centaur

I am contemplating the purchase of a range/distance finder. I don't know much about these so I am looking for some advice. I have looked at some different devices and see that I can get the distance to the pin, etc. I am not sure how well it works in certain situations. For example, say I hit my driver from the tee and want to know, from the tee, the distance my ball traveled. Will it do this? I know how the device works as for as how it gets its reading, but not sure what you can and can't do to get accurate readings.

Now my second question, how well do these work and what brand/model works the best or does a really good job and giving you an accurate reading?

TGOH

As for your first question, I'm pretty sure you would have to get your distance to the pin then subtract it from the total yardage of the whole to get a rough estimate.

For the second, I've heard that Skycaddie is the best, simply because it uses GPS and has a huge amount of courses mapped.

centaur

Well with a laser type distance finder, shouldn't I be able to say, stand at the tee box and with the binocular style range finders be able to aim in at the ball and get the distance?

DennisM

I tried a laser range finder and in my personal opinion, it's a waste of money.

In short, you can't hold the thing still enough to focus on a target as small as a flag, much less a ball like mentioned above. The best I can do with it, even trying to brace it on top of the cart, is to aim at some spot in a trap wall or maybe at a small hill to one side of the green. I can occasionally get a reliable reading of how far I have to hit the ball to clear some obstacle like a bunker, but I've never gotten a true reading off a pin or a waving flag.

As for GPS style range finders, few of the courses in my area are mapped. The ones that are already have GPS systems in the carts, so for me to buy one would be a waste of money.

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