How much do you rely on your yardage device?

Davidhibler

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So on the first tee today as I was starting my round, my Garmin S60 took a **** and wouldn't load the course.

I had my phone, range finder and Marjorie had her garmin on, so the information was available to me - but I was so flustered that I had my worst round in a long time. There were other factors that may have contributed, but this is how my day started.

I really didn't think not having it would screw with me that much.

How much does your game depend on your yardage measuring device?
 
Sometimes, I think I score better when I unintentionally leave a gadget(s) at home. It makes me focus more on the target and terrain rather than looking at a watch or viewing things through a screen,.

I miss the days when my eyesight (and feel) was more important than a laser or GPS reading. But, sigh, I simply don't trust the depth perception of my progressive contact lenses so, yes, the yardage measuring devices now provide a confirmation (or correction) to what I think I'm seeing with my eyes alone.
 
Sometimes, I think I score better when I unintentionally leave a gadget(s) at home. It makes me focus more on the target and terrain rather than looking at a watch or viewing things through a screen,.

I miss the days when my eyesight (and feel) was more important than a laser or GPS reading. But, sigh, I simply don't trust the depth perception of my progressive contact lenses so, yes, the yardage measuring devices now provide a confirmation (or correction) to what I think I'm seeing with my eyes alone.

Yeah, I've had it die before but it was expected because we were doing 54 holes. Didn't mess me up too much. Maybe it was just a bad day.
 
I usually forget my Garmin S20 (an oldie but a goodie). I just go by course markers, distances marked on sprinkler head and the ever popular “this feels like an 8 iron”. I’m good with that…

I feel like this seat of the pants estimating is a part of the game that is becoming a “lost art”
 
I can play my home course just fine without my laser. Believe it or not, I've actually left it in the wrong golf bag or something and gotten to the course to discover I don't have it (yes, I am that scatterbrained sometimes).

It means occasionally I might lay up farther back than I mean to on a Par 5 with water in front of the green or get fooled by the flag location and club for the wrong section of a green. Certainly nothing that's going to cost penalty strokes or anything but almost every round there's at least a couple places it's better to know the actual yardage rather than just eyeballing it give or take 20-30 yards.

I used to play golf sometimes with a friend whose opinion I trusted, he was as anti-yardage-knowledge as anyone could be. He talked me into playing for two months once totally by "feel" and not using my laser, not looking at sprinkler heads, no nothing. Just eyeball it, hit the shot and move on. He insisted it would free me up and make the game more relaxing and fun. He also insisted I would play better if I stuck to it for a while. He also said after a dozen rounds I'd be so good at eyeballing distances I'd wonder why I ever needed a laser.

After about 15-20 rounds I couldn't say for sure it was costing me strokes. My handicap didn't go up. But it sure as heck didn't go down. I didn't feel "more free" or "more relaxed". All I felt was annoyed when I'd eyeball a yardage wrong and end up in a front bunker or airmailing it over a green.

Of course my friend had been playing golf since he was 10 years old and had never owned a laser in all that time. So I'm sure for him the eyeball thing worked pretty well and he'd probably get uptight trying to laser everything to the nearest yard. Different strokes and all that. I was happy to get my Bushnell back in the bag when our little experiment was over.
 
I have been playing golf for almost 50 years, the majority without any measuring devices. I learned to judge distances by sight and by sprinkler heads or yard markers and by walking off distances (if the course had them - the course where I first played had no yardage markers of any kind).

Currently I have and prefer a GPS watch. However, there are times that I forget to charge it or it runs out of battery life while playing. I find that I can play by sight. It also helps in these instances if I am familiar with the course.

I have played several rounds this season without my GPS watch. It really hasn’t affected my game all that much.
 
I would feel lost without my watch and the yardages, I have not played a course without it.
 
I'm a basket case so I carry spare batteries at all times!

I'm lost without my rangefinder after playing my first 25 years without one. :confused:
 
I use my S20 all the time, Sure I could manage without it, but it makes things so much easier and quicker.
 
I generally use both a GPS and a range finder. However when I go out at night I generally just glance at the sprinkler head closest and estimate. I could play without my devices and probably play close to the same.
 
Depends where I'm playing. If it's a place I'm pretty familiar with I can get by but if it's a new place I have to have it.
 
I depend on it a lot. I've recently been fighting a yardage device a bit, and I think it can definitely influence play. Something like that suddenly doesn't work, and your entire routine changes. Automatically. If you start to play poorly within that, the frustration can multiple in a hurry, because there's no routine to fall back on. Little things that don't normally bug you suddenly might, and once a golf mind gets a little flustered bad things tend to happen eventually. Felt like I flirted with a real funky cycle a couple times. Affected my mood, attitude, and reactions to others to. Nothing dramatic, but enough that most would notice.

Besides just the routine, I need pretty exact yardages to play my game, so even having some little doubts about them can be a problem come swing time. It's shown me how much I do rely on those devices.
 
I still don't have one. I know my home course well enough to rely on the fairway plates and sprinkler heads that are marked. I've thought about getting one for when I travel, but haven't as yet. I guess I'm just old school. Also, someone in our group usually has one and they tell me the distance if I'm not sure.
 
If its a new course, I’m dead without a range finder.
Sometimes my crappy Leupold gets me in trouble though. Its so difficult to lock onto target that sometimes I shoot the things over the green and I’ve flown some greens because of it. Now I zap my target 4-5 times to be sure I have the right number.
 
Playing without a GPS certainly slows me down but doesn’t throw me off my game. There is a course that changed the configuration of a few holes that hasn’t been updated on my devices and there are times if I get into a different fairway that the watch puts me on the wrong hole. I get it figured out sometimes and sometimes I don’t. I just play for fun so it’s not a big deal either way.
 
So on the first tee today as I was starting my round, my Garmin S60 took a **** and wouldn't load the course.

I had my phone, range finder and Marjorie had her garmin on, so the information was available to me - but I was so flustered that I had my worst round in a long time. There were other factors that may have contributed, but this is how my day started.

I really didn't think not having it would screw with me that much.

How much does your game depend on your yardage measuring device?

I don’t think it was not having it, it just threw you off. The smallest thing can throw off your concentration. I had one last year where I left a provisional ball in the fairway and it bothered me way more than it should have. Snap hooked on the next hole out of bounds.
 
Depends on new course or a familiar course.

A new course I would need it to just so I can know how far I have to trouble. I’m pretty confident with my skill of eyeballing it to the green distance at least. Plus yardage stakes are good enough for me as I don’t need to be flag hunting.

familiar courses I tend to remember what clubs I have hit In the past and know how wind affects the shots so I wouldnt be too worried about it.
 
Being in engineering , distance gauging is relatively good ,obviously greater margin of error at longer distances . Inside 150 usually within 5/8 metres . But if for some reason didn’t have gps with me wouldn’t be a issue .
Much like reading greens without green books or holes without distance books, how did we function beforehand ? We learned the skill or estimation of speeds and distances )
 
At this point, I’d feel naked without my Garmin watch. I feel like I could get around my home course just fine without it but if I was at a new course and didn’t have it, I’d be quite frustrated
 
I relay heavily on my Bushnell phantom, my golf patrner uses a range finder. Compare the two.
 
Use my rangefinder very little anymore at my home course. Maybe 2 or 3 times per round at the most. Just glance at yardage markers then go by feel. Use it a lot more when playing other courses though.
 
hook my garmin approach on the cart and look at it as I pull up to every ball!
 
When "playing", my yardage electronics hardly ever get used. I use my gps, and/or lazer more for my practice routines.

I've been playing for so long, that I see my next shot, and just pull a club. Also saves a little time.
 
Too much. I feel like I am naked without it.
 
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