What if Laser/GPS were banned?

[0ldblu3]

Range finding devices benefit the game for a variety of reasons:

1. People that can afford it like to have gadgets and these things are cool gadgets

2. If you find yourself in a strange spot on the course you still have the ability to get the right yardage

3. Using the device to figure out yardage does not add time to anyone pre-shot routine, well any more than agonizing over what club to take. Slow players are slow players regardless of a device. And some slow players may be faster with it.

Banning them has no upside for the game on the course or the marketing of the game. Oh, and the pro's can't use them during a tournament, but they use the heck out of them as they build their yardage books. I think they ought to go ahead and allow them on course to help speed things up. A pro actually does need to know if it's 137 or 140 to carry that bunker, whereas most recreational players do not have that type of distance control.

[wils5150]

I agree with all of that. I just don't attribute it to the range finder. The idiot factor would still be in play no matter what they were using.

I was very fast before I got a GPS and I'm still very fast now. The GPS just gives me a better chance at success on blind shots. No idea how many extra strokes that saves me in a typical round but I'm sure it's at least a few.

I admit it's slightly annoying to me when somebody in my group is having trouble shooting the pins with a range finder.

I love it!! the Idiot factor lol

[boogielicious]

I would adjust to not using it, but I think it would slow things up if folks started pacing off yardage.  I get the range very quickly, usually when waiting for my playing partners.

@wils5150 , if I recall, you are the head groundskeeper at your course.  So you know where every sprinkler head  and marker is, correct?  That is an advantage!

[wils5150]

I would adjust to not using it, but I think it would slow things up if folks started pacing off yardage.  I get the range very quickly, usually when waiting for my playing partners.

@wils5150 , if I recall, you are the head groundskeeper at your course.  So you know where every sprinkler head  and marker is, correct?  That is an advantage!

yup I am but to be honest I don't look at them to often. I have always just used the 100,150,200 posts.

[GaijinGolfer]

I would adjust to not using it, but I think it would slow things up if folks started pacing off yardage.  I get the range very quickly, usually when waiting for my playing partners.

@wils5150 , if I recall, you are the head groundskeeper at your course.  So you know where every sprinkler head  and marker is, correct?  That is an advantage!

I think it would speed up play because people would glance at the nearest yardage marker, guess the right distance and hit their shot instead of fumbling in their bag for their rangefinder/GPS and trying to figure the correct yardage.

[MiniBlueDragon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boogielicious

I would adjust to not using it, but I think it would slow things up if folks started pacing off yardage.  I get the range very quickly, usually when waiting for my playing partners.

@wils5150 , if I recall, you are the head groundskeeper at your course.  So you know where every sprinkler head  and marker is, correct?  That is an advantage!

I think it would speed up play because people would glance at the nearest yardage marker, guess the right distance and hit their shot instead of fumbling in their bag for their rangefinder/GPS and trying to figure the correct yardage.

If someone's holding up play "fumbling around" in their bag for it then tell them to hurry up just as you should for people pacing-off distances several times, picking clubs and taking practice swings only to swap clubs again etc.

My Bushnell sits in it's case and hangs on the bag with the case unzipped but closed with the magnetic closure so more often than not I've already reached behind the bag while walking and have it in my hand as I put my carry bag down. Then it's 3-4 seconds to get the distance and I'm selecting my club for the shot.

[boogielicious]

I think it would speed up play because people would glance at the nearest yardage marker, guess the right distance and hit their shot instead of fumbling in their bag for their rangefinder/GPS and trying to figure the correct yardage.

These same fumblers would the holding up play without rangefinders or GPS @GaijinGolfer because they are just slow players.  And where is the nearest marker?  Unless you have the course memorized, you will be wandering looking for it.  That takes more time.

I get my range very quickly and I don't always need it when the yardage is obvious.

[Dave2512]

Surely that doesn't drive you more nuts than four players wandering around looking for yardage markers, pacing off the distance to their ball, and then getting the triangulation wrong causing more bad shots and more of the same.

Nope and I would have mentioned that had the thread been about yardage markers.

[Parker0065]

I would not personally mind if they were banned. I've been walking yardages for 39 years so no big deal as far as I'm concerned.

They are a nice tool to have for averaging your driving distance or on the range to dial in yardages but for myself not needed on the course. One thing that's greatly improved overall these days is that most courses are pretty well marked compared to when I started playing back in 1975. Back then just about every course I played only gave you three yardage markers per hole 100, 150, and 200. At least in my area it's rare to find a course that doesn't have yardage on all the sprinkler heads. That makes pacing distance so much easier and faster than 40 years ago.

I bought a sky caddie five years ago and used it for three seasons but found that it was 1-2 yards within my pacing distance so I put it away. I'll pull it out to check driving distance now and then but stopped using it all together last year as far as playing on the course.

I do think these tools could help speed up play overall, but I don't think they actually do. For the average golfer they are still going to mishit the ball and have to go find it which takes up much more time than fumbling around a few seconds for a GPS tool.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

I think it would speed up play because people would glance at the nearest yardage marker, guess the right distance and hit their shot instead of fumbling in their bag for their rangefinder/GPS and trying to figure the correct yardage.

These same fumblers would the holding up play without rangefinders or GPS @GaijinGolfer  because they are just slow players.  And where is the nearest marker?  Unless you have the course memorized, you will be wandering looking for it.  That takes more time.

I get my range very quickly and I don't always need it when the yardage is obvious.

I don't know how old you are, but before they started marking sprinklers, yardage markers were often just blue, white and red stakes set at 200, 150 and 100 yards respectively, and they were visible from 100 yards away or more, so searching was not necessary.  Look around for it, estimate your distance based on the nearest stake, then hit away.  No searching needed.  When I first started playing, a lot of courses had nothing more than a small bush planted at the 150 yard point, and you had to make your estimate based on proximity to that.  It was still possible to play good golf.  Judging distances was a learned skill just like reading greens is a learned skill.

There really isn't any big mystery to figuring yardages, nor is there any actual need for modern technology.  I have a GPS because I like techie toys, but I could get by very well playing golf without it.

[Golfingdad]

And where is the nearest marker?  Unless you have the course memorized, you will be wandering looking for it.  That takes more time.

I don't know how old you are, but before they started marking sprinklers, yardage markers were often just blue, white and red stakes set at 200, 150 and 100 yards respectively, and they were visible from 100 yards away or more, so searching was not necessary.  Look around for it, estimate your distance based on the nearest stake, then hit away.  No searching needed.  When I first started playing, a lot of courses had nothing more than a small bush planted at the 150 yard point, and you had to make your estimate based on proximity to that.  It was still possible to play good golf.  Judging distances was a learned skill just like reading greens is a learned skill.

There really isn't any big mystery to figuring yardages, nor is there any actual need for modern technology.  I have a GPS because I like techie toys, but I could get by very well playing golf without it.

I agree with most of what you said here.  Except that a lot of courses I've played would just have plastic plates in the center of the fairway instead of posts so you would have to be a lot closer to see them.  But regardless, I'm with you that it wouldn't matter much to me to play well.  I was pretty good at guesstimating distances, and if I was closer to one of the markers, or was waiting for the green to clear, I'd pace it off anyways.

Boogie's first point was his most important anyways:

These same fumblers would the holding up play without rangefinders or GPS @GaijinGolfer  because they are just slow players.

They tell us that GPS can speed up play while making you better.  They tell us that carts speed up play, which is why a lot of courses force everybody to take one.  But the fact is that slow players are slow players.  If you want to play fast, whether you are walking, riding, lasering, guessing, or even pacing, then you can play fast.  Likewise, no matter how many gadgets you have, if you are a slow player, then you are a slow player.

[newtogolf]

They tell us that GPS can speed up play while making you better.  They tell us that carts speed up play, which is why a lot of courses force everybody to take one.  But the fact is that slow players are slow players.  If you want to play fast, whether you are walking, riding, lasering, guessing, or even pacing, then you can play fast.  Likewise, no matter how many gadgets you have, if you are a slow player, then you are a slow player.

I agree to some level, but - there's always a but, slow players will tend to be slower if;

• they are slow walkers and you let them walk rather than make it affordable for them to take their own cart
• you don't let them use a GPS and instead they go find a sprinkler head and pace it off.

IMO you don't want to give slow players any more reasons to play slower than they already do.

[Slice of Life]

I'd go from saying "Ah, 140, I'll grab my 9 iron" and then chunking it 100 yards to saying "Hmm...that looks about 150, I'll grab my 8 iron" and then chunking it 110 yards.

[boogielicious]

I don't know how old you are, but before they started marking sprinklers, yardage markers were often just blue, white and red stakes set at 200, 150 and 100 yards respectively, and they were visible from 100 yards away or more, so searching was not necessary.  Look around for it, estimate your distance based on the nearest stake, then hit away.  No searching needed.  When I first started playing, a lot of courses had nothing more than a small bush planted at the 150 yard point, and you had to make your estimate based on proximity to that.  It was still possible to play good golf.  Judging distances was a learned skill just like reading greens is a learned skill.

There really isn't any big mystery to figuring yardages, nor is there any actual need for modern technology.  I have a GPS because I like techie toys, but I could get by very well playing golf without it.

I'm 53 and remember the 150 yard bush.  Courses that have poles are great but few and far between where I play.  I was speaking more of the sprinkler heads with yardage on them.  As @Golfingdad stated, most of the courses I play have plate and sometimes they are not visible from where your ball lies.  I use them a lot, but knowing the exact yardage to the front of the green and back helps a lot too, not just the center.

As for the real old days, my father-in-law was a caddy in the '30s.  The caddies knew the yardage cold and would give it to the player routinely.  The "technology" back then was a caddy.

[Dave2512]

My former home course was built in 1999 and they still had the 150 yard bush then. My parents club has enough markers you really don't need a device, for anything. Sprinklers have yardage to hazards and there are USGA plaques all over the place.

[turtleback]

It wouldn't matter to me as I stopped using the GPS app on my phone because of the question of its (golf) legality.  And back when I started playing,  all the courses I played had was a single white 150 yard pole.

[Fourputt]

I'm 53 and remember the 150 yard bush.  Courses that have poles are great but few and far between where I play.  I was speaking more of the sprinkler heads with yardage on them.  As @Golfingdad stated, most of the courses I play have plate and sometimes they are not visible from where your ball lies.  I use them a lot, but knowing the exact yardage to the front of the green and back helps a lot too, not just the center.

The course can make this easier if they really want to.  One thing that my home course has now is plates in the fairway with the actual yardage number on them, starting at 250 yards for par 5 holes and 200 for par 4's.  The way they are distributed tells you what you are looking at without even having to read the number on the plate.  100, 150, 200, 250 are single plaques placed in the center of the fairway.  The 125 and 175 are paired at the sides, one right and one left.  There is a small one time cost to it, but it isn't prohibitive.  My Men's Club contributed half of the money for the markers with money left over after the season, and the course matched the other half.  This is a publicly owned county course, not a private club.  The image below is the par 5 2nd hole, and the plaques are easily visible even in the satellite shot, so you have to figure that they can't be hard to find at ground level, and that is the case.

Because of the high quality of the course markings, they have quit using sprinkler heads.  All of the markers are laser located and are dead on to green center.

[boogielicious]

Now that is a proper course @Fourputt .  I wish more would do it.  As I said, on my courses that have good markings, I don't need to use it that much.  But it does come in handy when you are not in the middle of the fairway.