If you’ve been playing golf for any length of time, distance to green and distance to flag are very important factors and not knowing this information can add multiple strokes to your golf score each round. I’ve used golf apps in the past as well as a Garmin watch and GPS on a golf cart and while for me they provide distance to the front, back, and middle of the green if the flag is more towards the front or back of the green it helps to know that distance to the flag. For that, I believe I’ve found the best budget golf rangefinder for the price.
I left the house the other day in a hurry to get to the course early. Sorta ingrained in me because I almost always get to the golf course first. Well dummy me grabbed his Voice Caddie rather than his rangefinder. The cases look similar. Not. I’ll chalk this up to being half awake when I left the house.
Luckily I had a golf watch in my bag and it was still charged enough to use it. So my brother in law and I started our rounds. We each had a Garmin golf watch, mine being the Approach X10 and my brother in law had a newer version. I have small wrists so the X10 works well for me.
It wasn’t long before I realized the limitations of the watch. Literally my brother in law and I would both say 156 yards to the middle of the green or within a yard or two of each other at max. With a rather large green, we were asking each other where the flag was on the green, figuring we would add or take away yardage depending on the location of the flag. We ran into a couple of situations that day where we were easily off by 10 yards from where the middle of the green was at compared to where the flag was on the green.
Years ago I purchased a budget rangefinder called TecTecTec VPRO500. Immediately it was evident what a difference a rangefinder could make on the course. Even as an 18 handicapper, the ability to dial in distance to the pin can be a game changer. I still have this rangefinder. If I could fault this rangefinder whatsoever it would be that from time to time it takes a while to pick up on the flag and it doesn’t have the slope feature. Enter the best budget golf rangefinder.
Precision Pro NX7 Golf Rangefinder with Slope
Standing about 128 yards from the green, that would normally be a good 9 iron for me. But we were playing a course in Illinois that believe it or not was not flat. The Bourne Golf Course takes full advantage of the slope feature on the Precision Pro NX7. At the bottom right of the display the yardage showed 135. For me that is no longer an 9 iron. Why do I bring up the feature of slope with what I am calling the best budget golf rangefinder? Simply because we were playing scramble format. Our threesome was missing a our 4th guy so one person was allotted an extra shot. On this hole that was me.
Best Budget Golf Rangefinder with Slope
My playing partner said 128 yards. I hit my initial shot about 8 yards or so short of the green. He also hit his shot short of the green. Our other playing partner duffed his shot. That meant (because of our scramble format) I had the last shot. I double checked distance with the NX7. It said 135 yards with the slope. I pulled out my 8 iron and knocked it on the green. It pays to know the correct distance.
As an added benefit, we were recently playing a local course with a par4 which was playing rather short on this particular day. But… you had to hit it over a lake which was right in front of the green. Normally you avoid the lake and play the hole as a standard par 4. On this particular occasion, we thought one of my playing partners might be able to drive the green. He wasn’t thinking of the green, he asked me to tell him how far he needed to hit it to get over the lake. My handy Precision Pro NX7 said 237 yards and once I told him that yardage I could see the pin was 258 yards away. Bombs away for my friend. At least he went over the lake.
Great Features and Beyond
So here is the meat and potatoes. This rangefinder when typically found on sale can be purchased for less than $200. I believe I paid around $180. I really like the company. It was founded by golfers. At the time of this writing, the NX7 has a 90 day no questions asked money back guarantee. I mean… can you tell a company stands behind their products? The NX7 also has a 2 year warranty and should you decide to upgrade to another rangefinder within their product line, they offer a trade-in allowance. I should mention they offer free batteries for life.
The rangefinder itself has a 600 yard range and is +/- 1 yard. It uses something called Target Acquisition Technology to lock in the flag. Compared to rangefinders I’ve used in the past (albeit I will admit some were very inexpensive), it does lock on to the target fairly quickly. Works just as fast as my buddy’s Bushnell. You can choose to use this product in either yards or meters. Perhaps the best part for me is the slope feature.
They call this adaptive slope technology whereby if you have a downhill or uphill shot to the green, it will give you the standard yardage you would normally get from a rangefinder and then you will also see the slope yardage in the bottom right corner. This slope feature/function can be turned off for tournament play.
How I Use the Precision Pro NX7 On a Hole
Turn it on by hitting the green button. This hole has a quick dogleg right but there are trees past the fairway which will get in the way if you aren’t careful. Use the dial to focus on your target. I pan the NX7 crosshair to the trees and it vibrates to tell me the tree I am looking at is 230 yards away. A good drive and I will make it to the trees. The problem being as I continue to look through the rangefinder, the rough starts at about 210 yards away. If I nailed a 3 wood, it could be too much. To take advantage of the dogleg I need to get the ball out at least 170 yards. So I pull out my 3 hybrid.
I hit my 3 hybrid well and on line so it goes about 190 yards. If I wasn’t thinking ahead, I could have pulled out drive in an attempt to cut the dogleg short. I can count with two fingers as to how many times that has worked for me over maybe 20 rounds at this particular course. As an aside, this rangefinder turns off automatically after 10 seconds to save battery usage. So now I have 125 yards to the pin. With the slope turned on I point the NX7 at the flag and feel the vibration which locks in the distance. I can see I have 127 yards to the green. A nice 9 iron will get me there.
If you are playing in a tournament, you would simply turn on the rangefinder. Then hold the green button for three seconds and release. This turns off the slope feature.
Now you can see why I call this the best budget golf rangefinder. It doesn’t break the bank, it is easy to use, very accurate, and offers adaptive slope technology.
P.S. Don’t tell my buddies but with our upcoming, have a few drinks, some crazy rules, bets, and fun golf tournament, I may just keep the slope feature on.