Range Finders ?
 

I'm fairly new to golf and have a question about the various range finders/ golf gps devices I see for sale. Are the distance markers on the tees that innaccurate? Just curious. I haven't been on all the courses in TV so maybe all golf courses do not have markers?

Most are close.

When I first came down I used the marker at tee box. It's when you do the second shot that is a little frustrating .

The clubs frequently have demo days to try out devices (golf buddy, bushnell etc. )

Last Dec they had bushnell gps neo. for demo (wristwatch) Man was it convenient to guage front,middle and back of green yardage. I found that I was significantly more accurate with distance with a glance of the watch.

Less stress ,more fun, less frustration. However some enjoy the increased excitement of frustration to the game of golf.

By the time the rep quoted village discount, todays special and $35 rebate( cutting it to half price) I had to buy my Christmas present early.
Now I upgrade the courses on my home computer and can play on 40,000 courses.

Ok. Thanks to both for the answers. I can really see using them on 4 and 5 par holes.

I find it amazing when I play with my group(s), most people can tell you the distance to the front, back and middle of the green, while i stand up there with my Bushnell Calloway rangefinder and say it is XXX yards to the PIN rather than guessing where the pin is located.

Range finders are great for the executive courses or on Championship courses within 200 yards of the green. The key is keeping the crosshairs steady on the pin and of course the further out you are the harder it is to keep it steady and get an accurate reading.

The courses as marked are for the most part accurate or within a yard of 2, but there are times when tees are moved back or forward and the pin placement has not been moved accordingly.....when that happens you can easily have a 10 yard difference or 1 club.

It makes a difference...
 

only if you know how far you hit each club regularly. If you don't know then just go by the yardage markers because(and I don't mean this impolitely)if you only can come +/- 10 yards or so you don't need a device to be that precise.

A laser is the most precise, but suffers in fog and shaky hands. A gps device is fine, but suffers in accuracy when getting exact distances to pin, near/far side of the lakes/bunkers etc.

The GPS is great for finding out how far you hit each club, so you then will be able to select appropriate clubs during a round.

I know I hit a 3 wood about 215 yds, 5 wood 205 yds 7 iron 155 yards on average, 9 iron 125, sand wedge 95yds, all from measuring my shosts with GPS.

So then, on the course when I get my distance to hole or distance to hazards, I know what club to use, whether I should lay-up or hit over the hazard.

The rangefinder I usually use closer to the green as I am then playing to the distance to the pin and not just hitting to the green, so club choice is important.

I have recently notice also they not only move the tee markers around but they also move the hole around to different spots on the greens.

The tee marker placements correspond to the pin placement. Front of green hole placement then the pins are back on tee-box, back of green pin then markers are forward on tee-box.

This allows for grass to grow back on tee-box and cuts down on repeated walking on certain areas of green.

I don't know about here, but when I worked for USGA doing course and slope ratings, we would measure the course from a spot three paces from the back of the tee. We would then mark those spots and most courses would put permanent plaques on those spots. Are there no permanent plaques on the tees on Villages Golf Courses?

USGA currently measures holes from the middle of the teeing ground.

How about on some courses where the yardage marker is behind the tee box, not parallel with the box. Can one assume, that the distance is from the middle of the tee box to the middle of the green?