Masters and rangefinders

[Billyob927]

Does anyone know if you are allowed to bring a rangefinder in to see the Masters? I am going on Friday and thought it would be useful to have as a pair of binoculars and to measure distances. It is not on the Do Not Bring list and binoculars are allowed. Thanks in advance. 

[Pretzel]

2 minutes ago, Billyob927 said:

It is not on the Do Not Bring list

There is your answer, right there. If it's on the "Do Not Bring" list, do not bring it.

[SavvySwede]

Just bring binoculars. A rangefinder is a poor choice for actually watching the action and I doubt the distance measurement is going to contribute much to the experience.

[iacas]

11 hours ago, SavvySwede said:

Just bring binoculars. A rangefinder is a poor choice for actually watching the action and I doubt the distance measurement is going to contribute much to the experience.

QFT.

Players use range finders and they are lasers, which could mess with some things, perhaps (like someone's camera? Maybe? Now I'm curious…).

[Hardspoon]

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Players use range finders and they are lasers, which could mess with some things, perhaps (like someone's camera? Maybe? Now I'm curious…).

Since they are Class 1 lasers, they are eye-safe, even viewed through binoculars or "common" optics.  However, the camera thing might be possible:

https://photofocus.com/2013/09/14/beware-lasers-can-kill-your-cameras-sensor/

I doubt a rangefinder could cause this kind of damage, since it isn't a continuous beam, just a pulse.  Too bad Mythbusters isn't around anymore to do a "golf myths" episode!

[DrvFrShow]

Here's the thing. Like the cameras they use a low energy infrared laser. The thing is that people don't just use them to measure distances. They use them to mess up things like camera's auto-focus, make them focus on a more distant point, and think it's funny. It's why we can't have nice things.