PGA Measures Up For Golf Revolution

The Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) is set to become a trailblazer in tournament golf after rubber-stamping the use of electronic rangefinders in all its events including national championships.

The radical move by The Professional Golfers' Association could pave the way to a golfing revolution across the world as leading tours attempt to tackle the bugbear of slow play which frequently sees rounds stretch well past the five-and-a-half-hour mark.

Among the high profile PGA tournaments where rangefinders will be allowed are the Irish PGA Championship, won last year by defending Open champion Padraig Harrington, the Scottish PGA Championship and the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship.

Approval for use of all distance measuring devices was agreed at the PGA's executive committee meeting with other leading golf bodies expected to monitor closely the success of the scheme.

The decision to give the green light to rangefinders followed a successful trial at last year's PGA Fourball Championship. More than 100 of the finalists carried them with 55 of 78 pros quizzed responding positively with many citing how their use sped up yardage calculations and the decision making process.

They have also been used with a wide degree of success on the PGA Europro Tour and PGA chief executive Sandy Jones welcomed the decision.

"I'm aware a number of traditionalists might well be appalled by this decision but the evidence suggests that using rangefinders really helps improve pace of play so it is difficult to see why such a decision should be detrimental to the game," he said.

"Slow play in professional and amateur golf has increasingly become an issue and we've taken the decision to embrace technology in a bid to resolve this problem and increase enjoyment of the game.

"The single biggest advantage of rangefinders is that you can take an accurate yardage from any point on the golf course - whether you're ideally placed in the middle of the fairway or stuck in trouble in the trees.

"As we see slow play is often caused by golfers straying into trouble and the caddie or player then having to pace off the yardages. With rangefinders it saves all the fiddling about and consultation of the yardage book, hence speeding up play."