Frank and Valerie, love you guys and thanks for the frequent frankness. Please tell me why distance range finders are not allowed at the U.S. Open?
Hector
Texas
Hector,
Thanks for your greetings and support.
The ban on electronic measuring devices (EMDs) in championship play is a question many of us have.
All I can say is that “tradition” is sometimes hard to define or understand in this instance.
I very much agree with some traditions – maybe just basic manners my father taught me – such as removing your hat when shaking hands with someone after a round — or any other time of greeting — or whenever greeting a lady. Also don’t wear your hat (cap) in the club house, or any house.
Perhaps I am just old fashioned but we play an old-fashioned, mannerly game.
When it comes to permitting the use of EMDs in championship play my feeling is that we parted with the tradition — of not allowing distance-measuring devices — a long time ago.
Hundreds of years ago, a good caddie was the first ‘distance measuring device’. This then followed a natural progression, of 150 yard markers, to sprinkler head markings, to “Stroke saver” yardage booklets etc. – even on the Old Course at St Andrews — and now EMDs to provide the same information that was available from a good caddie, and still is, if you can find one and afford his/her services.
We now allow the Open competitor all the information necessary to obtain the exact measurements to the flagstick including a “pin-sheet” or hole location sheet for every green – provided to every competitor by the championship committee on the first tee, every day of a championship.
If we are not concerned about providing the information, why would we possibly be concerned about HOW to get it?
This is, I suppose “tradition,” which may not make sense if we think about it. So let’s not think about it.
There are some genuine advantages to getting the distance information a little faster but speed is certainly not of sufficient importance to influence the decision. How you get this information is important from a “traditional” point of view.
If we go back in time to the days of Old Tom Morris, he didn’t have the advantage of reading — on the sprinkler head — the distance to the front of the 18th green, because they didn’t have sprinkler heads, or even sprinklers in his day.
What would Old Tom have done if he had an EMD available to him today? I suggest he would endorse its use, if it stopped all the dithering around and slowing play to look for a marked sprinkler head or a march stone in the yardage booklet etc.
Let me know if you think the Major championships should allow EMDs during play, and if so when?
Frank
franklygolf 
I received one as a gift several years ago and it not only speeds my game up but that of my playing partners. The running joke is at 150 yards what club to choose, depending on the day it can range from a 3 iron to a driver
They can be a SUPER tool. I’ve been able to figure out just which club to use and how much of a swing is needed with my EMD. Bring ’em on right now! No more trying to find how far you are — especially if you are off in the bushes.
Just on the recreational level the EMD’s speed up play. Rather than driving/walking all over the course trying to find a yardage marker, just look at the EMD.. Even those that only give red, white distances is good enough for recreational golfer
Why not… I don’t see it hurting/helping anything. I guess maybe caddies would disagree; there’s no way a pro could blame the caddy for coming up short when the exact yardage is there in black-and-white (or LED red, as it were).
Isn’t distance considered common knowledge and can be discussed with your opponent? So why not allow EMDs? But, EMD use probably will not shorten the time to the 19th hole.
Use them!
Hey, wouldn’t it be neat to have one Tournament a year, where NO precise-yardage aids were allowed (a “new” course, no GPS, no yardage books, no coddling by caddy). $10 million purse, $2.5 million to the winner.
The fast-dying skill of being able to judge the shot by eyeball would be kept alive.
as several others have alread said, EMD’s ARE in effect being used in Championship events. but in an indirect way. W hen caddies use them prior to the start of an event and transfer a multitude of readings to their yardage book making it a simple matter to determine exact yardages during tournament play, it is a farce to consider that they are not being used.
So drop the pretence. Make them legal
Frank, for all intents they are being used on the tour every day. On the two or three days prior to the start of a tournament the caddies go out with their laser finders and GPS and walk the course marking the measures in their books for future use. So why not let them use them on the tourney days and speed things up.
Don’t the caddies already use them during practice rounds, marking out all likely places their player might need to hit from during the stipulated rounds, thereby adding to their yardage book from last time they played that course, especially if holes were altered in the meantime? I doubt it would shorten a professional round, especially at a major, with so much $ riding on every shot, especially the 2nd 9 on Sunday … 4 or more back-offs and re-reads of putts, more waggles than a kennel of puppy tails, etc. … nerves and determination obey nobody but the clock inside the players’ heads.
Yes, EDM’s should be allowed so as not to slow up play by searching for yardage markers that don’t exist at many courses. For PGA/USGA events, my memory tells me that Jack Nicklaus was the first (or one of the first) to chart a course in detail. If EDM’s had been available during his playing years, they would have saved him many steps, since Angelo didn’t step off the yardage.
EMDs? Sure. Let’s measure to the flag, what about the front and back of the 3 bunkers around the green? How about the layup distances to the hump in the fairway. Rounds are long enough lets make them longer!
Now that I use one, I don’t want to go back. Especially for a hacker like me, (or sometimes for Tiger) being able to know the distance from the next fairway over is a real blessing. It speeds my game tremendously.
Frank, this is another example of how you think one level above the “experts.”
EDM should be used immediately on a trial basis to see if it improves pace of play. While we’re young should apply to everybody.