⛳ The PGA championship will be the 1st major in golf to allow rangefinders. Thoughts?

[TerryP]

Mine?

 

[64Tide]

Couldn’t agree more. What’s the world coming to...oh never mind.

 

[bama alum]

Don't like this at all. Like the new baseball rules about seven-inning double headers. Come on... The dumbdown is being taken from the classroom and extended to athletes.

 

[XXL TideFan]

Not surprising in the least. My son is in the Navy and they changed the way they mark time because the old way was confusing. Instead of 21:00 it is now just 21.
All part of an overall decline

 

[RollllTide!]

Don't they use range finders when they scope the course before regulation play? The caddies know. Some courses have them built-in the carts.

 

[TerryP]

Don't they use range finders when they scope the course before regulation play? The caddies know. Some courses have them built-in the carts.

Normally they don't in practice rounds. I've never seen them use them for several reasons. The biggest is what they are measuring; front, sides, back, where the slopes begin in relation to every side of the green, possible placements for each round, and the list goes on. There's a "cadence" used to measure distance. What one caddie will walk off at 100 yards another will walk off at 90 and the players know these distances; not the distance a range finder would reflect.

I don't see the range finder itself as an advantage for anyone. It's what comes with the range finders is where I have an issue. The nicer models also include slope readers. That IS an advantage and it's not within the current rule structure. It's not like a laser scope on a guy where you can see if it's on or off. Who's to say who is using one and who isn't?

 

[Elderfalsedemigod]

I didn’t realize there was a push for this to occur. What is the reasoning? Speed up the rounds? Will be interesting to see which players use one and which ones don’t. Personally I don’t really care for it. It seems to move the professional game back a step toward the weekend duffer game. As @TerryP says I wonder how they will enforce the use of enhanced devices.

I’ve always found a bit of mystique in the hand notated yard books that many players carry.

 

[BamaFan334]

If you're a professional, you should be with the least amount of advantages. You already get given the best clubs, the best balls, the best clothes. With those in hand, you should be playing the game as it was created.

 

[TerryP]

Speed up the rounds?

It'll do there opposite.

I’ve always found a bit of mystique in the hand notated yard books that many players carry.

Bought many of those... Wish they were sold at more courses but they won't spend the money for production.

 

[Tidestalker]

Seriously?! What is the world coming to. Can't even compete to pace off yardage?!

Next think we know bags will be on those remote controlled carts and the caddies will go extinct!

What about ROMES?!

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

I don't really follow golf and rarely tune into it unless I want to take a nap on the sofa... but I always thought the caddy was the range finder. Regardless, these guys are good enough, I don't see the point. There's probably a money angle in there somewhere. "Oh, Dustin Johnson is using the Turbex 4000 Range Finder! Honey, I want one of those for Father's Day!"

 

[OldPlayer]

Don't they use range finders when they scope the course before regulation play? The caddies know. Some courses have them built-in the carts.

You mean in the carts that aren't used in the PGA? Personally, I don't think it's a big deal. It's one thing to know that the pin is 179 yards away. It's another thing to hit the ball 179 yards. It's still another thing to hit the ball 175 yards, on the slope, and give the ball room to roll into the hole.

 

[BamaFan334]

You mean in the carts that aren't used in the PGA? Personally, I don't think it's a big deal. It's one thing to know that the pin is 179 yards away. It's another thing to hit the ball 179 yards. It's still another thing to hit the ball 175 yards, on the slope, and give the ball room to roll into the hole.

Well if you do it every day it becomes easier and easier. The point of being a professional is to be challenged and do something that not everyone else can do with less or at a higher level. Kind of like a football getting bigger from high school to college to the NFL and pretty sure uprights get skinnier. Baseball using different bat weights and going to wood bats in MLB, basketball three point lines move further out from high school to pro. It's all about maximizing the challenge. Sure, golf tee boxes make a course longer and cause different angles, and I feel exhibiting that extra bit of operation is what makes a golfer better than another. Was golf too easy for the pros or something? I just don't see the point in assisting them more. This is no different than the pros whining about the rough, it's a challenge.

 

[TerryP]

The PGA will implement the new rule allowing rangefinders at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island on May 20-23, followed by the Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills on May 27-30 and KPMG Women’s PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club on June 24-27. Rangefinders are already permitted in all college and amateur competition, though like those events, the PGA will prohibit the devices from including the slope feature, which measures elevation.

How? There's no way to know if a player is using the slope feature. IE: no visible light that shows it's on or off.

And, on Kiawah? It's not going to speed up play there. You can know all day that it's 170 to the pin IF you can see the pin on some holes and then it's all about is a 9i going to fly 170 with a 15mph headwind.