My current rangefinder is from the Obama years. It is the Bushnell Tour V2 and has served me well until recently when it started not finding pins and giving me readings from around the green of hundreds of yards out. I would get numbers from the SkyCaddie app on my phone when this happened, but there are many times on the range and on the course where a rangefinder and an exact number are crucial. It is time for a new one.
Thoughts I had going in were these: my old rangefinder had a strange CR2 3V battery. It would be nice to have a AA or AAA situation or rechargeable finder.
I play in a handful of stroke-play events or qualifiers each year, plus I play by the Rules of Golf even when not in a tournament. I wanted to double-check the rules on rangefinders that measure slope so that I didn’t accidentally buy an illegal rangefinder.
I usually walk when I play. I want a rangefinder that has a good case that hangs on the bag and that is secure so that the rangefinder won’t fall out.
Finally, I want to spend around $300. I’ll spend more, but that’s the goal. Spending $300ish seems appropriate for some reason, but $600 and you’re thinking, I could have a new driver for this. And the new driver will be a lot more fun.
Here’s what I learned:
First, I looked up “Rules of Golf Rangefinders.” I pride myself on knowing the Rules of Golf pretty well, but I had clearly failed in this area. I had assumed the 2019 Rules update just continued the policy of allowing a local rule to be adopted that permitted distance-measuring devices. Every stroke-play event I have played in the last 10-plus years has allowed rangefinders. But I was way off on the rules relating to this. Rule 4.3(a)(1) now explicitly permits the use of distance-measuring devices that measure distance only. If your device measures slope, and you don’t access that feature or have it turned off during competition, you are fine. Most all slope rangefinders have a pretty clear switch on the outside now to indicate whether the slope feature is on or off. I don’t have much experience with a slope rangefinder, but I could see it being helpful in a practice round on an elevated par three or an uphill approach to get an idea how much the elevation change impacts the yardage.
Now, which one to go with. I googled “best range finders golf 2022.” I figured I would click on five to ten sites that seemed the most reputable. But fortunately, I quickly found Breaking Eighty.
Breaking Eighty had by far the best reviews. Sean Ogle runs the site, and he has very in-depth reviews for a lot of rangefinders. Other websites have short blurbs about why you should go with particular rangefinders, but Breaking Eighty has multiple fifteen-minute videos covering all aspects of individual rangefinders. I really enjoyed his best of video to get an overview of what’s out there.
Going in, I was thinking about just getting a standard rangefinder. But after getting clear on what the rules allow, I was thinking slope would be a good feature to use in practice rounds. Also going in, I didn’t even know smart rangefinders existed, but after reading about them, I started to consider a smart rangefinder.
Bushnell appears to dominate the market, and my trusty Tour V2 above has lasted for 10-plus years. Bushnell released a recent X3, which Breaking Eighty voted as best overall rangefinder. But it’s $599. This technology isn’t new–there are a lot of products that will do the job. Even if most Tour players and caddies use Bushnell on practice days, for $599, the X3 needs to be significantly better than its peers to justify that price. And after watching and reading several reviews (mainly on Breaking Eighty), it doesn’t seem to offer enough additional features to justify its price.
I had never heard of Precision Pro before embarking on this search. The Precision Pro NX10 received a high review on Breaking Eighty. Precision Pro has a good website; Breaking Eighty says that they have really good customer service. And Precision Pro also offers those strange, sometimes hard-to-find CR2 batteries free for your rangefinder for life. That’s pretty cool. The NX10 also has a sleeve that you can customize or get in different colors. I like the simple clean look of the NX10.
Precision Pro also makes the R1 Smart Rangefinder. The R1 integrates with the Precision Pro golf app which is free and doesn’t require a subscription as of now. The app has thousands of pre-loaded courses. The R1 can work as a standard rangefinder, but can also interact with the app and give you front-of-the-green and back-of-the-green distances.
My current setup for an approach shot is to walk up to the ball, pull out my phone, bring up the SkyCaddie app, look at the distances to the front of green and back of the green, then shoot the distance to the pin with the rangefinder, and finally, decide on my shot. I’m therefore going with the Precision Pro R1 Smart Rangefinder, partly for pace-of-play reasons and partly because, in the rest of my life, “smart” options, once introduced, seem to become the standard. With the R1, I’m hoping I will be able to shoot a yardage and also see front and back of the green numbers in the rangefinder display, and then be able to decide on a shot without looking at my phone. The R1 received a great review on Breaking Eighty. The best part: the R1 is normally $319.99. I’m ordering it around Black Friday for $289.99, less than half of the Bushnell X3. I ordered it today. I’ll report back on how well it works.
Here’s the Amazon link, which also offers it for $289.99: https://amzn.to/44D1xS6
(Disclosure: This blog is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program and earns commissions on qualifying purchases. Thank you.)