Played 10 rounds with zero tech, honestly didn't miss it

[Ace_Adams]

Background first: my home course is a muni I've played probably 200 times. I know it cold. So yeah, this whole experiment is rigged from the start and I'll own that up front.

But I left the rangefinder in the car for 10 straight rounds. No watch, no Arccos (sensors are still screwed on the clubs, I just didn't open the app), no phone. Just a pencil, the card, and the sprinkler heads.

Scoring was basically identical. Averaged 81.4 over those 10 vs 80.9 the 10 before with full tech. So, nothing. What did change is I played faster, roughly 25 minutes quicker per round, and I thought way less. No standing over the ball second guessing because the watch said 148 and my gut said 7 iron. I just hit the shot.

The surprise was the two rounds I played at courses I'd never seen. I wanted the rangefinder back immediately. There's no gut feel on a course you don't know. That's the real argument for the tech, unfamiliar tracks. At home it's basically noise with a subscription attached.

Not selling anything here, I'm keeping the rangefinder for travel rounds. But I do think this forum (me included) way overstates how much of our scoring comes down to 2 yards of precision. Anyone else tried going dark for a stretch?

[RoughRider_Rick]

Haven't gone full dark yet but I did forget my watch at home last month and honestly it was freeing. Shot about my normal score too, which annoyed me because I've spent a lot of money on this stuff lol.

The 25 minutes faster thing is what gets me though. Is that from not lasering or from not standing there arguing with yourself? Because I feel like my slow rounds are 90% indecision, not 10 seconds of rangefinding.

Genuinely curious how the unfamiliar course rounds went scorewise. Did you actually score worse without it out there or just feel lost?

[DrivingRange_Dan]

Rick's asking the right question and honestly answered it himself. It's not the 10 seconds behind the laser, it's the 45 seconds before you pull the trigger. I clocked myself on this last year because I had the same suspicion you do. Confident pre-shot routine, about 15 seconds. Unsure one, 40 plus. Spread that over 80 shots and you've got your 25 minutes right there. The rangefinder is a symptom, not the disease.

Where I'll push back is the framing that all we're debating is 2 yards. Those 2 yards are noise, sure. But the number I use mine for isn't the flag anyway, it's the front edge and the carry number. Knowing the pin is 152 does nothing for me. Knowing the bunker lip is 141 and the false front starts at 138 changes the club I pull. That's not precision, that's just the shot.

Also, the experiment is rigged in a way you already admitted. 200 rounds at that muni means your "gut" isn't gut, it's a memory bank with every miss catalogued. The rest of us playing six or eight different tracks a year don't have that bank. So yeah, at home the thing is a subscription with a display. On a course I've never seen I want the number before I even tee it.

Seconding Rick though, you never actually said what you shot at the unfamiliar courses. Did you score worse, or did you just feel worse? Those are two very different results and I'm genuinely curious which one it was.

[TeeTimeTina]

Dan's "memory bank" line is the part I'd flip. Knowing your home track cold isn't a rigged experiment, that's the whole game. Guys shot scratch for a hundred years before anyone lasered a flag. The bank isn't cheating, the bank is the skill. If your gut number only works at home, the takeaway isn't "buy a rangefinder for travel," it's "you never learned to actually read a course," which is a you problem, not a tech problem.

But here's what nobody in this thread has said yet. Faster isn't automatically better. I've had rounds where I went full autopilot and shot 88 because I stopped caring somewhere around the 13th hole. "Less thinking" and "less caring" look identical from the fairway. OP's scoring held because he still cared, he just quit debating himself. Those are two very different things and everyone here is treating them as one.

Rick, you asked about the unfamiliar rounds and Dan ran right past it. I want that answer too. Did the number actually balloon out there or did it just feel scary? Because if it's the second one, that's not an argument for the rangefinder, that's an argument for playing more courses.