Fourputt
Head Rules Official
No matter where I play I find GPS or range Finders,either on the cart or in someone's bag. I am curious if those that a dependent on these tools could do with out. Can you eye your yardage without the use of modern technology? Are you lost with out it?
I find that I eye my yardages more than I use the GPS. As a result I'm often asked for my thoughts by my playing partners. Anyone else like eyeing their yardages?
If you don't use course markings for reference, then I would have to see it to believe that you could tell the difference between 200 yards and 220 on a course which you aren't familiar with just by eying it. On my home course I can do it pretty well because I've taken shots from just about everywhere, but even then I usually try to spy out the 150 markers and estimate from there. But the farther you are from the target, the more difficult it is to get a reasonable accurate number without any interim reference point.
By the way, I've played since long before there was anything like a laser or GPS rangefinder. When I first started, many courses didn't even have the 150 yard markers, much less anything else. The first time I saw markers at 200, 150 and 100, I thought "Man, that's cool".
I'd rather use a GPS. Pacing off yardages, first, it takes time, plus you gotta find the sprinkler head, and hope it is marked! I almost always take the yardage to the back of the greenbrcause if anything I hit it short anyway so I'd rather take extra club. I also have a rangefinder but I use the GPS much more.
And how are you going to pace the yardage to the dogleg, or the hazard, or the bunker that you have to decide whether to lay up to or hit it over? You might know on a course you play a lot but what about a new course?
This is a big key for me. How often have you seen guys playing a layup shot, then dumping the ball right into the hazard they were trying to lay short of? Trying to figure out the distance to a hazard or tree line is mostly a guessing game unless you have some help. Since I started carrying a laser and a GPS, I almost never have those issues because I can pick a club with certainty which can't reach the hazard even with my best ever swing. It not only means that I don't hit into the trouble, but that peace of mind helps me put a better swing on the ball.
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