Can You Use Golf Range Finders in Tournaments?

Do you enjoy playing golf with your buddies and beat them? Or do you prefer playing golf by yourself to practice and try to shoot your lowest score? What about joining a golf competition in a more significant field tournament field play? Do you enjoy all the buzz and excitement at high-profile events, a local course, or your country club?

No matter your reasons for playing golf, the most critical question that you need to address is whether or not you or your caddie should use a golf range finder to determine distances between objects? Some people consider using range finders cheating. However, you have to understand that these devices are now a more advanced way of calculating distances. For a long time, caddies and golfers have measured course distances manually from one hole to another. Some golf courses even provide golfers a detailed map of every hole on the course. From this map, golfers will see distances to hazards, distances to the pin, driving distances, and so on. On the course itself, you will even see permanent distance markers using colored markers. You will also observe a lot of courses that have a 150-yard distance to the center of the green marker. At times, you will see a bush planted strategically on every hole or a stake at the fairway edge.

Though using your range finder playing around with your buddies one Sunday morning will help you, it will not be long before they are borrowing your device to measure their distances to the pin or long drives. If you only play at your country club and don’t visit other courses, for sure, you have more local knowledge of your course, making it inessential to use a range finder. Now, what happens if you enter competitions at select courses or your club? Will they allow you to use your reliable golf range finder?

Before you use your golf range finders in local tournaments and significant events, you have to consider the USPGA golf rules. According to the rules, you can use your range finder if the local committee or the one in charge of the competition has come up with a local rule that allows players to use these devices for measuring distances only. However, when you use your range finder to measure other conditions that might affect your play like temperature, gradient, and wind, rules don’t allow it.

Thus, it is legal to use golf range finders in tournaments as long as you choose a basic model that only measures distances and conforms to the USPGA standards. There are laser range finders with exciting features and intelligent slope technology that can help you gauge your distances better. However, you can only use them for personal use, such as playing with your golf buddies or practicing by yourself. You have to keep in mind, though, that the purpose of range finders goes beyond giving you distance measurements. As the golf player, you have to know how far you can hit the ball with every club you have in the bag. It is useless to get distance information of 225 yards when you have no idea which club you should choose to hit the golf ball at such distance.

If you want to buy the right golf range finder for you, use it first on the driving range, so you learn your average distances for each club. Once done, you can start bringing this device with you on the course.