There are two types of range finders to help the golfer find his distance to the hole, we will start this review with the GPS range finder.
The GPS range finders are becoming increasingly common amongst golfers of all abilities, they use a global positioning system to track where the golfer is relative to the hole he or she is playing. The one big advantage of GPS is that they can give you yardages to the front, middle, and back of the green, however they cannot give you pin point yardages to the pin, this is up to you to know whether the pin is at the front, middle, or back of the green.
The one thing you will have to do before you start using your GPS is download the course details where you are going to play, this can be done easily by going on the Internet and downloading the course details to your GPS system. There can be a small charge involved with this process, therefore you should take this in to consideration when deciding which type is best for you.
They can be very accurate providing you know where the pin positions are located, the only downside to a GPS is that if the weather turns really bad it could have an affect on the signal coming from the satellite to your unit. Although to be perfectly honest if the weather gets that bad with electrical storms you should not be playing golf anyway, in my opinion the GPS system is probably the easiest one to use to get excellent yardages to three areas on the green.
There are different makes of GPS on the market today and with more appearing all the time helps to bring the price down to an affordable level, the skycaddie seems to be a very popular model amongst the different golfers i see playing and could be worthy of consideration when looking for a range finder.
The laser range finders are totally different in design and application, they use a laser beam to pin point a target which then bounces back to the unit giving a reading on how far it is away. These however can be a bit awkward when you start to use them, you have to have a reasonably steady hand to pick out the flag when aiming the beam.
But after a while of using the laser range finders you will soon get the hang of picking out the flag and not some other objects like a tree or post, this type can be very accurate in getting you your yardages to the pin and can also be used to check yardages from hazards so you know how much club to take to clear the trouble.
If you are the type of golfer who requires extremely accurate information on yardages then the laser range finder could be your choice of range finder, I see a lot of golfers using the bushnell v2 tour pinseeker nowadays which can only be a good endorsement of the product. In my own golf game i do use the bushnell v2 and find It very easy to use once you get the hang of it, it gives extremely accurate yardages which i am looking for in a range finder and is very compact making it is easy to store away in my golf bag.
So it is down to your own personal choice which finder would suit your game, but in my opinion the laser range finders just egde out the GPS systems on the market today. The one thing that every golfer should know before they purchase a range finder is how far they hit each club on average, it wont do you any good knowing the yardage if you dont know how far you hit each club.