It is important that golfers recognize the need for order in the game and that the Rules of Golf lend that order. It is equally important that golfers follow and adhere to those rules, which they do (in most cases when they know the rule) on a daily and voluntarily basis. This semblance of order will continue as long as these rules make intuitive sense. If not, and the rule is blatantly violated, respect for the rules will erode as will the authority of the governing body.

Electronic or Optical Measuring devices including laser beams and satellite-based Global Positioning Systems, used today in all forms of navigation, have taken hold in golf. We want to know the distance to the flag, to a lake, to a menacing cross-bunker. We crave precise information, even though very few of us can hit the ball consistently within +/-10% of our intended distance. Of course, there’s nothing worse than hitting one of our infrequent, beautifully executed shots and watching it sail over the green because of incorrect information. I’m not sure that justifies our mania for precise information, but nonetheless the obsession is contagious and is spreading around the world.

We willingly spend about 30 minutes a round, or more, looking for sprinkler-heads or other landmarks, consulting our “Stroke Savers” (yardage booklets), reading “pin sheets” showing the hole location, pacing the distance to our ball to determine the exact distance to the flagstick. Thirty minutes is a lot of time to add, particularly when slow play is a plague that takes away from the pleasure of a well-paced round. There is a better way to get this information, but here’s where the rules get in the way.

Distance information has traditionally been frowned upon, even in the passive form of a 150-yard bush, giving a definite advantage to the golfer with a discerning eye (or a diligent caddie). But yardage books and other indicators are now available to everybody at almost every golf course, including the Old Course in St. Andrews. And every day, thousands of golfers within the United States (and soon the world will follow) are blatantly breaking the Rules of Golf, because they have elected to obtain the exact same distance information (which is legal) by an alternative and much more efficient but illegal means. The rule in question is Rule 14-3, which states in part:
"Except as provided in the Rules, during a stipulated round the player shall not use any artificial device or unusual equipment:
b. For the purpose of gauging or measuring distance or conditions, which might affect his, play; or…..” etc.

Why are so many otherwise Rules-abiding golfers not paying attention to Rule 14-3b?

The answer is simple: the rule is silly.

Think about it. Over the years there has been an inevitable and inexorable progression in providing distance information. Golfers used to just eyeball each shot and play accordingly; course designers (led by Alister Mackenzie, whose military specialty was camouflage) created illusions through the artful use of mounds, swales, and crested bunkers to make a shot look shorter or longer than it actually was. A well-trained caddie could warn his player about these surprises, but the golfer without a caddie was at sea, and so courses began to put in trees or stakes off to the side of the fairways to mark the 150-yard point. Further markers at 100 and 200 yards followed, then exact distances were put on each sprinkler head, and hole location sheets were provided by the R&A and USGA at Open and other National Championships. Going electronic was an inevitable next step. In this case, “the horse barn never had doors” as much as some of us would like to pretend it did. The USGA has even approved use of electronic devices like cart-based GPS systems when generating scores for handicap purposes, thereby compromising its own rules.

Ignoring the existence of measuring devices is as futile as believing that something you don’t like will go away if you close your eyes tightly enough. The effect of this eye squeezing has only delayed the inevitable, and not very effectively. You eventually have to open your eyes, and every time the rules makers have, the problem has grown bigger.

The real problem is that once one a rule is openly defied, then it’s much easier to ignore another. Don’t want to take a stroke-and-distance penalty for a ball out of bounds? Just drop a ball inside the white stakes and keep on going. Want to use a non-conforming ball or club? Some of the rules governing equipment might seem silly to you, too. The authority of the governing bodies rapidly erodes when it tries to enforce a demonstrably silly rule. Turning a blind eye to the reality and existence of distance measuring devices does the game a serious disservice.

Electronic distance-measuring devices, whether they’re range-finders or GPS-based, are convenient, readily available, growing in popularity, and provide the exact same information as is legally available by a different means. The USGA and the R&A gain nothing from banning them, and in fact are risking their all-important authority through their short-sightedness in this matter. The game has no place for Silly Rules.

FRANKLY, WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOULD DISTANCE MEASURING DEVICES BE PERMITTED UNDER THE RULES OF GOLF? CLICK HERE TO VOTE!