Early responses from Paul Betty and Michael Buchan

E-mail from Bryan Fotheringham

(a Scotland internatonal in 2005-2006)

could trigger off a lively debate

Hi Colin,

I was recently playing in the Champion of Champions' tournament at Leven and was looking forward to using my GPS Sky Caddie, but to my amazement they were not permitted.

My question is this, the Sky Caddie holds more or less the same information as the traditional yardage book. Also why can I turn up at a local medal and use them, but not at the top amateur events?

On several occasions I got to my ball and the yardage markers on the fairway were either a bit behind me or a bit in front of me. This caused me to pace out my yardage which took time to do. Do this on every hole and the time mounts up as you can imagine. For two-ball rounds at Leven the pace of play was quite slow, and I think most people would feel that in top level amateur golf, the pace of play is getting worse not better.

To add to the slow place issue in my time of playing, not ONE person has been penalised for slow play, and until someone does get a penalty it will not get better. We have a tool now which will help speed up play and we are not using it.

It seems strange this is the case. Thought I would put this to you, I'd be interested to see what others think.

Regards

Bryan Fotheringham

First response from Paul Betty

I completely agree with Bryan in that using GPS and Lasers (apart from slope measurement) to find yardages should be allowed in Order of Merit competitons.

As Bryan points out, the pace of play is getting far too slow and anything that has the potential to speed up play should be encouraged. Competitors are going to get an exact yardage before playing every shot and pacing back and forward to yardage discs or other yardage points only adds to the time required to play a shot, especially when the previous shot has finished off the radar so to speak.

In these cases it's significantly quicker and easier to used such devices to get the yardage and get on with the shot without an additional 30-40 yards of pacing back and forward. From personal experience, many players who take part in these events already have GPS/lasers. They are also much more affordable now meaning that the majority of players without them, could pick one up for less than they would spend on replacing their driver.

A trial period of 2-3 events back-to-back could be used to determine the impact on the pace of play, with a view to allowing it in all events if it is shown to be successful.

Regards

Paul Betty

Second response from Michael Buchan

Playing down at Craigmillar Park last weekend I was also looking forward to using my new Bushnell … but it seems that the SGU have banned the use of these devices from all their tournaments, which I find very strange as the English Golf Union allow them in their events.

As Bryan says, these devices save a lot of time, not only picking out direct distances to the flag but also help to give distances to clear bunkers etc.

They don’t, however, hit the shots for you which some of the rule-makers may think!

It is allowed to use them in practice rounds to take notes from specific points on a hole but obviously during the tournament we then have to refer to our notes and pace out again which all takes time.

Myself and plenty others I know would be interested in the SGU’s view on why they are banned.
Michael Buchan.
PS: Some of these devices have built in ‘Slope’ measurement, which can calculate uphill and downhill and give a ‘playing distance’. E.g. If you have say 150 yards to the flag and it is uphill, it may be playing around 160 yards and you select your club accordingly.

I can understand why these are not allowed. However most of the devices the players have these days are either the ‘Sky Caddy’ which gives a yardage to the front, middle & back of a green and also the ‘Bushnell’ which gives a distance to a specific point which is focused on. Both these devises are available without built in ‘Slope’ measurement… so why are these not allowed ??

+Send your view to Colin@scottishgolfview.com