How to Use Your Rangefinder Like a Scratch Golfer

a lot of people are still pacing out their yardages thinking it’s the honorable thing to do and a lot of people think that the range finder only measures the distance to the pin I’m going to show you 10 ways I use this Rangefinder to lower my scores down to a low single figure handicap the first way I use a rangefinder is on the tea I’ll measure to trees in the distance to see if I’m going to reach them if I can go past them and if I can’t go past them if the trees in the exact range of my club I know to the right or left of it in the Fairway how far I’m going so there’s a tree on the left on over there the dark green one and I just shoot that from the te with a rangefinder and I find it’s 278 so from 278 first t-shot of the day I’m happy that I have all that space in front of the tree here all the way to the right where there’s Fairway so I have like maybe 80 yard of of landing area there I’m not going to H it past 278 into the breeze confidential we’ve hit the ball up toward this tree on the left side it’s blocked us out from the hole we can see the Green from here but as we come around to my ball we see that the green starts disappearing behind the tree which means we have to lay up I have what I like to call a free throw distance anything from 130 back to 160 is my favorite range to hit from there’s a white steak in the Fairway down there I use the rangefinder to shoot to that steak and I see that that’s 126 y so I know I need to hit it 12 6 to get it to the 150 y white steak so knowing that gave me the knowledge to pick my seven iron just to bump and run it up the Fairway into a position where I can approach the green well that was lucky I just avoided the bunker so we’re getting 141 yard to the hole but there’s a secret I use I like to find the front edge of the green when possible so on this hole because the green is raised a little bit we can see the front edge I want to know how far I need to hit it from here to ensure I actually hit the green not just the pin distance so it’s 125 to the front roughly so 125 to 141 we’ve got about 15 yards from the front edge to the pin which is perfect for a pitching wedge knowing that if it’s a mediocre strike I hit the front if it’s a perfect strike I’m pin High on this part three I’m going to shoot to the pin of course first thing we do and we get a quick reading here of 180 yards that’s not the most important though the most important and secret thing I use the red tiger for is to shoot to the lip of a bunker and then I add a few yards to make sure I clear it so this bunker in front of this pin is 165 Ys away which means 165 to 180 we have 15 yard over that bunker and we have the pin so you can shoot to the lip of the bunkers and you can shoot to banks on the water but then always add five or six yards onto that reading after you’ve read it to the bank to make sure you clear it pick a club that clears it easily by five or six yards and you’ll save a lot of shots not going in hazards one of the dangers of using a rangefinder is the idea that you have to now go at dead at the pin assess the dangers what’s happening around the green I’m going to go a bit left of this pin knowing the distance is 180 and there’s a whole lot of green to the lift at the same distance maybe you’ve hit a shocking drive maybe you’ve just got a long way into the hole a lot of people think if they use a range find it looks as if they’re trying to go for the hole and some dzel will even tell you well you’re not going to get there bro don’t worry about it but dzel we have to understand we’re using the range founder to plan from here I can shoot the r i can shoot the range binder to the hole 274 I’m not hitting a ball 274 of the Fairway not going to happen so I sh I shift my thinking to the left side and I know it’s not 274 because that’s as the crow flies it’s going to be something to the left and then to the right like a dog leg so now I look at the 150 yard marker in the middle of the Fairway I see the 100 yard marker 50 yard beyond that we shoot to the 150 135 y yards so I know if I hit 135 I have 150 into the hole if I hit another 50 yards 185 I’m going to have 50 yard less into the hole another secret to shoot beyond all those things to the end of the Fairway at the top that’s 225 yards away so anywhere from 130 to 225 is an easy place for me to hit the golf ball to have a shot into the green I’d like to have 100 yards in so I’m going to try hit this 185 yards to leave myself a beautiful sandwich thanks to red tiger 102 another secret you can use with the rangefinder is when you’re at the tea pick out a tree near the tea box or sometimes there’s like a metal yardage marker or a bench just find something near the tea that’s in line with the te so that you can remember to shoot back from the Fairway after you’ve hit your t- shot to find out how far you’ve actually hit your drive that’s how I started learning how far my drives really went not just subtracting the approach distance from the distance on the scorecard which always gives you an elevated number so I’ll shoot back to this tree over here with the plant growing in the middle of it and we’ll see how far this drive actually goes I hit the ball really well and it hit a down slope on the firm ground I can still see that tree in the distance that’s 350 yard that’s probably the greatest Drive of my life not every time like that because it’s dry season and the ground’s made of clay so we’ve hit 350 leaving us a shot of 107 yards beautiful what the hell is that I don’t know about you guys but I like to wear my range finder on my magnetic holster that is provided by red tiger it’s very strong so you got to be careful not to pull your pants off but then you just clip it back on and you’re good to go that’s how roll that’s how I get the babes the biggest Factor you find with all these tips with the range mind is just comfort and confidence that you’re hitting the right shot at the right time this par three is 162 Y and that means I’m going to hit the a time a perfect number for me look at that a beautiful comfortable number right in line with the pin just a great level of confidentiality and comfort just a beautiful putt no birdies today that means no tip for the caddy I see the 150 in the middle of the Fairway it’s 200 to the 150 and we’ve got 260 250 before the tree so we’re going to hit a 200 to 250 yard shot very easy decision to just go with a 4 iron sometimes you can’t exactly work out where the water starts and you can use a rangefinder particularly if there are hedges or if there’s a tree that you know is growing right on the edge of the water you can shoot it to that and know how far you have to get to the water and on the other side you can do the bank on how to come and then on the other side of the water you can shoot to the top of the bank and add 5 to 10 yards to know how much you need to clear it exactly so the range F really works in creating more confidence confidence in your shot I hit a beautiful four iron down here if I hit anything longer you can see if I’m left there and long I’ve got to hit through that tree toward water I want a nice open clear shot here to the green and I did it so I’ve shot this distance it’s 144 y but we’re straight down Breeze and I don’t want to go long here so I can see that pin’s cut at the back I’ve used the range finder to get the exact distance no no approximate distance so I’m going to hit this with a 48° wedge cuz if I hit my pitching wedge too solid the wind is just going to take it over the back on a p five like this we take out the red tiger again and we see the trees on the left hand side there’s a bit of a bush there so we want to know exactly how far we have to that tree 284 I’m not really worried that much so that means that all the way up on the left to all the way up on the right I have a lot of space to hit a driver here High confidentiality means I’m going to pull that driver bash it down there and we’re going home into two on the par five thank to red tiger another secret is that if you have a lot of greens with a backdrop that’s quite close to the back of the green you can shoot to the pin and then you shoot the background to see how far you have Behind the Green before you reach trouble that can help you to gauge the distance you need to go maximum and what you need minimum so that you don’t end up in a hazard that or like a Downs slope that you know exists and then you’re below the green and deados so this one that hole is 200 y away and the big ass tree is 236 so between the pin in the back tree we got 36 yards like I say I also like to shoot the front of the green 193 so we probably got between the front of the Green in the hole we probably got seven or eight yards so we can quite comfortably hit a six iron here stay a little bit short and if the down Breeze takes it we might be on the back Edge or pin High bunker quite clearly it’s about seven yards from the front edge great measurement there we’ve gone in that bunker time to get out you don’t only shoot to the lip of bunkers at greenside bunkers you can also do it for Fairway bunkers like the one in the middle of this Fairway I’m going to shoot this to the top lip of that that’s 198 to the top lip I want to clear that easily by 10 or 15 yards so I’m going to hit a club that goes 210 yard which is my four iron I’m going to try clear that and if I can’t clear it I would go to the right of it and to the left of it with something that would go 200 and those are the 10 ways I use a rangefinder to lower my score course management planning and getting confident and comfortable with the shot