Justin Thomas: ‘Rangefinders Won’t Speed Pace Of Play Up’

The PGA of America announced in February that it would allow players to use rangefinders in its three Major championships this year, with Justin Thomas now giving his opinion on them.

PGA of America president Jim Richerson suggested that rangefinders would help with the “flow of play” during the events.

However, two European Tour caddies immediately responded to the use of rangefinders, suggesting they’d “100% slow play down.”

2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas agrees, after giving his opinion on rangefinders at his press conference ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship.

“I certainly don’t think it’s going to speed pace of play up at all”, Thomas stated.

“I don’t really like them. It takes away an advantage of having a good caddie that goes out there and does the work beforehand.

“Especially now between the yardage books, the greens books and range finders, you technically don’t even really need to see the place or play a practice round.

“You can go out there and know exactly what the green does, you know exactly what certain things are on certain angles because you can just shoot it with the rangefinder.”

The PGA Championship, hosted at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, takes place from May 20-23.

Thomas also spoke about the course, and how this might considerably slow play down.

“Kiawah Island isn’t some kind of course where the greens are really soft and you just see pin, hit pin,” he said.

“I might have 193 hole, we have 174 front, I probably need to land this 180 to 182, with a little wind off this way.

“You’re going to need to get all that information, but then it’s just going to add another element that’s going to add time to the rounds if you’re using the rangefinder.

“I don’t have any interest, but if an opportunity arises where I hit it offline then I might use it.”