Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
A report popped up on X Wednesday from ESPN‘s Paolo Uggetti that said the PGA Tour is “testing out allowing allowing players to use distance-measuring devices this season.” The hope is that by getting yardages quicker and more efficiently, pace of play will become faster.
Now, I’m no expert on if this will actually speed up play, but what I do know is that if Tour players do get to use rangefinders, they will be using them quite differently than weekend hackers do.
How so? Well, as luck would have it, we recently filmed a Play Smart segment with instructor Stef Shaw at Cabot Citrus Farms in which she explains best practices for using a rangefinder.
How you’re using a rangefinder wrong
When you step to your ball in the fairway or on the tee box of a par-3, you probably grab your rangefinder and zap the pin. That’s all fine and dandy, right? Well, not quite.
Having the number to the pin at your fingertips at all times is a great asset, but if the yardage to the flag is all you’re calculating, you’re using a rangefinder wrong. The number to the pin is only part of the equation.
“I’ve got three different yardages that I can track here,” Shaw says. “I can track how far it is to carry the top of the hill. I’ve got the pin that I’m gonna measure, and then how far to the back [of the green].”
It’s important that you grab all three of these numbers when you pull out your rangefinder. Why? Because you need to know the range — from front to back — in which you can safely land your ball on the green.
In the video above, we know that the number to carry the hill in front of the green is 100 yards, while the number to the pin is 110 yards and the number to the back of the green is 120 yards. So, taking all of those calculations into consideration, I need to choose a club that will go at minimum 100 yards to carry the trouble, and at maximum 120 yards to stay on the green.
“If you look on Trackman, sometimes I’ll have someone who carries the ball 90 yards but it rolls out to 120, and that’s not gonna be enough club here,” Shaw says. “That’s why it’s important that you go to the driving range and figure out some basic carry distances for your clubs.”
Next time you pull out your rangefinder on the course, remember that you’re not just looking for the number to the pin. Instead, build a range in front and behind the pin that you can land the ball and choose a club based on that. If you do, you’ll hit lots more greens and give yourself more looks at birdie.
