Golfers today have resorted to a wide variety of measures to get yardages, directions and keeping scores.
When playing do you have troubles gauging how far a certain obstacle is, or how far away from the green you need to get to on your next shot?
Are you that type of person with an uncanny ability to estimate how far you need to hit your next shot?
For most people it's a guessing game but, it so much more important when it comes to scoring. It can make a difference between shooting a great score or being left to frustration and wanting to break every club in your bag.
When I was caddying professionally my job 30+ years ago was to make sure I walked the golf course before my partner even showed up.
Professional caddies would chart a course for their player before every tournament with all of the measurements.
You knew the distances of every club your pro swung at. It was your job to walk the fairways marking down every rock, sand traps, trees, water or any other permanent obstacle that you could gauge from the tees or any other shots from the fairways to the greens.
You mark all of this down in a little black book. Then everyday early in the morning before each round you graph out each hole's pin placements. Measure out by using the old traditional way of one foot in front of the other how far from the front, sides, and back of the greens.
You also observe where the pin placement is for that day by writing it all down. Observing everything, if the green is on a hill, swale or what kind of breaks to the hole when putting.
Where is the flat part of the green or safest place to hit the ball to. There was a combination of both guess work and knowing your player's skill level.
Today, that has all changed with technology. Yardage markers can now be defined by sprinkler heads, poles in the fairways, painted numbers on cart paths.
Yardage books and laser range finders all have become part of the golf landscape and have varying degrees of usage by today's golfers.
For the high-tech among us,gadgets have been finding their way into more and more golf bags. Compact rangefinders with hand held GPS systems and computer geekery included have found an ever increasing audience.
With convenience however, comes cost, and none of these are cheap.The items range in price from $199 to $499.
ONE OF the great pleasures of playing golf in the past 40+ years has been the extraordinary development in technology which makes the game so much easier now than in the early 1980s.
As we enjoy huge titanium drivers, graphite shafts, two-piece balls and soft-faced putters, we wonder how we could ever play with drivers that have heads the size of small boulders and balls which wore a huge smile every time they were hit off center.
Advances aren't restricted to clubs and balls. When I started playing, club selection was based on the perceived distance of the golf shot.
Then it became standard for golf courses to put laser read distance markers on each hole. Technology has started doing that work too and now the R&A and the USGA said they would permit the use of GPS range finders if a club or tournament committee brought in a local rule allowing its use.
Not many such local rules have been made. For my club it decided against range finders in official club tournaments. Although they do allow them in regular play and it's legal, and common in practice rounds.
The biggest problems most golf courses have is involved in slow play.The endorsement from the P.G.A. made it a big issue of how these gadgets would speed up play.
The thinking is that if players have the distance information available instantly, it will speed up club selection, pre-shot routine and actual hitting.
From what I hear, the evidence points out that this is not the case. The time a player spends contemplating distances is not regarded as a contributor to the slow pace of play. It's the decisions on which club to use, plus general preparation for a shot which are the time wasters.
Despite the advanced technology, nothing about golf's basic premise has changed. It's great knowing how far away the hole is but, you still have to hit the shot.
MY limited experience using these gadgets are that they can be useful on the golf course. They quickly provide available and accurate information, so for that reason their usage should be encouraged.
When I used it on my home course, it was really of limited value. I guess that's because I've played there so often, and I know the exact yardages.
Another new technological gadget that has proven its weight in gold for the hard core avid golfer, is called the ProLooper Golf Game Analyzer. This groundbreaking system allows golfers to record the location of every shot using a standard GPS range finder, and use that data to get the most in-depth statistical analysis of their game available today.
This feature rich system can improve shot accuracy and help golfers save strokes on the golf course. You can run the system on several GPS range-finder devices and has over 10,000 course maps available.
In order to use the ProLooper system the golfer simply stands over the ball and marks the location while checking the distance to their next target.
The data collection process does not slow down the golfers game. Once the round is completed the golfer uploads his or her data over the Internet to the ProLooper server.
The golfer is able to add additional details such as weather conditions, lies, slopes and other variables. The more details that are added, the more powerful the instant reporting capabilities of the system becomes.
Golfers can now have the same type of shot and game analysis that professional golfers get from their caddies.
It will help improve your golf swing, and shot accuracy. This is what separates great golfers from the average golfers, and that is knowing your statistics.
Being able to use those numbers to better yourself in every facet of your game. You do get instant insight to your golf round performance after every 18 holes. It all leads to improved play and lower scores.
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