Apart from the 14 clubs in your golf bag, a comfortable pair of shoes and a glove, one of the best accessories to help the golf game short of your own caddie is a distance finding device. Over the last couple of years, GPS based devices and mobile apps have flooded the market. Ive previously road tested the iSwing Mobile App and the Sureshot GPS.
Road Test
Historically the optical rangefinder has been the go-to device to help the golfer navigate their way around the course. Not having used one, I took the Sureshot Laser out for a round at Yarra Bend Golf course in Melbourne. The Sureshot Laser device is robust, sturdy and comes in a carry pouch that clips to the golf bag. It takes about 30 seconds to learn how to use the device. Aiming at the target, the Sureshot Laser has crosshairs that make it pretty simple to lock onto your target whether its the pin, a bunker to measure carry, or a tree to determine layup distance.
Looking through the viewfinder of the Sureshot Laser, distance is clearly identified.
The huge advantage that a Laser rangefinder has over a GPS unit is the ability to know the precise distance to the pin. A GPS will tell you distance to centre of the green but has no way of telling where the pin is located. On a deep green this can have a big impact on club selection. The Sureshot Laser picks up the pin easily and provides instant distance, which is disturbingly accurate. Its also great at giving quick feedback on how far you just monstered your drive down the fairway. Another great advantage is being able to quickly pan across a hole and identify all of the key distances to hazards, carrys, greenside and pin. The Rangefinder also doesnt need to rely on downloading the course before you play.
A great use of the Sureshot Laser was using the device to calculate accurate distances to the pins on my local driving range, I know to the metre how far each pin is, helping with managing shot selection and iron carry.
One main downside of a visual rangefinder is that it obviously cant provide distance on what you cant see. That includes the green around a dogleg, the pin or hazard over a blind tee shot or, as I experienced last week, a green hidden behind a deep fog.
The Word
The simplicity of the Sureshot Laser is a huge selling point, it is easy to use and provides instant distance feedback. I particularly liked being able to pinpoint the flag and know precise distances. When placed head to head with a Golf GPS device, such as my Sureshot 8850, Im still a tech-head when it comes to devices and like the detail that comes from the GPS device. The Laser Rangefinder is more than equipped to provide the same details, and perfect for someone that wants to keep it simple.
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