Rangefinder Tournament
Legality Database

Practical translation: slope measurement must be off in competition under Rule 4.3a, any committee can ban rangefinders entirely under G-5, and how a device proves slope is off (switch, light, or mode) is manufacturer design, not rule text. Note our sourcing honesty: the USGA's own DMD FAQ pages returned access-denied to our research environment, so this section cites the R&A rule text directly.

Slope capability, the disable mechanism, and the tournament claim as each manufacturer states it in accessible official text, captured 2026-07-09. UNPUBLISHED means the official page was missing, blocked, or silent; we do not fill official columns from retailer listings. Download the full CSV here.

1. The "physical switch required" belief is a myth. The rule text bans measuring elevation changes; it says nothing about how slope must be disabled. Even among tournament-claimed devices, the mechanism splits three ways: Bushnell, Precision Pro, Blue Tees, and Voice Caddie use switch language; Garmin and Nikon use externally visible indicator lights; CaddyTalk uses software mode disables. All three designs coexist with manufacturer tournament claims.

2. Ten of seventeen models carry an explicit manufacturer tournament claim in accessible official text; a stricter count requiring exact legal/compliance wording gives eight. The rest are silent, blocked, or discontinued, meaning a buyer often cannot verify the single most-asked rules question from the official page at all.

3. Tournament modes are not a premium feature. Three models with accessible slope-disable and tournament evidence cost under $250: Blue Tees Series 2 Pro+ ($149.99), Precision Pro NX9 ($199.99), and Blue Tees Series 3 Max+ ($199.98).

4. GPS and app-connected devices are a separate rules question. The Blue Tees Player+ speaker and app-linked features like Bushnell's LINK wind data raise Rule 4.3 issues beyond slope, since interpreting distance information is itself prohibited. Slope-off is not the only thing that can make a device non-conforming in practice.

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Compiled July 2026. Rules: (1) rule statements cite the R&A's published rule text directly; the USGA's DMD FAQ pages returned access-denied to our research environment and are flagged rather than paraphrased from memory; (2) slope, disable-mechanism, and tournament-claim cells come only from manufacturer pages or manuals, each linked; (3) blocked or missing official pages produce UNPUBLISHED cells, never retailer-sourced fills; (4) prices are manufacturer-direct captures from 2026-07-09 and include sale prices where that is what the page exposed; (5) none of this is rules advice for a specific competition: the committee running your event decides whether G-5 is in effect. This is the 2026-07 edition; the CSV is free to reuse with attribution to GolfLaunchLab. For formal citation, the dataset is archived on Zenodo with DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21327082. Corrections are welcome at nicholas@golflaunchlab.com.