Laser or GPS?

[KenL]

Never used laser so not sure if I'm missing out on anything but my garmin s42 GPS is well used and has enough extras for me, the buggies also have GPS so between them I'm covered

Next time you are playing with someone with a laser, ask them how far away the pin is. You might be surprised that you could be about a club out.
We have front middle back pins. Some of our greens are 50 yards long, the laser offers a good advantage.

 

[PJ87]

Next time you are playing with someone with a laser, ask them how far away the pin is. You might be surprised that you could be about a club out.
We have front middle back pins. Some of our greens are 50 yards long, the laser offers a good advantage.

I enjoy killing time with them when stuck behind visitors with poor etiquette who haven't let you through ..

Yesterday was

Idiot 1 is 159 away
Idiot 2 is 162 away
Shorts idiot is 149 away

 

[Slab]

Next time you are playing with someone with a laser, ask them how far away the pin is. You might be surprised that you could be about a club out.
We have front middle back pins. Some of our greens are 50 yards long, the laser offers a good advantage.

I'm off 13. Typically not aiming at flags from long distances
And I can move the flag position on my watch screen to get more accurate distances which is really handy on a couple of the big greens

 

[3 jabber]

I use my Nikon laser mostly but also carry a simple gps for the odd occasion where I can’t see the pin or hazards.

Same here, works well on my home course where I know the position of hazards etc. But the features on some of the newer watches have lured me in and it will be interesting to see how many of those features I end up using. Mine comes with widgets to put in the grips to measure distance and all the other stats, not sure if I'll use them yet.

 

[Orikoru]

I’ve never understood why people use lasers. Ok, it gives you the distance to the flag but, unless you can slam dunk the ball straight into the hole, what real use is that information? I use gps and that means I know the distance to the back of the green which I find is a more accurate reference for my perceived distance with each club (how many come up short?). I also know the distance to carry hazards and what shot to hit to leave a good distance in. Lasers are very one dimensional imo

Agreed! When people with lasers need to lay up and they talk about zapping a tree in the distance or another object, seems silly. On my GPS I can literally get a yardage to the centre of the fairway where I want to leave the ball.

 

[PJ87]

Agreed! When people with lasers need to lay up and they talk about zapping a tree in the distance or another object, seems silly. On my GPS I can literally get a yardage to the centre of the fairway where I want to leave the ball.

The brilliance with a laser is when out of comp you can use slope so get the real yardage taking into account elevation change

I couldn't see the point of a laser when their £300-400 but for sub £100 meh that's good value

 

[Mandofred]

I zap all kinds of things with the laser. Back of sand traps quite a bit to check for minimum distance needed to clear. At times just how far I need to hit at the maximum not to get myself into further trouble. As far as checking the distance to the flag.....I'm not usually trying to hit it that exact distance. Likely I want the ball to land xx yards in front of it....I have crap math skills, but even I can subtract 5yds (or whatever) from what the exact distance is. Yep, a GPS does a lot of the same things and if I get a super duper GPS I'm sure I'll like it. But.....like flag in/out, laser or GPS, high/low lofted wedges.....there is no right answer no matter how many arguments we have on here. Both have pro's and con's, and I carry an old little gps thing I've had for years that I bring out if it gets too foggy/rainy....which reminds me that I need to charge it up since I haven't used it in ages.

 

[Imurg]

Agreed! When people with lasers need to lay up and they talk about zapping a tree in the distance or another object, seems silly. On my GPS I can literally get a yardage to the centre of the fairway where I want to leave the ball.

Which is exactly the same...are you able to leave your ball there?
If so you should get a laser and fire at pins.
A laser just gives you a distance..a more accurate distance which is useful if you can move the flag on your GPS
It now shows where the pin is and whether you can go at it or play safe..
Doesn't everyone want to know how far they're supposed to hit it?
If you can't hit a fairly consistent yardage then you may as well carry 3 clubs...

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Both

A GPS will in a lot of case be at least 5 yards out

Laser won’t be

But a laser has issue is differing weather conditions

So both work for me

 

[Orikoru]

The brilliance with a laser is when out of comp you can use slope so get the real yardage taking into account elevation change

I couldn't see the point of a laser when their £300-400 but for sub £100 meh that's good value

They recently added this feature to Hole19 as well. Might only be on Premium, I'm not sure, but I noticed it appeared a few weeks ago. Personally don't find it massively useful anyway though, if I'm hitting it up a hill I just hit one extra club anyway.

 

[OnTour]

Both tbf laser with GPS back up. I've pinned a few hedges

 

[Orikoru]

Which is exactly the same...are you able to leave your ball there?
If so you should get a laser and fire at pins.
A laser just gives you a distance..a more accurate distance which is useful if you can move the flag on your GPS
It now shows where the pin is and whether you can go at it or play safe..
Doesn't everyone want to know how far they're supposed to hit it?
If you can't hit a fairly consistent yardage then you may as well carry 3 clubs...

Laser did me more harm than good when I had one briefly. Encourages flag-hunting when I should just be trying to hit the green. I'd zap the flag, and if it was front pin I'd think "oh it's not as far as I thought", go down a club and then leave it 15 yards short of the green. I'm much, much better off getting middle and back of the green and just trying to hit it somewhere in there.

 

[nickjdavis]

I've used both in the past....mainly Skycaddie GPS products and Bushnell lasers.

I've have an integrated GPS unit in my leccy trolley but still more often than not resort to the laser. By the time I've stopped my trolley in the middle of the fairway i can have the laser out of the bag and zapped the flag or whatever target, before the GPS has stopped changing. The laser allows me also to get yardages to objects/features that are either temporary (e.g winter greens, or a group of golfers ahead when I'm trying to determine if they are out of range) or new on the course that do not appear in GPS mapped services.

I will grant that the GPS is useful for blind shots or shots over doglegs or when mist/rain prevents the laser from operating correctly.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

[Beezerk]

GPS and laser for me as well, laser is great for say 160 and under, watch will suffice for anything longer as I’m not expecting to get it close from that far out
GPS also helps loads on blind holes/shots where the laser can’t ping the flag.
Re a comment earlier about why use a laser when you’re not going to slam dunk the ball, it gives you a number to work from, so the hole is 150 I’ll often use that info to hit a 140 shot etc.

 

[hambugerpete]

Ive got the Garmin epix, great but of kit. Also got the CT10 sensors and they give a really good insight , particularly with regards to how far I hit each club.

 

[AAC]

I have a laser + a Bushnell GPS watch, at my standard I tend to look at the watch read the back pin position and select a club based on that

 

[Neilds]

GPS and laser for me as well, laser is great for say 160 and under, watch will suffice for anything longer as I’m not expecting to get it close from that far out
GPS also helps loads on blind holes/shots where the laser can’t ping the flag.
Re a comment earlier about why use a laser when you’re not going to slam dunk the ball, it gives you a number to work from, so the hole is 150 I’ll often use that info to hit a 140 shot etc.

As it was my comment I am compelled to respond
Surely a GPS giving you the front of the green is 140 (to same flag) means you will still hit the same shot so this is not unique to laser. GPS (imo) gives more flexibility and means you only carry 1 item - mostly on your trolley or wrist.

I'm also surprised no-one has claimed that lasers slow down play

 

[PJ87]

As it was my comment I am compelled to respond
Surely a GPS giving you the front of the green is 140 (to same flag) means you will still hit the same shot so this is not unique to laser. GPS (imo) gives more flexibility and means you only carry 1 item - mostly on your trolley or wrist.

I'm also surprised no-one has claimed that lasers slow down play

Lasers are unbeatable if a course has temporary greens

 

[Imurg]

For boring reasons that I won't go into because, well, they'll bore you.. I haven't worn a watch in 40 years....
Thinking of moving away from the Skycaddie that sits on my trolley and getting a watch...so I'm going to start wearing an old watch that doesn't work anymore to see if I can get on with it....the Skycaddie is OK but the renewal process is a pain and I wonder at some of the distances it gives sometimes....I'll laser a flag at, say, 150 yards but the sky caddie puts the flag in a bunker.....

 

[TigerBear]

I've always used Hole19 on my phone. Accuracy is perfectly fine for my level, gives me yardages to all hazards, lay-up distances, front back and middle of green, all on a nice Google-earth style view of the hole which is handy if you've never played it before. I don't know why more people don't just use that to be honest instead of spending a couple of hundred on a device that has far less detail on the screen.

It's an excellent app but I use both hole 19 and my watch

Also looking for a laser for exact yardage to pin. Anyone have recommendations for a good budget laser?