Health and Fitness

The following outlines the pluses and minuses of both golf GPS units and laser range finders, illustrating their assistance. Regardless of which type of yardage tool you use, they can give you an correct indication of distance, but they follow various design concepts that can be both good and bad.

How a Rangefinder Works

There are major differences between a GPS based and rangefinder. A range finder is sort of like a combination between a radar gun that police use to evaluate speeding on the street and a pair of binoculars. This optical system is essentially like a rifle scope, and allows you see, choose, and lock on to the target area you want to meter the yardage to (for example, a bunker up on the green). The golf range finder will flash a ‘safe for the eyes’ laser at the chosen point, and is able to measure the time it takes the laser to rebound off the object and return to the rangefinder. The device measures at this delay between firing and returning to measure the distance.

How GPS for Golf Units Work

To put it in elementary terms, golf GPS units are fundamentally a satellite mapping system. The GPS is communicating with overhead satellites and figures out your correct fix on the planet, then calls in to previously registered placements on the golf course to be able to give you the yardages to any of the important locations near you (as an example: the back of the putting area for the hole you’re presently playing).

Some of the Advantages of a Golf GPS

For one thing, there’s no need to aim it at any place to get your yardage reading. The GPS can work at measuring yardages for targets which are not in view to you, such as greens around a dogleg or places you can’t see because of a tree. Also, you don’t have to have a totally steady hand or accurate eye to be able to line up a GPS unit like you need with a range finder.

The Advantages of Using Laser Range Finders in Golf

The latest range finders have a magnification of up to 7x. If you want the most accurate reading for your laser range finder, it can be useful to zoom in to faraway objects or a landing area.

For example, at 145 yards it would be out of the question to use your naked eye just to locate a ridge you would be better to miss. If you have a rangefinder a rangefinder you will be able to easily spot it and then play safely to the opposite side of the green – giving you the joy of a more makeable birdie putt. Another advantage to keep in mind is the range finder can also be used on the driving range when you want to figure out how far you are hitting with each of your irons and fairway metals.

To sum up, neither the GPS for golf nor the range finder is better than the other, they are different and similar at the same time. If you can swing it the best way to solve the choice problem is just get one of each! However, that’s not always practical or realistic, so do your research, study the facts, and see which one is optimal for your style of play.