"The Range Finder Is the Most Dangerous Device in Golf"

- Neal Patterson

(Probably, if he founded a golf technology company instead the healthcare giant, Cerner)

Let me start with a story from my first job out of college. I was a consultant at Cerner, and during orientation they

told us a famous Neal Patterson story. This was early 2000s. Healthcare was still largely paper-based. Charts. Clipboards. Handwritten notes nobody could read.

Neal walked on stage at a healthcare conference, held up a pen, and said:“This is the most dangerous, wasteful medical device in healthcare.”

At first, it sounds ridiculous. A pen? But he wasn’t talking about the pen itself. He was talking about what it represented. At the time, paper records caused real damage. It was obvious. We all knew it. 

• Illegible handwriting led to medication errors

• Charts got lost or incomplete

• Doctors made decisions without full information
  

And despite billions of dollars being wasted on administrative inefficiency, ~100,000 avoidable patient deaths due to medical errors each year, and countless other challenges, the industry remained complacent. ​Neal used that moment as a rallying cry. He reframed the reason why Cerner exists from “we sell software,” to “this old way of doing things is actively harming patient outcomes.”​​​It was a masterful move, and that idea stuck with me.

Every Industry Has its Own Version of the Pen

When we started building Noonan Caddie, I kept coming back to that story. What’s golf’s version of the pen? What’s the tool that feels helpful - almost essential - but quietly trains golfers to make worse decisions? I think it’s the range finder. Before anyone jumps in: range finders are accurate. They’re impressive pieces of tech. I use one. This isn’t an anti-range-finder rant. But I do think they’ve done more damage to amateur strategy than almost any other device in the game.

A Tiger Woods Reality Check

Tiger Woods was once asked in a Golf Digest interview: “How many pins do you aim at during a round?” His answer was simple:“Zero.” Zero. Now contrast that with what almost every amateur golfer does on almost every approach shot.​

• They pull out the range finder

• Lock onto the flag

• Get a precise number

• ...And fire straight at it
  

The range finder subtly trains golfers to believe that the flag is the target. That if you just know the exact number, the right decision becomes obvious.​But ask any PGA TOUR player - that’s almost never true.

The Problem Isn’t Distance. It’s Probability.

Here’s the part most amateurs miss. Golf isn’t about hitting perfect shots.It’s about choosing targets where your misses still work. Nobody hits it exactly where they’re aiming. Not you. Not me. Not Tiger. Good course management is really about answering a different question:Where can I miss and still be okay? That’s why elite players often aim away from flags and toward fat parts of greens. They steer clear of trouble and gravitate toward areas that absorb their natural miss.

Here's a perfect example from #17 at Torrey Pines - South Course. Justin Rose stuck his shot from 165 yards to just 3 feet. ​​But he didn't do that by aiming at the pin. He aimed at the center of the green and let his natural fade create the close birdie chance.​​Had he aimed directly at the tucked right flag, he would've dropped his odds to hit the green by ~20%.​​That same miss that create the birdie chance would've missed the green and left him short-sided - scrambling to make par.

The range finder gives you a number. It doesn’t give you context. It doesn’t know your dispersion. It doesn’t know your tendencies. It doesn’t know where danger actually starts.​​ So it answers the wrong question really well.

Pause Before You Pull the Trigger

So the next time you reach for your range finder, pause for a second.​ Ask yourself:

• Where is the safest place for my average shot?

• What happens if I miss left? Or right?

• Am I choosing a target… or just reacting to a number?
  

Better yet, use a tool that actually helps you make that decision.That’s why we built Noonan—to recommend club and aim, not just distance. To help golfers play the shot with the highest odds, not the flashiest outcome. The goal isn’t perfect execution.It’s risk mitigation.​ And sometimes the most dangerous tools are the ones that feel the most helpful.