Legalize Rangefinders!

I was playing an opening hole at the Boise Open a few years back on the Korn Ferry Tour, and my tee shot was well-positioned on the short grass. As we approached my ball, my caddie dropped the large staff bag nearby. I stood a few paces away surveying the narrow hole. A playing partner was on the opposite side of the fairway pacing off yardage, and the third member of our group had located his ball close to the tree line.

I turned back to my ball in time to see my caddie raise a rangefinder to his eye, which knocked the wind out of me. “No rangefinders!” I managed to blurt out. He immediately pulled the rangefinder from his face revealing a stunned expression. “I’m so sorry!” he said. “I totally forgot.” The rangefinder had been in front of his eye for a split second but he hadn’t shot a yardage. We were one push of a button away from a penalty.

Thoughtless penalties like the one my caddie and I nearly incurred, happen more often than you’d expect. Pros and caddies spend days playing practice rounds with rangefinders. Zach Williams was disqualified in 2023, in his first Korn Ferry Tour event, for using a rangefinder during his opening holes. He was a recent college graduate where using a rangefinder in competition was as normal as wearing shoes. The year before, Blake Abercromie paid his DP World Tour Q school entry fee, flew to Denmark for the first stage, used a rangefinder on the first hole, and was disqualified. It was a painfully expensive hole. 

The Tour recently announced that rangefinders would be allowed for three events on the KFT and three events on the PGA Tour. The tours will study the effect on pace of play. On the PGA Tour, the experiment will begin at the RBC Heritage following The Masters, and on the Korn Ferry Tour, the test will begin at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in April. 

Some PGA Tour caddies have rejected the idea that rangefinders should be allowed in competition, arguing that the devices could diminish the role of a good caddie. It seems to me caddies using this line of argument are diminishing their actual value. There was a time when finding an accurate yardage was an art, and getting the perfect yardage for each shot required sacrificial dedication. There was also a time when hitting a balata ball with a persimmon head required a tempo like Clapton playing “Layla” on an acoustic guitar. I doubt the caddie lobby has much influence on this issue. To my knowledge, Big Caddie doesn’t hold much sway in PGA Tour board rooms.

That day in Boise, my caddie would have been a staunch advocate for legalizing distance measuring devices. He would have also been an advocate for legalizing many other illegal “crutches,” but that’s  another story. Allowing rangefinders in competition on KFT and the PGA Tour is long overdue. 

The Tour tested rangefinders in 2017 on KFT and didn’t discover a meaningful improvement in pace of play, though players saved time from wayward positions. Most courses on Tour have plentiful sprinkler heads with marked distances, and PGA Tour caddies have all hole obstacles dialed in before their bosses hit the opening tee shots on Thursday. All hole features are measured from the tees and greens, and are scoped out with rangefinders by caddies in the days leading up to an event. 

One reason some Tour caddies object to the allowance of rangefinders is they still have to consult a yardage book for every shot. Even after a laser gives a caddie the precise yardage, a player and caddie will still open a yardage book and do the math to carry bunkers, get the yardage to the front and back of the green, map out exactly where they want their ball to land, and factor in wind, elevation and temperature. Both player and caddie will likely use a rangefinder multiple times on each shot to confirm the yardage, and the net time saved from a normal position might be a few seconds. Then, of course, there is the issue of a low or dead battery! 

Korn Ferry Tour courses are usually less detailed with on-hole yardage markers. There are fewer full-time pro caddies on KFT to map courses, so the allowance of distance measuring devices has the most upside there. Some antiquated rules in the pro game die slowly – like wearing pants in competition. Even if the rangefinders don’t lead to brisker shot times from most positions, it’s hard to see a downside. 

Bringing back rangefinders is a positive step that everyone should embrace. The PGA Tour is reducing fields at a time when there have never been more pro golfers capable of succeeding. The Tour cites pace of play and the inability for an entire field to complete rounds before dark to justify reductions in field size. Players are losing jobs and playing opportunities. If there is a chance that rangefinders can be one piece of a larger strategy to free up time, we should welcome them.

Distance measuring devices are ubiquitous in carts, golf bags, and on watches around most courses in America. It would almost be refreshing to see a public player searching for a sprinkler head to pace off a yardage.

The LPGA Tour, Asian Tour, LIV Golf, PGA Championship, and NCAA all allow the use of rangefinders in competition. Players are allowed to use rangefinders in qualifiers, on mini tours, and at KFT Q school, where pace of play is a major concern. At a time when we’re discussing shot clocks, shaming slow players on social media, and considering how to make the game faster, it’s time to make rangefinders legal on Tour. If a Tour caddie wants to rely on the old way of pacing off yardages, more power to them – provided they’re not holding up play. 

Allowing rangefinders can make the game more fair in addition to speeding up shots from wayward positions. KFT players often take local caddies to save money. The tradeoff to saving money is the pro will be more self-reliant on yardages, club selection, green reading, and may have to educate their bagman on proper caddying in competition. Allowing rangefinders removes one potential disadvantage for a penny-pinching pro with a local caddie. 

May a pro never again panic as their looper raises a rangefinder in competition. Let’s not waste any more time. 

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