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"Are you telling me that if your cart had a GPS system on it, it would be faster to go walk off the yardage yourself than to look at the screen?"


I don't think using a cart is golf either. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]


I agree the USGA has done more to ruin golf, make it expensive, and make it take a long time with the failure to catch the optimized equipmnet until it was too late. The rangefinder is not the main culprit I suppose. However, the rangefinder is something I don't think belongs on a golf course. I am getting crusty in my old age. I no longer carry 14 clubs a lot of the time. I am debating whether to ban myself from getting yardages at all. I may simply look at the overall yardage of the hole and go by eyeballing it from there. I have not been playing much tho. Maybe the next round I play I will try to do it with 8 clubs and trying to avoid all yardage markers. Problem is you can see them on my course, so you get a ballpark yardage.

My dream pro silly season event is a no caddy, no yardage book, no pin sheet, no sprinkler head 7 club max tournament on a classic course. Carry your sticks and use your eyes and feel. Tiger would win. Ben Crane not allowed. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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I figured you were a crusty old school guy. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

The USGA is in the uneviable position of having to regulate a game against the wishes of equipment companies that have far greater resources than the USGA could ever hope to have, and against players that want to score better than they are now. I would imagine you are in a huge minority of people that wouldnt want to use available technology to improve their scores. I remember reading something when the whole COR issue came up that said that the average handicap/score of non-pro players hasnt changed much in the past 20 years, which tells me people are better off spending money on lessons and practicing than the new $500 driver.

And while I would prefer to walk when I play, the game would be unplayable for the average golfer without carts and the standard round would definitely be in excess of 5-6 hours. It would also eliminate a large portion of the golfing population from even playing at all, which is not what the USGA is interested in.

Leave it up the to PGA tour to make their own rules for the best players, but the USGA has to regulate the everyman and do what's best to get/keep people interested in golf.