The PGA Tour has announced that it is considering trialling the use of rangefinders during competition at select tournaments this year as part of the tour’s attempt to speed up the place of play.
Ahead of last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, an executive group from the PGA Tour gave a briefing on how the organisation is aiming toimprove the TV and spectator experience after studying the results of a recent survey of golf fans.
Rangefinders are currently allowed only at the PGA Championship, although the PGA Tour is trying to find a spot in the schedule for a test run to see if it helps speed play by enabling the players to measure distances more quickly. Signatures events that have smaller fields, and tournaments like the Zurich Classic, which features a team competition, are understood to be under consideration.
“Everything’s on the table,” said PGA Tour chief marketing and communications officer Andy Weitz. “So, it’s in that spirit that we look at creating the best version of PGA Tour golf. We want to better understand how being out of position, how the ability to better understand the distance can not only increase the pace of play potentially but also send a signal to our fans that we are evolving and use of these devices could be a fit for the PGA Tour on a permanent basis in the future.”
Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of rules & competition, said: “There are players out there whose routines are longer than they need to be. We’re at a point in time where guys are admitting that. The use of distance-measuring devices has been brought up and the rules committee is very accepting of that. It’s been tested on the Korn Ferry Tour level and for a full year on PGA Tour Champions, so why not trial it on the PGA Tour?
“We’re hearing it from our fans. They use rangefinders day in and day out, why would we hold a resource back from the players that potentially could help them, especially for off-line shots, getting a quick reference point?”
Weitz added: “I think as we roll the clock forward three, five, 10 years, we’re going to look back at 2025 as an inflection point in the evolution of the tour.”