my routine. It doesn't take much time at all, and most of the time I do it while someone else is going through their routine or taking their shot.

[Robster 7]

I only have GPS but I'm getting a laser soon as I often guess pin placements with my gps and can be a club out sometimes because we have large greens. My regular playing partners have laser and when they do it for me I feel like I commit more to the shot. I can't understand anyone off single figures who doesn't use some sort of distance measuring device.

[David in FL]

I'll absolutely check. There could easily be a full club (or more) difference between 2 different pin positions, both of which are considered "center" green.

[Foursum Golf]

I used to just check the pin position and trust my yardages. Trying to get into the habit of checking GPS though. Knowing how many yards short and long you have to work with is beneficial.

[billchao]

I used to just check the pin position and trust my yardages. Trying to get into the habit of checking GPS though. Knowing how many yards short and long you have to work with is beneficial.

I'm starting to learn the value of this. I know guys with both a laser and a GPS and they use both. I just have a laser, so I guess I have to get creative with how I'm using it.

[Desert Driver]

If I've measured this shot before, and remember it, and the green is relatively flat and without features, most likely NO, I wouldn't spend the time re-measuring the distance. However, if I was on the far left or right side of the fairway or needed to land the ball somewhere specific on the green due to the dangers, I would.

[mvmac]

I would shoot it with the laser, mostly just out of habit and to double check that the flag is where I think it is.  Also depends on the green size, for a big green you could have a half-club to a club difference from back-middle to front-middle.  Most of the time though I think it would be straight forward.

[rehmwa]

I laser every approach. It's just part of my routine. It doesn't take much time at all, and most of the time I do it while someone else is going through their routine or taking their shot.

this - I stick to my routine - I don't see how people are saying it takes extra time or wastes time

(I don't want to be in my backswing and wondering if I have the wrong club or should be hitting 100% instead of 3/4 - especially when on a reachable approach

I don't know if my game is that good or not - But I like to learn from the shot in addition to prepping for the shot.  example - it's 160 to the pin and I decide to try to hit pin high - so comfy 7i shot.  I connect well and come up short 10 yards.  Now I have a better idea that it's cold, or this hole is uphill, or my game "today" is short, etc etc etc......on the next approach, maybe I pick a club or half club more than my typical)