Illegal laser DMD

The Nikon Coolshot 40i (and others) are advertised as follows:

* Golf mode displays the slope adjusted distance (Horizontal distance ± Height) which is a guide for how far you should hit the ball and useful when golfing on an uphill/downhill course — ID (incline/decline) Technology

When I phoned them to ask if they conformed to the ROG, the initial  response was that they didn't know the RoG. When I asked to speak to someone more senior, that person said the pros use them but couldn't say whether during a competition or not. The third, more senior again, refused to answer the question and told me to check with the R&A; or USGA.

I have a Nikon laser range finder that does calculate slope. I have made a yardage book for my home course and do not use the laser for tournament rounds for the very reason that I dont want to risk getting called out on it, even if I have it set to non slope mode. I would make sure to ask your local PGA pro our the tournament director what they think. They will make the rules for the tournament anyways. Plus, Im fairly certain that slope adjusted lasers are not allowed in any USGA play.

Unless the functionality of the slope measuring can be removed for the device entirely during competition, this device is not allowed as a DMD device during competitions that do allow DMD devices (some competitions obviously do not allow DMD devices of any kind).

Look at the USGA decision on the Leupold GX-4i which had a faceplate acting like a switch to disable slope measuring. Leupold had to introduce the GX-4i2 model, where the faceplate itself contains the slope measuring functionality for the device to become compliant.

Sorry folks. My post was not a question. As it happens I know the regulations and nuances. I was really trying to highlight the attitude of the manufacturer.

I called and spoke to the person who was described as 'golf technical support'. I said I was calling in my official capacity on the Championships and Rules Panel of my County authority. The question had been asked of me by the county head coach, who had been asked by a number of county and national players who had or were thinking abut getting DMDs from the Nikon range.

I was rather hoping they might tell me definitively which of their devices conformed for competition play. As it happens we use lasers provided/sponsored by Nikon with gradient/slope when course rating.

My bad. I didn't pay attention as to who was posting in the OP. Had I seen it was you, I might not have answered, but even so, the regulation (and nuance) might still be helpful to someone else...

They probably didn't want to give a definitive answer because the answer would hurt sales.  These devices are useless to anyone that wanted to use them during a tournament where rangefinders without slope reporting are permitted.  Leupold and Bushnell have USGA approved devices that can turn off the slope reading for tournaments which will hurt Nikon sales.

I spoke to three increasingly senior people. The phone receptionist told me he would put me through to the person who dealt with golf. I was then passed on to others who would "give me the answer" I was after information about the whole range of golf dmds

But if a vendor markets a product to golfers it is not unreasonable, IMO, to ask them if it conforms to the Rules of Golf.  And it seems reasonable to expect a maker of a golf product to know whether or not their product conforms - and considering the amount of discussion and publicity this issue has gotten in the golf world over the last few years it is not unreasonable to highlight that point to the help desk people.  And while he got a non-answer from the help desk person, he also got through to more senior people who also could not or were unwilling to answer the question.

I reviewed the Nikon Coolshot 40i documentation and did not see any reference to different faceplates or the ability to disable slope reading on it.

From the Ruling Bodies

"This device has not been submitted to us as yet, so no formal ruling has been given. However, based on the information gleaned from the website, i.e. that the distance provided is slope adjusted, then it would appear that the use of this device during a stipulated round would be a breach of Rule 14-3 even if the Local Rule was in place".