I own three rangefinders and I still pace it out

The laser says 143. I look at the flag. It doesn't feel like 143. It feels like 150. So I walk to the 150 marker, pace it back, get 149, decide the laser's on the front edge, and hit the 150 club anyway. Fat. Obviously.

I need to be honest about how I got here, because there are three of these things in my house and each one was bought to fix a problem the previous one didn't have.

The GoGoGo came first. Everyone on the internet said it did most of what the expensive one does, and everyone on the internet was right. It's still in the bag. It's the backup now, the way a perfectly good telly becomes the bedroom telly.

Then the Bushnell, because a mate had one and mine suddenly felt agricultural. This is not a review, but fine, it's brilliant. Locks on like it's got a grudge against the flag. Does the slope maths I used to do wrong in my head. It removed every possible excuse, which turned out to be the problem, because I need the excuse.

The Nikon I can't fully explain. It was stabilised and I'd had a coffee. That's the whole story.

Here's the thing nobody tells you about owning $1,000 of distance-measuring equipment. The number was never the issue. I know it's 143. I've known it's 143 for three shots' worth of walking. What I don't know is which version of me is hitting this 8 iron, the one from the range on Tuesday or the one who just did what I did on the last hole.

The laser can't see him coming. The 150 marker never claimed it could.

Anyway. All three are excellent. I paced one out on Saturday.