Golf RangeFinders?

[putty]

One of my main weaknesses in golf is identifying distances left to the hole and thus I have no idea what club to use. One of my buddy recommended "golf binoculars", so I looked it up. A few came up from Dicks:

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...ductId=2509359
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...ductId=3468474

Those two are pretty cheap. Do these work? How do these work? For some reason those two are like 20 bucks while the others are at least 200. Whats the difference? I'm totally lost but I feel like this would be a great thing to have. Sorry for asking so many questions lately but after this I've got my entire bag figured out including drivers, woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, putters, balls, shoes, the bag, gloves, and these silly binoculars. Thanks in advance

[youngskip40]

I don't have much experience with the "visual" rangefinders, but I do know that the $300+ ones are expensive because they are laser rangefinders. Meaning they shoot a laser which bounces back to the unit and instantly records the precise distance to whatever targe you are pointing at. The 1st one you're looking at there appears to just be one that still makes you use your eye to ultimately judge the distance.

The 2nd one is just a protective skin designed to fit around the more expensive kind.

I just recently used a laser rangefinder for the first time (oddly enough, my competitor in a match play tournament offered to let me use it), and I am hooked. As soon as it's financially possible, I fully plan on buying one. They are fantastic, especially if you play in tournaments where they are legal.

[Eeryck]

The first link the scope is an estimate based on the height of the flagstick. You put one line at the base of the flag, then where you see the top of the flag there are pre-printed numbers telling you the range.

The second you linked is much more acurate and uses a laser to measure the distance to +/- 1 yard.

Regards,
-E

[putty]

  youngskip40 said:

I don't have much experience with the "visual" rangefinders, but I do know that the $300+ ones are expensive because they are laser rangefinders. Meaning they shoot a laser which bounces back to the unit and instantly records the precise distance to whatever targe you are pointing at. The 1st one you're looking at there appears to just be one that still makes you use your eye to ultimately judge the distance.

So its basically just a pair of binoculars? How does that help you judge the distance? I'm very confused

[putty]

  Eeryck said:

The first link the scope is an estimate based on the height of the flagstick. You put one line at the base of the flag, then where you see the top of the flag there are pre-printed numbers telling you the range.

Wait so the second one is better even though its the same price? Whats the difference between that one and the 300 dollar ones? thanks

EDIT: Just realized that it was just a case for one of the expensive ones. Whoops. Are the first ones hard to use? How long would you say it takes?

[youngskip40]

  putty said:

So its basically just a pair of binoculars? How does that help you judge the distance? I'm very confused

I'm talking about the laser rangefinders. You could think of it as that... but when you look through the scope, you point the scope at whatever target you are aiming at (usually the flag), press a button and the yardage to that target will be shown within the viewfinder. They're pretty handy. Pretty pricey too.

[putty]

  youngskip40 said:

I'm talking about the laser rangefinders. You could think of it as that... but when you look through the scope, you point the scope at whatever target you are aiming at (usually the flag), press a button and the yardage to that target will be shown within the viewfinder. They're pretty handy. Pretty pricey too.

Yea i dont have the 200 dollars lying around to spend on one of these things. Thats why the 20 dollar ones caught my attention. Do you have any idea how those work? Thanks, the noob in me really appreciates it

[Eeryck]

I did not realize that Bushnell made a Tour V2 scope and rangefinder. The second link appears to also be a scope.

I have only ever used a scope once, it got the job done when you can see the whole pin to the accuracy of the lines with marked distances.

I would not give up my laser for anything though. $300 is well worth it. $20 is probably worth it in the meantime till you save up your pennies for the other one. Although pacing from yardage markers would save you the $20 and get you about the same accuracy.

-E

[putty]

  Eeryck said:

I did not realize that Bushnell made a Tour V2 scope and rangefinder. The second link appears to also be a scope.

Yea I'm getting the sense that the 20 dollar one is worthless. I guess its time to save up

[Fourputt]

  putty said:

Yea i dont have the 200 dollars lying around to spend on one of these things. Thats why the 20 dollar ones caught my attention. Do you have any idea how those work? Thanks, the noob in me really appreciates it

Quite frankly the optical scope type are mostly useless. They depend on the pin being completely visible, and on all the pins being the same height, and on knowing what the height is. Even then I can get a better measurement just using the on course markings and my own judgment. There is a scale inside the optics that you line the pin up on and it tells you the approximate distance depending on where it fits on the scale.

Save up and get a real one if you want one... you'll find that those $20 toys are just another thing that gets tossed in a junk drawer and never used.

[youngskip40]

  putty said:

Yea i dont have the 200 dollars lying around to spend on one of these things. Thats why the 20 dollar ones caught my attention. Do you have any idea how those work? Thanks, the noob in me really appreciates it

Neither do I, unfortunately.

I tried to use one of those $20 things once (literally just one time), and wasn't too thrilled at all, but I don't know for sure how they are supposed to work to be honest. If it's true that it measures distance by height of the flagstick, then I can already see there being a problem when hitting a partially blind shot where you can only see part of the stick. For me, it would be a waste of $20 because I would second-guess the yardage anyway, and go pace off from the nearest marker anyway and then just kind of ballpark where the pin is.

[putty]

  Fourputt said:

Quite frankly the optical scope type are mostly useless. They depend on the pin being completely visible, and on all the pins being the same height, and on knowing what the height is. Even then I can get a better measurement just using the on course markings and my own judgment. There is a scale inside the optics that you line the pin up on and it tells you the approximate distance depending on where it fits on the scale.

  youngskip40 said:

Neither do I, unfortunately.

Thanks for replying on both sites fourputt! haha but I actually appreciate it. I understand what you are saying, I'm just horrible at judging the distance to the hole even with the markers on the course. I'm glad I didn't waste the 20 dollars on one of these pieces of junk. Youngskip, how do you "pace off" the distance from the nearest marker? Do you just know how long one of your strides is?

[Fourputt]

  putty said:

Thanks for replying on both sites fourputt! haha but I actually appreciate it. I understand what you are saying, I'm just horrible at judging the distance to the hole even with the markers on the course. I'm glad I didn't waste the 20 dollars on one of these pieces of junk. Youngskip, how do you "pace off" the distance from the nearest marker? Do you just know how long one of your strides is?

Lay down a yardstick and see what it feels like to step off a yard. Put one foot with your toe even with the end of the yardstick, then step out so the the other toe is even with the other end of the stick. Just get an idea of what that feels like, then you can pace accurately enough for golf. If you pace off ten yards and miss by a full yard (or 2 yards in 20) it isn't going to hurt anything.

My normal pace is a bout 30", so I have to just stretch it a bit to get close to a yard. I don't have to do it any more since I have all my toys, but I used to be pretty good on the rare occasions that I needed it. After a while, I learned to just use my eye and judge the distance from the nearest marker.

[buttuh]

The cheap scopes are garbage. Get a laser rangefinder because you can point it at pretty much anything and it'll give you a distance reading. I use it for bunkers, trees, etc. Look around on Ebay and you can find a used one for around $100-125. I bought my Bushnell Yardage Pro for $100 on Ebay. I used to have the Bushnell Pinseeker 1500 +/- but it isn't tournament legal because of the slope feature.

[jonnythan]

Do you have a Windows Mobile phone or iPhone by any chance?

[Mr3Putt]

If you play this game long enough, I guarantee you will get one of those mono scope flag measuring things as a gift. On the golf course, they are pretty useless. Don't ever buy one.

You can get an older laser on Ebay or Craigslist for under $100. I sold mine on this forum for $80. It worked/works great for exact approach distances.

I would absolutely wait until you can get afford one with the Pinseeker function. Different manufacturers name give this feature a different name, but whatever they call it, you want it..

[youngskip40]

  putty said:

Thanks for replying on both sites fourputt! haha but I actually appreciate it. I understand what you are saying, I'm just horrible at judging the distance to the hole even with the markers on the course. I'm glad I didn't waste the 20 dollars on one of these pieces of junk. Youngskip, how do you "pace off" the distance from the nearest marker? Do you just know how long one of your strides is?

I never got as exact as laying down a yardstick as a comparison, but in playing for a while, I just came to know how big of a stride equals approximately 1 yard. If you're lucky enough to play at a course with markers on sprinkler heads, you usually have one within 10 yards, so even if your pace is off by a foot on each stride, the worst you'll have misjudged is by about 3 yards. Not the most exact way to go about getting yardages, but it is how some of the best players in the world did it before laser rangefinders.

The biggest downside to this method is if you hit a poor tee shot, and you find yourself in the rough or, god forbid, in the wrong fairway. Then you have a long way to walk to figure out your distance, and because of the different angle into the green, it's hard to figure out how far it really is. Of course, you could just keep it in the short stuff, and not have to worry about that at all! But where's the fun in that?

[IPL4YFORKEEPS]

Hey there, I just read about these Handheld GPS systems that have hundreds of golf courses built into them. Because they are GPS based, they give you distances in yards, feet, ect., from where ever the GPS is(Your hand) I think Dick's may carry them. I dunno, it might be worth checking out.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...ductId=2980543