Watch Vs Rangefinder

[Imurg]

It depends how accurate you want/need to be.

Hitting it to the centre of our greens would see you 3 putting several times a round in summer, depending on the pin positions, normally it's much better to be short or long.

Laser is more reliable and accurate, trying to work out a precise distance to a back pin when you're nowhere near a distance marker is just guesswork. At least having a GPS that tells you distances to hazards and front, middle and back of each green is miles better than nothing at all.

A lot of GPS units have a movable cursor acting as the pin.
Normally it's set on middle but you can move it to anywhere
So if the pin looks towards the back you move it in the general area and you have your more accurate approximate yardage..if that's even a thing

 

[Pants]

Hitting it to the centre of our greens would see you 3 putting several times a round in summer, depending on the pin positions, normally it's much better to be short or long.

Yet another argumentative post for the sake of it. I very much doubt if the OP plays at your club and the quality of your putting on your greens has little bearing to his question. If you base your club selection for the middle of the green, unless it's in the hole you will be short or long (OK to the side maybe) so i don't get your point.

Most courses I play have some indication as to where the pin is positioned - colour of flag or a slider to indicate whether it's at the front, middle or back third of the green for instance. I seem to remember something about the pin shouldn't be positioned less than 2yds from the edge of the green?? This being the case then taking an average length of green at (say) 30 yds then the pin should be positioned within a 24 yd long area. Therefore a central location should be 15 yds on +/- 5yds, a front or back location should be 5 yds from front/back +/- 3yds to edge and+/- 5yds to centre section. I know of very few golfers (who are not scratch or cat1) who can regularly hit shots to within a 5 yd accuracy regularly. In fact I'd go as far to say that most golfers' yardages are based on well hit shots and the majority of times they will come up short of their required distance. That lends credence to the view that most golfers should take the yardage to the back of the green.

Coming back to the OP, imo, anything that gives basic info for FMB of green should serve you well until you get to Cat 2 or better. If it's a course you play regularly and you are worried about distances to hazards etc, either aim to miss them or get a course planner and combine that with your watch.

I see Smiffy has got a fairly basic one for sale .............

 

[JustW75]

It depends how accurate you want/need to be.

Hitting it to the centre of our greens would see you 3 putting several times a round in summer, depending on the pin positions, normally it's much better to be short or long.

Laser is more reliable and accurate, trying to work out a precise distance to a back pin when you're nowhere near a distance marker is just guesswork. At least having a GPS that tells you distances to hazards and front, middle and back of each green is miles better than nothing at all.

Where are you playing that the greens are so big??