Do golf rangefinders really speed up play?

Essentially, trying to get fields moving faster has been one of the golf industry’s biggest challenges over the last 50 years.

22:53 30 March 2023

The next time you’re at your local golf club, take a look around at all the signs in the clubhouse and indeed on the course which remind golfers of their responsibility to play quickly. What you'll find is that they’re numerous and not in the slightest bit vague with the main message being: slow play kills golf.

Essentially, trying to get fields moving faster has been one of the golf industry’s biggest challenges over the last 50 years.

The rise of the rangefinder

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this quest for quicker play has led to a string of technological developments that are designed to get players from the tee to the green in only a few minutes. 

The most influential over the last decade has been the introduction of the rangefinder, a handheld device that is used to give golfers an immediate and accurate distance to the flag by shooting a laser beam at the target.

It has proved immensely popular that even the PGA of America has now allowed professionals to use it during the playing of the USPGA Championship in 2023. Jordan Spieth has said that he will use it and tellingly, the latest golf odds price the Texan as one of the top 10 favourites to win the major at 22/1. 

While it may help Speith and other pros get an exact yardage at the PGA Championship, do rangefinders actually speed up play?

There’s little doubt that they can if used correctly. At least, if a player gets to their ball, pulls out the rangefinder, and clicks on the target, they should be instantly presented with the answer as to how far they need to hit their next shot.

In theory, the only left to do is pick the club out of the bag that goes the required distance and then swing. 

The reality 

However, if you’ve ever played golf, you will know that it isn’t this straightforward as distances to the flag often invite discussions about the reliability of the reading owing to variable factors on the day such as the wind and the incline to the green. All of a sudden, instead of calculating how far a ball needs to go and getting on with it, fellow playing partners and their caddies are now all providing opinions on what the likely yardage is despite the rangefinder technology already doing all the legwork.

This is normally done at the expense of the playing group behind who are left waiting for the impromptu conference on the mechanics of a ball’s flight to end. Admittedly, this is more of a problem in amateur golf but the wider point is that having the latest rangefinder technology alone isn’t enough to speed up play, there has to be a no-frills attitude that goes with using it. 

It all comes down to attitude 

When all is said and done, golf is a game that lends itself to severe overthinking, as professional PGA Tour player JB Holmes proved in 2019 when he took 50 seconds to complete a one-foot putt. This came on the back of spending two minutes working out where the line was for his first putt. When Holmes finally played his last shot on the 18th hole at the Genesis Open, he had been on the course for five and a half hours; 90 minutes longer than a round should take.

Again, Holmes’ lack of regard for his playing partners proves that it doesn’t matter who you are, how talented you might be, or what technology you have at your disposal, it all comes down to attitude.

Yes, rangefinder technology and other innovations are valuable tools to win the war on slow play, but they are ineffective in the wrong hands.