Golf Rangefinder Buyer’s Guide

Here's our quick and easy Golf Rangefinder Buyer's Guide!

Plain and simple, it's starts with budget. If you are hoping to spend less than $85, the Izzo Swami 3000 GPS golf rangefinder is a terrific choice. It's preloaded with over 19,000 golf courses and there are no additional fees. The Swami 3000 only gives yardages to the front, middle and back of the green, but reportedly does that very well. Although it's nice to have alternate targets, at less than $85, this is a terrific tool that can help lower your scores in no time.

If you can spend just over $100, the Golf Buddy Voice is getting excellent reviews. It only provides basic information, but it also give verbal distances. For a basic device that also has hazard and layoup information, consider the Bushnell neo+

If your budget allows you to get closer to the $200 mark, you've got to consider a laser rangefinder. They are more accurate than GPS as long as you have a fairly steady hand. The only downside is that you can't get distances to targets you can't see. The Bushnell Medalist is a strong performer in this price range. It only has a 4x magnification, which is lower than some of its competitors, but the reviews are still very strong and at this price, it's hard to complain.

The choice gets a little more difficult if you're able to spend between $200 – 300. Due to accuracy, we tend to favor laser over GPS and would pick the Callaway Diablo Octane because we like the 6x magnification. The Leupold GX-1 also has the 6x magnification and gets similar ratings, but tends to run a little higher in price.

If steady hands are an issue, or you just prefer the idea of GPS, the Garmin Approach G6 would be our top pick. The ratings are excellent! It's preloaded with over 28,000 golf courses and has lots of bells and whistles. If the G6 is too pricey, the Garmin Approach G5 is a would worth considering.

If the sky is the limit where budget is concerned, we would definitely choose the Bushnell Hybrid which combines laser and GPS. It's pretty much a combination unit of the Bushnell neo+ and the Bushnell v2 which are both highly rated by customers.