Scottie Scheffler Doesn’t Think Rangefinders Will Help Pace of Play Much on the PGA TOUR

For the next four weeks, the PGA TOUR will allow its players to use rangefinders during tournament rounds in an effort to speed up play.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler doesn’t think it’ll make much of a difference—and he’s right.

“You're not going to like this answer, but I kind of forgot about (the TOUR allowing rangefinders this week),” Scheffler said during his pre-tournament press conference at Harbour Town Golf Links (S.C.). “I’ll trust Ted, what he wants to do. I don't really care. He's the one that gets the number. I'm sure we'll have it in the bag.

“Is it going to help pace of play? Maybe a few minutes. Will it be anything significant? No.”

Scheffler added that what really helps pace of play is a golf course's walkability. Greens and tee boxes in close proximity, plus playing in groups of two players instead of three.

“I think the only way to have a significant impact on the pace of play, if you look at the average round time last week—Thursday and Friday you're playing in threes, Saturday and Sunday you're playing in twos—there's going to be a significant difference, probably over an hour difference in pace of play,” Scheffler continued.

“The pace of play debate is funny. I think people want to watch exciting golf. I think that's what it's all about. Let's say if we do all these changes and we save 20 minutes off of a round of golf. Is somebody going to sit down on the couch on Sunday and go, well, I didn't have five hours to watch a round of golf, but I've got four hours and 40 minutes. Now I'm in.”

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Scheffler nails it here. Will the game radically change over 20 minutes? I just don’t see it.

He also added that if we’re going to spend all this time and money on improving the game, those efforts should be going towards getting more people involved and introduced to the sport.

“I think, if we're going to spend a lot of time and energy, I think where I would want to spend it is get more people involved in the game of golf, more people able to come and play,” he said. “It's a great game. It's a great sport. You learn a lot of life lessons playing golf."

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“What's most important for me as a player, where I want to spend the most time and energy specifically in the game of golf is getting people involved. I've met some of my best friends in the whole world playing the game of golf. It's a really special game that I think more people should want to play.”

My take on the TOUR’s pace of play issue is this: I think it’s much more important on an individual basis than total round time. If the TOUR is somehow able to speed up a player’s pre-shot routine or lengthy tendencies over the ball, that won’t only keep the viewer more involved and focused, but it will also help to cut down round time regardless of group size. A true win-win.

It’ll be interesting to look over the numbers in a month to see if rangefinders have any true impact on pace of play.

Quick note: Though rangefinders are allowed over the next four weeks, players are not allowed to use slope.