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New golf products are being launched all the time in every possible area of the market, but does this particular product stand out above the rest? Joel Tadman gives it a thorough test to find out...
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00:00Now what is the best golf product ever made? It's a huge question. Is it a driver, an iron,
00:05maybe a ball? But actually I've got hold of a brand new product that I think is a serious
00:10contender for that title and I'm going to talk to you all about it in this video. So let's get on
00:15with it. And this is it. It's the Garmin Approach R50. Now I have just had my first session using
00:23this here at the brilliant Peterborough Milton Golf Club. They've been really kind, letting me
00:27go into their swing studio, set it all up, have a proper test of the practice mode, the home to
00:32hero simulator, all that stuff. And this is it. I'm going to give you my honest feedback on the
00:38session. Some of the things I like, some of the things I don't like and why I might think it's
00:41possibly the best golf product ever made. And you can see here, it comes in this pretty nifty carry
00:48case, which is pretty sizable. I think you'll agree. It's a big device. There's no question,
00:53you know, it's a launch monitor, but it's one of the bigger ones on the market. And if I get it out
00:58for you here, it's got a nice sort of felt lining inside to protect the screen, which is arguably
01:04sort of highlight of the unit. So here it is. This is the Garmin Approach R50. And as I said,
01:11it's pretty big. But the real kicker with this product is it is an accurate launch monitor and a
01:19golf simulator all in one device. Typically, you'd have to use external software to get access to
01:26simulated golf courses. But with the Garmin, it's all built in with the R50. Now, this is a 10-inch
01:34super responsive touchscreen display. It's super clear. It's really easy to use. And this product
01:40is really easy to set up. That's one thing that I noticed testing you here today. It was super smooth
01:45and easy to set this up. You don't need a lot of faffing around. If you want to connect it up to a
01:49projector, you use your HDMI, plug it into the back of the device, straight into the projector,
01:54and you're away. Although I would say the HDMI socket was a little bit tight for me. I struggled
01:59to get it in and out, but we got there in the end. Anyway, what you want to do with this is you want
02:04to pair it with your Garmin Golf account. That means you can edit the clubs that you're using. It will sync
02:09up using Wi-Fi to this device. And then when you have your practice sessions on here,
02:14all your data will be stored. You can then sync it back to your Garmin Golf app to review on your
02:19phone at a time that's more convenient for you. So if you want to work on your game, the practice
02:23mode is the mode you want to go into. There's three to choose from. You can have practice,
02:27play, or connect where you use external software to play simulated courses. But
02:31the driving range, the practice mode is where you're going to spend probably the majority of your
02:35time. And I've got my session loaded up here, and I want to talk you through some of the things
02:38that I really like about the interface on the R50 and the data as well. Now, the one thing on the R50,
02:44I absolutely love is the different ways you can customise what you're looking at on the driving
02:48range. There's so many different settings that really bring your session to life and give you
02:51insights on what you're doing. So you see here on the home screen, you've got the map and you've got
02:56the different data points. You can customise those, toggle them on and off depending on what you want
02:59to see. You've got a couple of view options there as well. You can see from above, or you can see
03:04the player view. And then you've got even more options here. If you go into the settings,
03:07there's a few different options. I like the data field, so that gives you a real deep dive into the
03:12numbers. So ball data, club data, as I said, 15 different data points. If you want to look at
03:17your face-to-path, your angle of attack, that's all there for you on that screen. And you can mirror
03:22that to the display if you're hitting into a display as well. You've also got your ball impact,
03:27so that gives you a visual representation of what the club's doing at impact with all the relevant
03:31numbers. But what I really love about what the Garmin R50 offers is the impact video. So you can see
03:39high-speed impact playbacks of the moment of truth. So when the club's striking the ball,
03:43you get a really nice slow-mo of how the ball is interacting with the face. It could be really
03:47interesting on wedge shots to see how much spin you're generating. And it's just a cool option to
03:51look at. And you can move the slider along if you want to just dial in on a specific point. So
03:56loads of options in terms of customizing your view on the Garmin R50. It really brings your
04:02range session to life and I think provides an incredible amount of added value. The numbers
04:07were very comparable with what I'm accustomed to on much more expensive launch monitors like the
04:13Foresight Sport GC Quad. I did try and have a GC Quad set up next to the Garmin to see if I can hit
04:19shots and track them both at the same time. But there was some interference with the way the
04:24the technology was working. I couldn't get them both to fire. And actually,
04:27the Foresight Sport GC Quad stopped the Garmin working at the same time. So that was a no-show.
04:33It was a non-starter. But I have to say, the numbers seem to be pretty accurate.
04:38So one of the points of difference with the Garmin R50 is the golf simulator experience. So
04:44we've got my R50 hooked up to the projector directly, HDMI cable, really simple. Got it projected
04:49on the screen. And what's cool about how they work together is that you obviously can see what you
04:53would see on the hole on the screen. But then on the display of the R50, you've got a bird's eye
04:58view of the hole. You've got a movable pointer so you can move it up the hole to see how far
05:02you want to hit it. And you've got all your ball data on there as well. So without further ado,
05:07let's try and take on this first hole at Pebble Beach. The graphics are super realistic. They've
05:12definitely been enhanced for this year. Pretty happy with that one. A little gentle fade around the corner.
05:22And there you can see the ball flight graphics are really cool. I'm pretty happy with that shot
05:27actually. And what's great about this is that you can play a whole round in probably half an hour if
05:32you move really quickly and change clubs quickly. Just a really realistic experience. The ball flight
05:38graphics were as I was expecting. I think it's about time we see if we can make a birdie.
05:42Oh no, you've pulled it. Catch a piece. Oh, just missed.
05:58Sit down. That looks like it might be inside the six foot gimme range. Take a par, move on to the next.
06:05Now, there is a catch. It does come in with a monthly cost. It's £9.99 a month if you want to
06:13play simulator courses. There are 43,000 courses. So pretty much any course you want to play, it's
06:18all included if you invest in that membership plan. I think it's £90 or maybe £100 a year. So
06:25slightly cheaper if you go for the annual cost. But there is a cost associated with it. But that is,
06:29from what I've heard, much cheaper than what competitors like Foresight for their core software.
06:35That's a considerably higher investment. So you could argue it's probably good value for money,
06:40especially when you consider the Home Tea Hero software that this product uses to give you
06:45simulated courses has definitely been improved versus where we were with the Approach R10 launch
06:49monitor. And it was just a really fun experience. So like I played Pebble Beach, like basically the
06:53whole front nine, in the swing room here at Peterborough Milton Golf Club. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
06:58The ball flights were very realistic. There was no delay. It was just really fun. And you know,
07:03it takes into account things like rough and bunkers and how you've got to take into account the wind and
07:08the percentage drop-offs and those different lies and the slopes and all that sort of thing. So
07:12you know, it's a pretty realistic experience. And what I actually like about the ability to play
07:16courses built into this product is that you can take this to the net near the first tee and actually
07:23like play your first hole as a proper warm-up. So it's a much more realistic process. If you're going
07:28through your warm-up routine and you want to see how you're going to play those first few holes,
07:31you can load them up and play them as you're about to do, you know, if you're going to tee off in 15
07:35minutes. Really rehearse what you're about to do. And I think that's a real benefit of having all these
07:41simulated courses built into this device. The monthly fee, it's a bit annoying, but in my opinion,
07:46it's well worth it. Other things I really liked when it comes to my experience with the R50. I like how you
07:51hit shots. You actually go in and make some notes about what you were feeling or how you were
07:54swinging in that particular shot. So you can correlate a swing thought with a shot and then
08:00look at the data and how that's maybe improved on where you were before and what you're working on.
08:04So I like that feature. I think the battery life is really good on this. It's four hours. I did run
08:09it on a cable, so I can't really vouch for whether four hours is, like, if it's going to last that or
08:16longer. But four hours is more than enough, you know, it's more than you ever need to, if you've got a
08:20rain session and you hit a rain session, then you want to go and play a few holes. This is going to
08:24do that. A couple of things that were niggling me and I didn't really like. I think the sides of it
08:29is going to be a bit of a stumbling block for some. That said, it's actually surprisingly lightweight.
08:33I think it weighs around about four kilos. So it's not ridiculously heavy. And the carry case does make
08:40it quite easily portable. Like it's got a really good strap on it. It's pretty bulky, but you can carry it
08:46around if you need to, you know, to the practice net, to the driving range. Obviously it's a bit
08:51limited if you're hitting off grass because the hitting area is quite small. Once you've taken
08:57a few divots, you're going to have to move the device, but that's a minor inconvenience. I think
09:02the alignment feature is really cool on this. So as well, you use two golf balls in a line and you can
09:06orientate them to set up where you're aiming and just adjust the device accordingly. So that's quite a
09:11cool visual process to make sure that you're aiming the R50 up in the right way. One potential
09:17stumbling block is the fact that the R50 doesn't connect to a laptop. That's a good thing in a way.
09:23And then it connects directly to a projector. So you haven't got to buy a PC gaming laptop to access
09:29those simulated courses on a screen. You can just plug it in and go. But obviously because it's positioned
09:34on the ground, you have to kneel down, bend down, whatever it might be to press the screen and change
09:38the different settings or whatever you want to do. So if you've got a bad back, bad knees,
09:43that could be a bit of an issue. There's no real way around that. So just something to bear in mind.
09:47But generally speaking, you can't really have a much easier to use product. It takes you a while
09:53to familiarise yourself with how you access all the different settings. And you'll find that,
09:58oh, I haven't turned this setting on. Oh, I need to turn this setting off. Oh, I need to rearrange the
10:02data points so I can see what I want to see. But once you get the hang of how it works,
10:06by the second or third session, you'll be completely used to where everything is.
10:10Now, the elephant in the room with the Approach R50 is the fact that to get the most out of it,
10:15you still need to be able to hit somewhere indoors that's going to gather golf balls, right? So it's
10:21not like, you know, if it's really cold outside or night time, you can't go and put this down in the
10:25net and hit balls and get the data. Like you need somewhere indoors to use this. And obviously,
10:31that's the case with any other simulator package involved. But obviously with the R50, you still
10:36need to build some sort of setup. You need a mat, you need a net, you need sides, you know,
10:41that's going to cost you probably over a thousand pounds, a thousand dollars, you know, depending on
10:45how high spec you go for. So, you know, obviously, while it is all built in, you still need to build a
10:50space to hit balls in safely. And that obviously doesn't come with the R50, you're going to need to
10:55sort that out yourself. So, you know, if you've got access to a room, that's obviously going to
10:59provide a setting where you can get the most out of this, but you've got to build one yourself.
11:03That cost of building a space to hit it in has obviously got to be factored into the £4,300
11:08or $5,000 that you're going to spend on this particular unit. So is this the best golf product
11:14ever made? It's the question I asked at the start of this video. And I think there's a strong case to say
11:19that absolutely the Approach R50 is one of the coolest products I've ever encountered. And I've
11:25been testing golf equipment for over 10 years now. I've never seen anything like this. A launch monitor
11:30with accurate data, realistic bolt lights and a golf simulator all built into one device.
11:36I've thoroughly enjoyed my time using it. It's actually given me a bit more drive and enthusiasm now
11:41to go and work on my game myself, given the sort of accuracy of the data and all the different data
11:46points you get and how portable it is. As you can see with this very nifty carry case, I'm off to work
11:51on my game. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, click the like button, subscribe to the channel
11:56and I'll see you next time.
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