PGA Tour pro offers hilarious one-liner after rangefinder trial period ends
PGA Tour member Ben An says he wants to see the data after the trial period for golfers to use rangefinders came to an end.
PGA Tour pro Ben An offered a hilarious take after the trial period allowing golfers to use rangefinders came to an end.
The Tour allowed golfers to use distance-measuring devices for six events to see if it would help improve pace-of-play.
PGA Tour fans, former players and commentators have whinged about slow play all season.
Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Brian Harman and Justin Thomas are just some players that have been frequently mentioned in discussions about being part of the problem.
Thomas acknowledged he has played too slowly at times and even encouraged naming and shaming the slowcoaches.
The trial period began at the RBC Heritage and concluded one week before the PGA Championship at the OneFlight Myrtle Beach Classic.
Shot time data from the four-week testing period has not been released yet.
An wrote on X that he is eager to see whether the differences in pace of play.
"If there are any," he added.
One user replied by saying rangefinders 'won't move the needle that much'.
"Either way I still think they should be allowed at this point," the user added. "Hopefully I'm wrong and it did do something."
An joked: "It helps massively when I'm trying to figure out who is holding us up in group in front."
On a more serious note, An believes rangefinders help massively, particularly when golfers hit shots offline and into the trees.
He wrote everyone he has been paired with throughout the trial period used them.
Not everyone agrees on the subject though.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler spoke on the topic at length before the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler argued that despite all of the exhaustive efforts made to try and speed up play any difference will be minimal.
"The pace of play debate is funny," he previously said.
"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."
Whilst Scheffler didn't offer a solution, he argued more energy should be spent trying to get people into golf.
"It's a great game. It's a great sport. You learn a lot of life lessons playing golf."
Watch Scheffler's explanation here:
Range finders will be allowed on the PGA Tour for the first time this week, and Scottie Scheffler totally forgot about that.
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) April 16, 2025
The world No. 1 shared up his thoughts on pace of play fixes, and what he likes to focus on instead. pic.twitter.com/zYwH4Rtdgp
Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
These days, he assumes the position of content manager.
