Garmin Approach S1 Waterproof Golf GPS Watch

Three holes into my first round with the new watch (a Christmas present to myself), it dawned on me that this is cooler than I had imagined. I predict two years from now, this is the new rangefinder technology.

For the past several years, I have been a big proponent of the laser rangefinder, arguing with my gps rangefinder friends that the laser is more accurate to the pin. After my round today, I am not sure I will ever pull my laser out again. The convenience is unbelievable. I just look down at my wrist, and I have my distance to the front middle and back. I look in the cart at the pin sheet, and subtract or add for a perfect distance. No reaching in the glove box of the cart or fumbling around for a device.

Even cooler, and more used than I anticipated, is the function that lets me measure the distance of my shot. You just hold a button and select “measure my shot” then drive or walk to the ball, and it gives the distance. I started doing it with all my shots just to get a feel for how long I was hitting the ball with each club. Pretty cool.

Less cool, but neat — you can also measure with an odometer how far you actually walk on the course. And other things, like how far away your mother in law’s house is on Christmas day, important things like that.

The watch is very comfortable and readable with large, clean numbers. I am going to start wearing it as my regular watch.

The only con that I can tell is that there are no distances to hazards, etc. I suspect that will be in the next generation.

Only one round in, but I can tell this is going to be a keeper.

Update:

After about 4 months of pretty heavy usage, there are my thoughts.

I still think it is a great product, but I use my laser in conjunction to get precise yardage. I find myself looking at the watch as I pull up to the ball for club selection, grab the right club, then shoot it with the laser to confirm and get the exact distance to the pin. The distances were not perfect when I first used it. A few holes were off by as much as 10 yards. I wrote to Garmin about my course, and my guess is that they remapped the course using google earth or something like it. The distances are much better with the latest update. On the Garmin web page, look around, there is a link to send them comments about yardages on a particular course.

The battery charger is kind of a pain. It clips onto the watch, and with mine you have to jigger it to get it to start charging. It is not that I am not getting the leads in the right place — that is easy to see. You have to wiggle it to get the charging bars to start. The charger definitely needs improvement, or I got a bad charger.

Also, the battery charge life is not great. I played 36 holes the other day, and it did not finish the day. I don’t often play 36 so it is not a big deal, but be aware that it is really just a one round charge.

But I still love it. It is comfortable to wear, very easy to read, and fun to show off to other players. I would still buy it given what I know now.

Update a year later:

Couple of thoughts to add — first, I am wrong about the battery connector. I have been jiggling the connector waiting for the bars to start, when I finally figured out it just takes 5 seconds or so for the bars to start regardless. So no jiggling required, just be patient.

Also, just hung up with customer support, I had a problem with the map update (my computer froze in the middle of the update and I couldn’t get it to update after) and I just want to add that Garmin support is awesome. None of the usual tech support bs where they empathize with my problem every time I say something. You actually get people who know about the watch and the software and very quickly tell you how to fix it. The person I spoke with was knowledgeable – he sounded like one of the software developers. I have no idea if he was, but it was a quick and pleasant experience.

I love this product. I’ve had the Skycaddie and the Garmin larger units and
I didn’t realize how much of a pleasure it would be not to have to go around
to the side of the cart to look at the yardage. Also, the readout on the watch
is a lot easier to see than the screens of the larger units. The guy
complaining about the differences in yardage must be a very accurate golfer.
For me, a few yards difference is not going to matter. Although I question
whether sprinkler heads are that accurate. I have checked the SR watch
against the hand held and usually they are the same or within a yard or two.

The downside is you don’t get the detail eg, distances to hazards or
specific spots on the course that you can get with the
handheld Garmin. Another negative is that the other guys in
my foursome are always criticizing me for checking my watch
for the time.

I love the watch and find it works wonderfully. The interface is poor – too much button pushing – but it works and there are few reasons to push any buttons on the course. You can measure your drive or move from the hazard backward to your ball – that takes button pushing.

It finds all the golf courses without all that computer loading.

The major defect and it’s major is that the batteries won’t last for 36 holes. It’s a one round device and you better remember to recharge it or you won’t have a device for the next round.

This is the real deal and it will soon be the most popular range finder on the market. The courses are already pre-loaded so no need to download courses off the computer and pay extra fees. With a click of the button it identified the course I was playing while standing on the first tee. Simply glance at the watch to automatically get the front, middle and back yardage (you don’t need the exact distance to the pin because you aren’t good enough) and no need to stand there holding up a range finder trying to line up and click. Also with the touch of a button it will measure the exact distance of the shot you just hit. The watch is very light so you don’t even feel it and the font is big so you don’t need to take out your reading glasses.

I have now used this for 4 rounds & it is truly amazing, cant believe it fits all of that into a little watch…Highly recommended, only thing is it needs to be charged before each round, but it has a charger included & the watch looks cool too

This is the most convenient way to use a GPS on the golf course. It provides distance to front, center, and back of the green, auto advances to the next hole, and easily measures shot distances. It doesn’t show a graphic of the hole and it doesn’t keep score or other stats, but really, who needs a device to do that. It is accurate compared to the other Golf GPS devices out there. I have only had it not find one course I played, and it was a fairly new course in another town. This device loads the courses I regularly play. I could not get the battery to last for 36 holes, but I only play 36 about twice a year. The charging clip is a little bit of a problem to get positioned correctly. It just takes some attention to get all the pins lined up in the holes on the watch. The big factor for me is not having to remember to bring a GPS to the golf course, it’s right there on my arm. The next positive factor for me was not having to pay an annual fee. All in all this device works, is convenient, and relatively inexpensive. I have owned a Sky Caddie SG2 and a GolfGuru4. When I needed to buy a new watch, I bought this device, and I’m glad I did.

What a great product! Works absolutely perfect. It immediately knows which golf course you are presently. You don’t have to hunt and select. Small in size, like a normal watch, and doesn’t need a subscription as it has 15,000 courses already in it.

I absolutely love this watch. I am somewhat of a gadget geek and I have learned over the years that as much as I love the next best gadget, devices that are easiest to use and reliable have the longest longevity. Hence, the popularity of the iPhone. It just works! The same for this watch. I have owned or do own the Sonnocaddie, uPro, and a Laser Rangefinder. I have also used Golfshot GPS for the iPhone (great app by the way) as well as the GolfLogix app (another great app). All of these tools have great features but what I realized after a while of using them was that I simply wanted to just play the game. Nothing worst than spending a minute using your laser to get the yardage to the pin and then shanking your shot off into the woods. Eventually, I would begin using them less and less as the months would go by or simply rely on the Front/Middle/Back yardage only. I was spending too much time using these aids when my time could have been better spent actually preparing for my shot by focusing on my key swing thoughts and relaxing.

On my first day of using the S1, I had one of the best performances of my short golf experience. I had quick access to the information I needed most with a flick of my wrist. I never felt like I was holding up the game by using one of my many gadgets. The yardages from the S1 were accurate and the watch is very light so I never felt like it was an obstruction. It is a very comfortable watch and extremely useful and practical. I highly recommend it.

With all that said, I did not give up all the bells and whistles of my former golf aids. After my round, I simply input all the scores and stats into my golf app that I wrote on the scorecard (old school, right) and shared the results of the round with all my buddies. So, in the future, I will focus on playing golf while on the course and I will save my “geek-mode” until after the round is complete.