"Do not remove the human element of mistakes" - PGA Tour caddie shares his opinion on allowance of rangefinders in professional golf

Veteran PGA Tour caddie Kip Henley expressed his opposition to the use of rangefinders in professional golf, particularly in PGA Tour tournaments, a few days ago. According to Henley, this would affect the "human element" of the sport.

Kip Henley made his statement through his Twitter account, in response to an earlier post by Golf Monthly. Henley expressed his doubts about the benefit that these teams bring to the PGA Tour, since, as he said, "they do not streamline anything."

This is what Kip Henley said on Twitter:

"For casual golf 100% yes. For tournament golf and especially PGA Tour 100% no way ! Do not remove the human element of mistakes and second guessing from the game. It already has proven not to speed up anything about the Tour."

Subsequently, Henley expanded on his considerations with a new post. According to his reasoning, rangefinders do not "add anything to PGA Tour players".

This was what he added on Twitter:

"They could be allowed but they only do 1/5th of the job a yardage book and caddie can do. In pro ams and mini tours by all means but they add nothing to PGA players on major tours."

Kip Henley has extensive experience as a caddie on the PGA Tour. He currently handles the bag for Grayson Murray.

Previously, Henley assisted other professioanal players such as Vijay Singh, Stewart Cink, Austin Cook and Brian Gay.

The controversy of rangefinders on the PGA Tour

Rangefinders are electronic devices equipped with a laser and scales that basically allow the player to determine the distance between his position and the hole. The accuracy of these devices is of a technical level; that is, their range of error is almost negligible.

Many players are in favor of the legalization of these devices, while others take a different position. Players such as Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and Viktor Hovland have been seen at certain times using rangefinders.

Currently, only one event on the PGA calendar allows the use of rangefinders: the PGA Championship. In the case of the LPGA, there are two majors, the Chevron Championship and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship (Image via Getty).

The use of these devices is completely legal in LIV Golf circuit tournaments, another point in the LIV/PGA debate. Some say that the legalization of rangefinders speeds up the game; meanwhile, there are others who say the opposite.

The main detractors also argue that the ability to estimate yardage and decide the strategy to follow accordingly is one of the intrinsic abilities of a professional golfer and caddie.

Those who believe this way say that this skill should be developed and trained like all the others, and not be abandoned to a technological resource.

The truth is that this controversy has even brought disqualifications. Natthakritta Vongtaveelap was disqualified in the recently concluded US Women's Open after five holes, while the same thing happened to Zach Williams in a Korn Ferry Tour event held in Illinois.