Are we Too reliant on our technology or should I say electronics?????

[THEZIPR23]

4 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

I know a guy down here that plays with a set of those irons you have pictured along with a old R-7 quad and one of those copper colored Burner 3 woods. He putts with a old Bullseye also with all of it in a raggety John Daly roaring Lion carry bag. Do not mess with him. I had him for a partner many a time until we got where we could not get a game. He lives upstate from me and I have not seen him since the pandemic

One thing I have learned playing this game is NEVER judge a book by it's cover. I have a good friend who's dad grew up playing on his father's course. Nothing special about him overweight, short ugly swing. Well he travels about 45 minutes out of town, shows up to a big money game with no clubs, walks into the pro shop grabs a set of rental clubs and walks out to the first tee. Sideway glances for sure. However after 4 hours those sideways glances just increased as he shot 63 and just fleeced those guys. 

[Reesedw]

1 hour ago, ChuckZ said:

Agree.  When I took up this game in 1984 (late bloomer am now 75 years old) I learned to use the yardage markers on the course to the middle of the greens with the red/white/blue flags placements.  Guess I played for over ten plus years before I decided to get my first Bushnell.   Decided it was much more convenient and helped speed up play.  Also learned the hard way to always carry a spare battery in my bag.  But when my battery went dead, which they will between one to two years if you play a lot of golf (I play three days a week), I went back to reading the sprinkler heads.  But now I am glad I have it at my home course.  When they renovated our course in 2020, they DID NOT put yardage markers on the sprinkler heads for some off the wall reasons.  Maybe the same reason they put in the short flags.  No red/white/blue.  It is all a guessing game unless you keep up with the hole position from hole number one.  And whoever sets the pins does not always set the first hole at the front position.   Not all the guys who work in the course maintenance in the course are well versed in pin setting and do not play golf.  Makes for some interesting placements some days.  The designer said old school flags.  Our original course was built in 1929.  My response was BS.   Anyhow it is now rated #19 Municipal course in the US and everyone comes to play it.   Thank goodness for a good rangefinder, Bushnell Pro XE, my choice and very dependable.  When I go to a new course I am not familiar with, I am usually playing with a member or someone who knows the course, if not, I usually pickup a yardage book, which is very reliable.  We are playing Streamsong (all three courses) in late September.  I have never seen the courses, but each of our foursomes will be provided a fore caddy.  This will help us a lot.     

@ChuckZ, when I was in Charleston several yrs ago I played Patriots Point.. Had a great time, had to rent clubs and all.. the Gentleman I was playing with kept warning me to watch out for Gators... OK.. lol.. Also Visited FireFly distillery on Johns Island I think.. great place... Enjoyed my time there.. 

[BIG STU]

17 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... The way I look at it is rangefinders and GPS units finally allowed Am's to play like the Pro's. They have yardage books for every course they play and the caddie walks off yardage, not the player. 

... I played a blue collar muni course where my playing pard was the GM so I played there quite a bit. One hole in particular always gave me trouble. Walking off yardages I constantly came up short, although other holes were also a problem. When I got my first rangefinder I found the yardages from the 150 markers were off and that one hole was off by 15 yds. 

... But once you go down the road of "aspect of skill has been lost" almost every advance in golf would be the same. Play a round of golf with a persimmon driver, Wilson MB's with heavy steel shafts and a balata ball and I think using a rangefinder/gps pales in comparison. 

 

That last paragraph is right up my alley of course you know that. Now when I play my vintage rounds I do not use my rangefinder. But then again I mostly play my home course and know what I have yardage wise. I do use the rangefinder playing the shootouts mostly for the benefit of my playing partners.

I do have one partner I am trying to school. He has one of those Garmin watch things and can not understand why I come up with different yardages. Now our course does not have the GPS things on the pins so his is general yardage. I think he has finally learned not to club off of me. He has started to learn that I do not always hit the same club from the same distance. It still blows his mind that sometimes from the same yardage I may hit a slider 6 iron or a high cut 9 wood. What I am saying here is some people do not know how to utitilize the technology. He still does not fully understand why I hit a driver as far as he does but he hits his NEW graphite shafted Titleist 6 iron where I will hit a 4 or 5 iron. And he has trouble understanding why I put my Homna driver back in the bag when I hit the M-6 about 7 yards further. And it is not like he started playing golf last year he has been playing at it close to 20 years

[BIG STU]

9 minutes ago, THEZIPR23 said:

One thing I have learned playing this game is NEVER judge a book by it's cover. I have a good friend who's dad grew up playing on his father's course. Nothing special about him overweight, short ugly swing. Well he travels about 45 minutes out of town, shows up to a big money game with no clubs, walks into the pro shop grabs a set of rental clubs and walks out to the first tee. Sideway glances for sure. However after 4 hours those sideways glances just increased as he shot 63 and just fleeced those guys. 

Trust me in most of my travels I have seen a lot of guys like that. I knew a guy who played the Vegas shootouts that had a old Northwestern putter like you would have found in beginner sets at K-Mart in the 60s. Had the original half rotted grip taped on with electrical tape. Famous Poker Player/ golf hustler Doyle Brunson remarked that the guy had won enough money with that putter that he could have bought the Northwestern Golf Company CASH from the Ronasco Brothers. Yep never judge a book by it's cover

[Hacker1]

7 hours ago, thegolfgal said:

I think it is pretty simple, if electronics improve your golfing experience use it if not can it.  You can always have a gps on your phone if your rangefinder battery dies.  Not to mention I have a GPS sx500 I think.  I can walk off yardages if needed but why.  Play golf and be happy!

I don't have a cell phone either,just walk the markers.

[BIG STU]

On 6/22/2022 at 7:02 PM, Shinnman said:

I can take this a step in the complete wrong direction.  There is a course by me called Pound Ridge.  Pete Dye course.  They used to rope off and out cart signs on the course.  They took them all away with the new cart GPS that beeps when you shouldn’t do anything.  Now you are playing golf and everyone’s cart starts beeping.  Talk about annoying…just put the damn signs and ropes back out there.

We had that for a while at my former course ( now closed) that GPS would also alert the staff via a screen in the clubhouse and they would get on the radios to the Rangers. It was sorta amusing to watch the Rangers racing to get on the offenders. 

[drb1956]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:31 PM, TitleistMike said:

I HATE the ongoing scoping shooting laser tagging every bunker bump and knob by every player on every shot. It really slows play down. And usually the people with zero distance control want eight readings before they pick a club then change their mind.

You want to speed up play, yardage books and fairway markers are all that's needed.

In cart GPS is a waste on carts only days.  I really like my GPS watch that gives me yards front and back. I've usually played my shot before partner has figured out his distance and even thought about club.

And yes, there is something added to the game when you have to step off 17 paces from the 150 to your ball and figure 167 (or 133 for the long hitters on the other side of 150.

I do like when the carts had the flipcard maps of each hole, with distances to hazards, and the turn clearly marked. Especially worked well on courses I never played before. On my home course, just need to know distance to the green. Back in the day distance markers on the fairway were the best. Just used a little guesstimating if you were behind, or in front of the marker. God bless my Garmin...

[Paul Hedrick]

Too reliant?  No, I do not think so.  I see it more as a natural progression. Are we too reliant on the postal service when the pony express was working?  I will say that if technology takes your joy away from the game, then abandon the technology.  I did that with Arccos.  I found myself fussing with it during play and I really did not enjoy that.  I know people who love the Arccos system, so for them, it works.

[Robha]

I don't really think we grew too reliant on electronics, since basically every sport eventually does. Golf you just have a lot of "on hand" devices(as you said, Rangefinders, GPS, etc), but pretty much everything from powerlifting to bowling relies on some sort of technical assitance either pre-competition or during. There are a factor regarding that "not using" something becomes too much of a downside that you basically forced to, if you want to keep up with others. I can make an example at my other hobby: hunting. Like 30-40 years ago you would grab you hunting rifles, maybe get a pair of binos with you while hunting. Now it's every device that you can imagine: smell hiding equipment, trail cams, rangerfinders, night vision, thermal optics. Everything and anything. Sadly, in uncontrolled environment, you are forced to use it to keep up a lot of the time, and I don't feel like it's a good thing. But that's whole other discussion in my opinion.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Robha