Latest news with #ShotScope
USA Today
11 hours ago
- Business
- USA Today
Shot Scope Pro L5 rangefinder adds OLED display, slope tech and GPS app integration
Shot Scope's new Pro L5 rangefinder features an OLED display, adaptive slope tech and other great features. Shot Scope is best known for its GPS watches and performance-tracking systems that collect on-course data for recreational golfers. However, in recent years, the Scotland-based company has also expanded into the laser rangefinder space. Like its other products, Shot Scope's rangefinders aim to combine modern technology, practical features and wallet-friendly pricing—giving amateur golfers more access to tools that can help them play smarter. The brand's latest release, the Pro L5, is its most refined laser rangefinder, priced at $229.99. It delivers the essentials golfers want, featuring an ultra-crisp OLED display, fast target acquisition and seamless app integration. While Shot Scope's previous rangefinders offered solid performance, the Pro L5 leaps forward with its OLED display. Unlike older LCD units, which can make information appear washed out in bright sunlight or low light, OLED screens offer deeper blacks and sharper contrast, making numbers and target information easier to read in all conditions. It's the kind of visual clarity that feels more like a smartphone screen than a traditional rangefinder. The Pro L5 can measure distances with one-yard accuracy from as far as 1,300 yards away, and its 7x magnification helps you zero in on the flag or any other target with ease. Once the range is locked, adaptive slope technology can instantly provide a 'plays like' yardage based on elevation changes. The slope feature can be quickly disabled for tournament use by sliding a small switch located on the top of the device. A built-in magnet allows the Pro L5 to snap securely to a golf cart frame, and a premium carry case comes included for players who prefer to clip it to a bag. Shop Shot Scope Pro L5 While the Pro L5 doesn't include an embedded GPS unit, it does come with free access to Shot Scope's smartphone app, which includes GPS and aerial maps of every hole, along with distances to hazards, lay-up areas and front-middle-back yardages for each green. That decision helps keep the unit light in the hand and budget-friendly while still offering expanded course management tools. The Pro L5 is available in black or white, is water-resistant, powered by a replaceable CR2 battery (rated for approximately 5,800 uses), and backed by a two-year warranty. If you've been eyeing an OLED-equipped rangefinder for its clarity and precision but hesitated at premium price tags, the Pro L5 could be the see-clearly-now moment your game has been waiting for. Shop Shot Scope Pro L5
USA Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
What is Calamity Corner? The Open Championship's brutal test, explained
Calamity Corner living up to its name When you ask golf fans in the United States about the most treacherous tests in the sport, usually you hear answers spanning from the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass or Amen Corner at Augusta. Over in the United Kingdom, there's a portion of Royal Portrush known as Calamity Corner — and it's going to be the most-likely foil of anyone trying to win The Open Championship this week. Here's what to know about Calamity Corner. While Amen Corner in Augusta spans three holes, Royal Portrush's Calamity Corner is just one hole: No. 16 — a 236-yard par 3. The wind swept dunes and overgrown rough surrounding the green make this hole an absolute nightmare for those who miss the putting surface. As our friends at Golfweek noted: Especially for golfers that miss the green to the right. Those unfortunate souls will be cursing the name Calamity as they search for their ball swallowed by the dense rough at the bottom of the 50-foot-deep ravine. The consequences? A blind shot to a slick green from the thick stuff. On-course data experts ShotScope ran the numbers and found that this lethal combination resulted in players typically carding a bogey or worse 65 percent of the time at 16. There isn't much relief if golfers miss left, either. Player will be forced to hit an uphill shot out of the collection area. And if they can survive all that, they still have to get the ball in the cup. Already this week we're seeing multiple instances of Calamity Corner earning its reputation. This 16th hole is known as Calamity a narrow green, deep rough guarding the green, and trouble long, you're forced to fully commit—especially with a 21 mph wind off the left. The distance measures 236 club are you trusting in these conditions? 'Oh god, I think hit the grandstand.'Johnson Wagner took the name Calamity Corner literally. 😅 On Thursday, No. 16 was the seventh-toughest hole on the course with players averaging +0.229 strokes lost. There were just 13 birdies made on the day compared to 80 pars, 33 bogeys and five bogeys or worse — and Thursday is when it should be playing at its easiest. We can only imagine what Sunday at Calamity Corner has in store.
USA Today
16-07-2025
- Climate
- USA Today
There may be carnage at Calamity Corner, Royal Portrush's brutal but beautiful par 3
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – The name of the hole strikes fear in golfers at the 153rd British Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Calamity Corner is the 236-yard, par-3 16th hole, and trouble lurks seemingly everywhere at this amphitheater of dunes forged by years of wind, water and the genius that was designer Harry S. Colt. 'It's pretty intimidating, like, visually,' said J.J. Spaun, winner of the U.S. Open last month. 'Wind dependent can really make it a tough hole. I think just making four pars on that hole, you're going to be gaining strokes on the field. That's why they call it, what, Calamity Corner? There's going to be some calamity there.' Especially for golfers that miss the green to the right. Those unfortunate souls will be cursing the name Calamity as they search for their ball swallowed by the dense rough at the bottom of the 50-foot-deep ravine. The consequences? A blind shot to a slick green from the thick stuff. On-course data experts ShotScope ran the numbers and found that this lethal combination resulted in players typically carding a bogey or worse 65 percent of the time at 16. Northern Irishman Darren Clarke, the 2012 Open champion who is a longtime Portrush member, was speaking generally of the course but he might as well have been speaking specifically of Calamity Corner when he said, 'There's no place like it. It's brutal and beautiful – often at the same time.' Situated at the course's highest point, there is little protection from the wind that blows in from the Atlantic. It relinquished just 24 birdies throughout the 2019 Championship, the fewest of any hole. A swale left of the green called 'Bobby Locke's Hollow' provides protection to the left side. That bail out is where Locke hit four times when he played here in the 1951 Open. The ball funnels down into a collection area, leaving by no means an easy up and down. A good lie is subject to luck, with tight lies or thick rough wreaking havoc. Somehow, Locke managed to get up and down all four days, so it can be done. 'That's a pretty good aim spot,' said 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, who grew up as a member at Portrush's sister course, Rathmore Golf Club, of Locke's Hollow. 'Depending on wind direction, you might need a 3-iron. I've hit a driver here before. A brutal hole.' The charm of the short par 3 usually is celebrated at golf's biggest events but this is the second straight major where a lengthy par-3 has stolen the headlines – at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, the par-3 eighth was stretched to a record of 301 yards on Sunday. 'You can take the 12th at Augusta, you can take the Postage Stamp (last year at Royal Troon), you can take 17 at TPC (Sawgrass). There's so many courses in this world that have short par 3s that can lead to a birdie or lead to a big number. That's what makes the hole a lot more interesting,' said two-time major champion Jon Rahm. 'When you have a hole that the main difficulty is the length, I feel like that variability is just not going to – you're going to see a 3 or 4 for the most part and move on. Mainly because, if you make a 250-yard par-3 with water and crazy bunkers and things like that, it would be a little bit too much, right?' There was a general consensus that the fearsome test of Calamity Corner had been diluted slightly over the years because of increased hitting distances. So, ahead of the 2019 Open a new back tee was built stretching the hole some 30 yards in length to reinstate its former challenge. [It also shifted from playing as No. 14 to No. 16.] In 2019, Calamity Corner lived up to its billing, playing as the third-hardest hole on the course throughout the week with just 41 percent of players finding the green in regulation, the lowest of any hole. Shane Lowry avoided calamity as he recorded three pars and a birdie on his way to victory. Irishman Paul McGinley, the former European Ryder Cup captain who now serves as an analyst for Golf Channel and Sky Sports, is a big fan of Colt's designs, which include Swinley Forest in England. 'He gives you options, it gives you strategy.' Of Calamity Corner he added, 'I think what's made it even more fearsome in recent years is the fact that it's now the 16th hole. Now coming up so close to the end of a round, it's a hole you've got to be cautious on.' That's sound advice, too, for the green, which is 39 yards deep and set diagonally from front left to back right. Finding the putting surface is just half the job. Just ask Rory McIlroy, who hit the green in regulation during his opening round in 2019 before four-putting his way to a double bogey. It's not called Calamity Corner for nothing, after all.
Scotsman
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
37-year-old 'weekend golfer' wins East of Scotland Open for third time
James White tames wind as he upstages young guns to land title at Lundin Golf Club Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... James White is the East of Scotland Open champion for a third time after bridging a four-year gap in the Lundin Golf Club event on a second occasion. White, a local man and member of the host club, landed the title for the first time in 2017 and has now added victories in both 2021 and 2025. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The 37-year-old's latest win came in windy conditions at the Fife venue, where he was the only player to finish under par. East of Scotland Open winner James White, second left, pictured with third-placed Cormac Sharpe, women's winner Rachel Mathieson and runner-up Sam Mukherjee at Lundin Golf Club | Lundin Golf Club 'It was a bit of a surprise, to be honest,' said White, who works for ShotScope, the company now based in West Lothian that is one of the market leaders in golf shot tracking technology. 'I spent most of last week down south with work and hadn't played a deal of golf going into this event. 'I coped with the conditions quite well - it was brutally tough on Saturday with the wind - which I was happy about.' The former Scottish Order of Merit winner - he was one of the country's top amateurs during a spell at the University of Stirling - followed an opening 74 with a 69 before signing off with scores of 70-68 for a three-under-par total. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Loretto School pupil Sam Mukherjee (72-74-67-72) finished as his closest challenger, with Blairgowrie's Cormac Sharpe, who, as was the case four years ago, played with White in the final two rounds, six shots further back in third place. 'I had a pretty poor start, sitting three over at the end of the first round and felt like I had squandered a lot of shots,' added White. 'But I then had a good second round of 69, which doesn't sound like a really good round but I think it was the lowest score by two or three shots. 'Wins feel better when you get older' 'It definitely feels better landing a win like this when you get older and even more so when it was at my home club. It was a good day weather-wise on Sunday and there was a big crowd out for the last round. I had a four or five-shot lead with a few holes to go, so I was able to actually enjoy it after playing survival golf for the opening three rounds. 'I think having won it a couple of times before, it's a familiar feeling and, yeah, it was really enjoyable. I definitely think I appreciate the wins more now than I did when I was younger.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad White won't be entering the Scottish Amateur Championship at Gullane next month, with his next event likely to be the Leven Gold Medal at the end of August. Events like Scottish Men's Open are a 'big step up' 'It's great fun just to be able to compete with these young guys,' he said of beating a field that also included Bathgate's James Wood and Archie Finnie from Royal Burgess. 'I notice a big step up these days, as was the case when I played in the Scottish Men's Open at North Berwick a few weeks back in a really strong field. 'I felt I played okay to shoot level par for two rounds and missed the cut. I guess that's much easier to accept now that I'm a weekend golfer.'
