Will rangefinders improve my game?

I'm looking to start shooting under. will a rangefinder help me lower my score and hone in my irons or should I save the money?

Would this information help you? It's 137 to the pin and 125 to carry the bunker. There is plenty of room to hit a smooth 9 iron to put the ball pin high or just below the hole. From the blue tee you can aim at the bush on the other side of the hazard. It's 195 to carry on that line so there is no need to panic. Careful on the right the bunker comes into play at 265. The pin is 168 on the top plateau which starts at 155. A nice 7 iron puts you in great position. 290 to the pin, lay up with a 5 sets up the 100 yard wedge. Having reliable course information can only help you make better decisions that should translate into better scores. It is the best thing I have ever bought for my game by far. Read more below. http://thesandtrap.com/t/37388/i-love-my-bushnell-tour-v2-rangefinder

Great post, TourSpoon!

Cork - since you're a 3 hcp, I'd imagine you have your distance control down pretty well and know which club to hit (and how much to choke down/take off it) for a given distance.  As TourSpoon laid out so well in his post above, the rangefinder would most likely be a help to you with shot placement/scoring.

I have a Bushnell Tour v2 and use it multiple times per round.  Being a high 'capper, my distance control and shot placement is far from precise (which may be the understatement of the year!) - but it at least gives me an idea of which club to use, whether I should risk trying to carry a hazard or not, etc.

If you want to go under (coming from a former +2) you don't absolutely need a rangefinder. However, to do it faster...you will! What TourSpoon outlined above is course management...which leads to improved confidence. A rangefinder will only speed up that process, which actually gives you more time to COMMIT to your shot. It dropped my handicap from a 4 to a 2 almost immediately... I am starting to go under par on 9 holes, but can't string together a full 18 yet. I do believe that the rangefinder (now that I trust it) has really expedited that level of play!

I think some kind of rangefinder(whether it be a laser rangefinder of a gps system)  is a great idea.  Its difficult to select the proper club if you don't know the distance to your target.

The real answer is, it depends. If you're currently able to get precise yardages to the pin, and everything else you might want, then it won't do anything for you. If however, you find yourself guestimating and losing strokes due to inaccuracies, then a rangefinder will likely save you strokes.

how would anyone be able to get precise yardages to a pin without some kind of measuring device?

Accurate pin sheet or a caddie, coupled with a well marked course and/or yardage book.

I played for 35 years before I ever even saw a rangefinder.  Even now, I can probably get within 5 yards of any given pin just from observation and pacing on a course I'm somewhat familiar with......something I'm sure all better players are capable of too.  Heck, when my buddy first got his laser, I used to take great joy in calling out the yardage before he could get it.....and it would REALLY piss him off when I was within a couple of yards of his new toy.

Having said that, I have both a laser and gps and love them!  They speed me up and give me confidence, but I'm not sure they've significantly reduced my overall handicap.

Before the rangefinder, I had a course yardage book for my most played courses like you see on tour. You would use a sprinkler head or other landmark (trees, bunkers, etc) and extrapolate the distances to the front then you would estimate the pin based on the contour map in your book or use a pin sheet. I would think that since the OP is a 3 cap, that this kind of information may be able to get him to closer to a 2 if it helped him make one more birdie or save one more par per round.

My laser rangefinder is the clearly number one purchase I've ever made.  I've calibrated myself to all my swings and what swing/club/choke combos give me what distance, and that includes short chips and pitches.

The only thing I don't laser is my putts.

Caviat here - I'm LOUSY at just eyeballing distances, even stuff as short as 20 yards.  So the help I get from this device is probably amplified for a guy like me (very consistent distance control tied with no ability to estimate without a device).

Ditto....I am thinking of rangefinder watch.  I am not really keen on pulling out a handheld, but the watch seems practical. My biggest concern is if they are clearly visible especially under trees which we all occasionally seem to be able to find.  My distance judging ability seems alright, but more often than not I have found myself coming up short and blamed my swing. Now I'm not so sure that knowing an accurate yardage might have made club selection easier and perhaps negate the possibility of ego influence. Looking at Bushell Neo but am open to suggestion.

Thanks,

James

Is there a reason why more people do not use their phones instead of rangefinders?  I've played with a fair amount of different people and none of them seem to know about apps like golfshot.  It's seems to be pretty accurate at least to within a few yards.  Not only do the apps give you pictures of the hole it gives you distances to anywhere you want on the course from where you're standing.  I also really like how it keeps any stat you can thing of to show you what parts of your game needs the most work.

I may be wrong because I have never used a range finder but they just seem kind of pointless with how cheap the apps are and how just about everyone has some sort of either android or apple phone.

Like I said though I've never used a range finder so I don't know how much better they are compared to GPS.

Phones can be considered illegal because of other functions that a phone performs.

Many phones will not make it through a round with the GPS left on. Most of the free apps I see people use show nothing more than the green.

My skycaddie keeps track of the major stats in a much easier way (for me), generally has a lot more than just the greens measured and can last at least a couple of rounds without recharging.

Circa 2009, the USGA and R&A; ruled that cell-phone based golf rangefinders/GPAs were illegal. Reasoning: your cell phone can also tap into sites giving your wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, etc., which are illegal. Even if you don't have the weather functions in use, the fact they reside on your phone makes using rf/GPS apps illegal.

Sand Trappers had a rousing and heated discussion on this starting New Year's Day 2012. Here's the thread, which includes a link to a rangefinder/GPS rules article:

http://thesandtrap.com/t/54948/smart-phone-gps-now-not-allowed/72#post_670406

Rangefinders would be helpful when you play a new course, especially ones with dips and rolls around the green that might hide the bottom of the flagstick - a good way to fly he green because the distance looks farther than it is. It also would be useful on "cartpath only" days when the cart-based GPS is 40 yards from where your ball landed.

I would like to borrow one for checking my partial wedge distances - I redid my wedge mix after last season.

The iphone makes it pretty easy through 18.  I'm usually at around 50% or so when I'm done.  Some of the free apps are junk but one called golfshot is actually pretty great.  It shows distance to everything the course contains and you can also move a slider that will show you your distance to anywhere you want.  It also keeps your GIR, driving accuracy, putts, sand save %, distance of every shot and your layup distances for each club.  It will even show you your average everytime you come to a hole you've played before.  So if I am playing the 3rd hole at a course I usually play it will show strokes 4.2, putts 1.89 fairway % 72 and GIR %33 for that hole of how I have averaged in the past.  If you want you can friend people you know on it and it will email you their scores after they finish a round and you will be able to look up all their stats just like you have.

I know it's not for everyone but it is a great tool to show you what needs work in your game and keeps as many stats as you want it to.  I just think people don't realize the tools they already have they can use for golf that's in their cell phone.  For the $30 price tag is a pretty cool app.

I just thought I would throw this in the mix.  I know some people do not like messing with phones but it's really a simple, powerful and inexpensive tool compared to some of the really high end range finders.