- 8 hours ago
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...
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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,
02:23the practice mode is the mode you want to go into. There's three to choose from. You can have
02:26practice, play, or connect where you use external software to play simulated courses. But the driving
02:32range, the practice mode is where you're going to spend probably the majority of your time. And I've
02:36got my session loaded up here, and I want to talk you through some of the things that I really like
02:39about 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. So that
03:27gives you a visual representation of what the club's doing at impact with all the relevant numbers.
03:32But what I really love about what the Garmin R50 offers is the impact video. So you can
03:38see high-speed impact playbacks of the moment of truth. So when the club's striking the ball,
03:44you 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
03:51to look at. And you can move the slider along if you want to just dial in on a specific point.
03:55So loads of options in terms of customising your view on the Garmin R50. It really brings
04:02your range session to life and I think provides an incredible amount of added value.
04:07The numbers were very comparable with what I'm accustomed to on much more expensive launch
04:12monitors like the Foresight Sport GC Quad. I did try and have a GC Quad set up next to
04:17the Garmin to see if I can hit shots and track them both at the same time. But there was some
04:22interference with the way the technology was working. I couldn't get them both to phone.
04:27Actually, the Foresight Sport GC Quad stopped the Garmin working at the same time. So that
04:32was a no-show. It 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.
04:43So we'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
04:53what you would see on the hole on the screen. But then on the display of the R50, you've
04:58got a bird's eye view of the hole. You've got a moveable pointer so you can move it up
05:01the hole to see how far you want to hit it. And you've got all your ball data on there
05:05as well. So without further ado, let's try and take on this first hole at Pebble Beach.
05:10The graphics are super realistic. They've definitely been enhanced for this year. Pretty happy with
05:19that one. A little gentle fade round the corner. And there you can see the ball flight graphics
05:24are really cool. Pretty happy with that shot actually. And what's great about this is that
05:28you can play a whole round in probably half an hour if you move really quickly and change
05:34clubs quickly. Just a really realistic experience. The ball flight graphics were as I was expecting.
05:40I think it's about time we see if we can make a birdie. Oh no, pulled it. Catch a piece.
05:52Just missed. Sit down. That looks like it might be inside the six-foot gimme range. Take a par,
06:04move on to the next. Now, there is a catch. It does come in with a monthly cost. It's nine
06:10pounds 99 a month if you want to play simulator courses. There are 43,000 courses. So pretty
06:17much any course you want to play, it's all included if you invest in that membership plan.
06:22I think it's 90 or maybe 100 pounds a year. So slightly cheaper if you go for the annual
06:26cost. But there is a cost associated with it. But that is, from what I've heard, much
06:31cheaper than what competitors like Foresight for their core software. That's a considerably
06:36higher investment. So you could argue it's probably a good value for money, especially
06:40when you consider the Home Tee Hero software that this product uses to give you simulated
06:45courses 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
06:53the whole front nine, in the swing room here at Peterborough Milton Golf Club. Thoroughly enjoyed
06:57the experience. The ball flights were very realistic. There was no delay. It was just really fun.
07:03And it takes into account things like rough and bunkers and how you've got to take into
07:07account the wind and the percentage drop-offs and those different lyes and the slopes and
07:11all that sort of thing. So it's a pretty realistic experience. And what I actually like about
07:16the ability to play courses built into this product is that you can take this to the net
07:21near the first tee and actually play your first hole as a proper warm-up. So it's a much
07:26more realistic process. If you're going through your warm-up routine and you want to see how
07:30you're going to play those first few holes, you can load them up and play them as you're
07:33about to do, as you, you know, if you're going to tee off in 15 minutes, really rehearse what
07:37you're about to do. And I think that's a real benefit of having all these simulated courses
07:42built into this device. The monthly fee, it's a bit annoying, but in my opinion, it's well
07:46worth it. Other things I really liked when it comes to my experience with the R50. I like
07:51how you hit shots. You actually go in and make some notes about what you were feeling or how
07:55you were swinging in that particular shot. So you can correlate a swing thought with a shot and then look at the
08:00data and how that's maybe improved on what you were, where you were before or what you're
08:04working on. So I like that feature. I think the battery life is really good on this. It's
08:08four hours. I did run it on a cable, so I can't really vouch for whether four hours is like,
08:15if it's going to last that or longer, but four hours is more than enough. You know, it's more
08:19than you ever need to, if you've got a rain session and you hit a rain session, then you want to go and
08:22play a few holes. This is going to do that. A couple of things that were niggling me and I didn't really
08:27like. I think the size of it is going to be a bit of a stumbling block for some. That said,
08:32it's actually surprisingly lightweight. I think it weighs around about four kilos. So it's not
08:37ridiculously heavy and the carry case does make it quite easily portable. Like it's got a really
08:43good strap on it. It's pretty bulky, but you can carry it around if you need to,
08:47you know, to the practice net, to the driving range. Obviously it's a bit limited if you're hitting
08:52off grass because the hitting area is quite small. You know, once you've taken a few divots,
08:57you're gonna have to move the device, but that's a minor inconvenience. I think the alignment feature
09:03is really cool on this. So as well, you use two golf balls in a line and you can orientate them
09:07to set up where you're aiming and just adjust the device accordingly. So that's quite a cool
09:11visual process to make sure that you're aiming the R50 up in the right way. One potential stumbling
09:17block is the fact that the R50 doesn't connect to a laptop. That's a good thing in a way and then
09:23it connects directly to a projector. So you haven't got to buy a PC gaming laptop to access those
09:29simulated courses on a screen. You can just plug it in and go. But obviously because it's positioned on
09:34the 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 that, you know, 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
09:47mind. But generally speaking, you can't really have a much easier to use product. It takes you
09:53a while to familiarise yourself with how you access all the different settings and you'll find that,
09:58oh yeah, I haven't turned this setting on. Oh, I need to turn this setting off. Oh, I need to
10:01rearrange the data 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. Now, the elephant in the
10:11room with the approach R50 is the fact that to get the most out of it, you still need to be able to
10:16hit somewhere indoors that's going to gather golf balls, right? So it's not like, you know,
10:22if it's really cold outside or nighttime, you can't go and put this down in the net and hit balls and
10:26get the data. Like you need somewhere indoors to use this. And obviously that's the case with any
10:32other simulator package involved. But obviously with the R50, you still need to build some sort
10:37of setup. You need a mat, you need a net, you need sides, you know, that's going to cost you
10:42probably over a thousand pounds, a thousand dollars, you know, depending on how high spec you
10:46go for. So, you know, obviously, while it is all built in, you still need to build a space to hit
10:51balls in safely. And that obviously doesn't come with the R50, you're going to need to sort that
10:55yourself. So, you know, if you've got access to a room, that's obviously going to provide a setting
11:00where you can get the most out of this, but you've got to build one yourself. And that cost of building a
11:04space to hit it in has obviously got to be factored into the £4,300 or $5,000 that you're going to
11:10spend on this particular unit. So is this the best golf product ever made? It's the question I asked
11:16at the start of this video. And I think there's a strong case to say that absolutely the approach
11:20R50 is one of the coolest products I've ever encountered. And I've been testing golf equipment
11:26for over 10 years now. I've never seen anything like this. A launch monitor with accurate data,
11:31realistic ball flights, and a golf simulator all built into one device. I've thoroughly enjoyed
11:37my time using it. It's actually given me a bit more drive and enthusiasm now to go and work on my
11:42game myself, given the sort of accuracy of the data and all the different data points you get
11:48and how portable it is. As you can see, with this very nifty carry case, I'm off to work on my game.
11:52I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, click the like button, subscribe to the channel,
11:56and I'll see you next time.
Comments