Rangefinders or gps

Slab

Occasional Tour Caddy
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Messages
10,773
Location
Port Louis
Visit site
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

Active member
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
411
Location
Sunderland
Visit site
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

Journeyman Pro
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
3,734
Location
Fife
Visit site
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

Ryder Cup Winner
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Messages
16,613
Location
Croydon, Surrey
Visit site
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.
 

Orikoru

Tour Winner
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
25,170
Location
Watford
Visit site
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

Tour Rookie
Joined
Aug 7, 2015
Messages
5,162
Location
Jackton
www.eastrengolfclub.co.uk
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

Newbie
Joined
Nov 20, 2012
Messages
312
Visit site
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.
 

Bratty

Princess Pouty (Queen of Fish Lips)
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
4,551
Visit site
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

Journeyman Pro
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
3,734
Location
Fife
Visit site
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

Assistant Pro
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
1,291
Location
West Sussex
Visit site
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.
 

peld

Active member
Joined
Feb 26, 2019
Messages
495
Visit site
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

Hacker
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
1,147
Visit site
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

Princess Pouty (Queen of Fish Lips)
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
4,551
Visit site
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.
 

nickjdavis

Head Pro
Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
3,174
Visit site
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

Money List Winner
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
5,609
Location
Greensboro, North Carolina.
Visit site
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.
 
Top