Rangefinders or gps

[Slab]

GPS for me, it does everything I need

If I ever get good enough to need rangefinder distance accuracy then I'd expect my caddy to give me the distance anyway 😉

 

[Fabia999]

A mix of replies then!! It is all down to personal preference I guess. I do find sometimes the gps isn’t that accurate. If flag says front pin and gps says 120 you get up to the green and it’s actually 10 Yeats’s on from the front it’s annoying

Does your GPS watch not give you the front, middle and back of the green instead? so if its 120 yards to front that would get you right at the start of it. I always add a few yards on to that number if it's a front flag.

 

[Jimaroid]

A laser works much better for me, I use it more often to find carry distances over bunkers than I do to get a range on the pin.

 

[Oddsocks]

Was a laser user for years but as others have said they can be unreliable in the rain/mist/fog. During the winter I went to a GPS watch al be it a basing front/middle/back basic model for the main point of less opening the bag, double zapping, putting away and zipping up etc, so basically to speed up play. I found it that reliable that I now mainly use the watch and only use the laser for zapping hazard carries, dog leg corners or pins which are uphill that you can’t see where they are located.

 

[IanM]

My GPS is much better on blind holes!

Personal preference. Gps is quicker, slow players are slow players regardless, but spookily they often gravitate to stuff that makes them slower!

 

[Orikoru]

A laser works much better for me, I use it more often to find carry distances over bunkers than I do to get a range on the pin.

What do you point it at to get that? Just out of interest. (I always figured you need GPS if you want distances to/around hazards.)

 

[Robster59]

I use GPS as I am happy enough with it for my ability, and I find that the accuracy is pretty good compared to my friends who use laser. I have the Shotscope V3 watch, so I can also track my game afterwards if I wish. It's also so light that I don't even notice it when I am playing. And the advantage for me over a laser is that I don't need to see the flag to know my distance.
Most people I play with who use a laser are pretty handy with it and can get their yardages pretty quickly, so I don't see pace as being an issue with a laser either.
It's horses for courses really.

 

[MACM85]

I have the Bushnell Hybrid Range finder so has front middle back and I can zap when I want to know precise yardages for lay ups etc.

 

[CountLippe]

Rangefinder comes into its own within 120 yards, particularly 50 - 100 yards. Otherwise a GPS is fine.

 

[Bratty]

What do you point it at to get that? Just out of interest. (I always figured you need GPS if you want distances to/around hazards.)

I zap the top of the bunker, a tree on the corner of the dogleg and on occasion, I've zapped the 150 marker to then calculate which club to use to get me past it to the perfect distance to hit the green (or try to!).

 

[Jimaroid]

I zap the top of the bunker, a tree on the corner of the dogleg and on occasion, I've zapped the 150 marker to then calculate which club to use to get me past it to the perfect distance to hit the green (or try to!).

Yep. Although I don’t generally have to deal with trees.

I also find it useful as there’s enough magnification as a monocular so you can see balls / check what’s causing hold ups or whatever from distance.

 

[Canary Kid]

As a mid-high handicapper I find GPS gives me pretty much everything I need. Playing courses with very large greens I can see why Lasers may be useful for wedges, but generally front middle and back yardages give me enough for my level of shot striking. I'd hate to play an unknown course now without GPS and find it useful on my own course.

👍 My view exactly.

 

[Jason.H]

I must admit I went to zap a flag yesterday and got a shot of a ladies bum picking the ball out the hole. Not intentionally of course. 😂 GPS would of missed that.

 

[Bratty]

I must admit I went to zap a flag yesterday and got a shot of a ladies bum picking the ball out the hole. Not intentionally of course. 😂 GPS would of missed that.

Wait a second. How did her bum get the ball out of the hole? That's seriously impressive! 🤣

 

[peld]

I have both.
Nearly always use GPS (previously Hole19 on my apple watch but just got a shotscope V3), but maybe once or twice a round ill use my laser - sometimes for a wedge where its hard to see if its front or back, or if sometimes the GPS doesnt look right

 

[sweaty sock]

Both, range finder to get distance to pin, gps to figure out where pin is on the green and figure out out best yardage for landing spot...

If i could only have one a decent laser you can normally get yardages to the front of the green too.

 

[Bratty]

Both, range finder to get distance to pin, gps to figure out where pin is on the green and figure out out best yardage for landing spot...

If i could only have one a decent laser you can normally get yardages to the front of the green too.

Shot Scope Pro LX+ might be what you want.

 

[Robster59]

A laser works much better for me, I use it more often to find carry distances over bunkers than I do to get a range on the pin.

My GPS gives me distances to bunkers, and other hazards.

 

[nickjdavis]

I've used both GPS from the early days of the first Skycaddies (I remember going out with a mate early one morning self-mapping front/middle/back of every green before playing Woodhall Spa Hotchkin) and lasers....more latterly I've settled on laser as my preferred weapon but do recognise its limitations in mist, light rain and on blind shots.....probably fell out with GPS around the time that subscription models became the norm for the "more informative" devices.

However recently I bought a leccy trolley which had built in GPS ....didnt particularly want it but the model I was after wasn't in stock so the local retailer offered me a big discount on a GPS enabled model. Will be interesting to see how it compares comparitively when out on the course.

GPS accuracy seems reasonable enough...certainly within 5 yards or so....more than enough for my wayward play and its got a shot measurement function that works on a point to point GPS measurement rather than other models which calculate distance based on wheel rotations. So in theory you should be able to zero the shot measurement function, walk a big circle or square back to where you started and have it read zero. Not tried it yet but any nett result inside 10 yards wont be too bad a showing.

 

[MadAdey]

I much prefer the rangefinder over a GPS. If I want to know hte distance to something then I can get it a lot quicker than messing around with a GPS having to highlight what ever it is I want a yardage to.