Developing distance judgement by eye is always a good & preferable idea for anyone. Not to mention cheaper.

The lazer & GPS devices are meant for meassuring how far is left to go to the flag, though yes you can meassure how far a drive or shot is as well as how far off the green or the bunker is etc.

However if you can't use these devices effectively then there is little point. Great for the pro's who know exactly how far they hit particular irons woods & driver. but for us amateurs these items are really expensive toys.

On one hand if you can quickly use these devices to make a quick informed decision of what club to use next then fine, no harm is done. But if like the original posters complaint, the person using the device is innept with it, then all that happens is instead of the game being sped up its instead slowed down to a snails pace.

If these devices are going to help speed up play then I see no reason not to allow them.

But if the reverse is true then the Club captain should have simply put the device away until he either worked out how to use it properly or decided that the information it was always going to give him was duff & had been a waste of his money.

A mate of mine has a GPS device & I can eyeball a distance quicker than it takes him to get to his GPS, never mind the time it takes him to faff about with buttons on the front to find the same information.

I personally think these things should be kept for practice rounds & not for days where people are in competions.

As an addition, in a practice round If you can see how far you have hit your irons through a round & keep a note of these distances, when it comes to actually playing in a competion & using your eyes you are more likely to be able to make more accurat infomed decissions. Especially as many of us do not drive or hit certain clubs as far as we'd like to think & maybe as an offshoot this is perhaps the one good point to these devices, assuming you find one that gives accurate readings.