Are rangefinders allowed at the 2024 PGA Championship? Do other tournaments allow them?
The PGA set the Championship underway today, and as pros head to the greens, they’ll be carrying more than clubs this time around.
Have you ever seen guys in the green or the fairway with this little one eye “binocular” and asked yourself, “what are they doing?,” well those little things are called rangefinders. These devices are used to measure distance, that simple. In golf they are used to calculate the distance between the golfer and objects on the course.
On the PGA Tour and the other three major championships in men’s professional golf, rangerfinders are not permitted when in days of the competition. The PGA Championship is the only exception to this rule. The change came in 2021 when the governing body explained that allowing the use of the device my help the pace of the game.
Which pro players use rangefinders?
The simple answer is that all players use rangefinders. Professionals utilize rangefinders, whether they are on tour or not.
Teams frequently use rangefinders via caddies. They often use them to measure and enhance their strategy.
Tiger Woods, for example, uses a Bushnell Pro X2 rangefinder during his rounds. The device has a range of 1,300 yards to the flagstick and 5x magnification, in addition to dual display technology, slope compensation, and a pin seeker with jolt vibration. To the newbie golfer, it might sound like a foreign language, but to the pros, it all makes sense.