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handheld golf GPS assistant * 3" color (240 x 400 pixel) TFT touchscreen display * preloaded with thousands of courses across the U.S. * USB input *
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Technical Details
- Rugged, waterproof golf GPS unit with 3-inch sunlight-readable touschreen display- Preloaded U.S. course maps, including fairways, hazards, and greens
- No annual fee; new maps available for download from Garmin website
- Measure shot distance with highly sensitive readings to eliminate guesswork from your game
- Digital scorecard for up to four players; save and review the scores on your computer at home
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By Todd B. (Chicago, IL)
I've used the Garmin approach for several rounds so far. I generally score in the low to mid 80s on average difficulty courses (slope 124-126). I have not had experience with any other golf GPS device. My decision to purchase the Garmin Approach was based on golf course map availability for my area, durability in wet weather, screen view on bright days, and the reviews of others. I live in Chicago and found that every course I could think of in the area, city to suburbs, was included in the list of courses mapped. Once I had the Garmin Approach out on the golf course, my first thought was to gain the trust of the GPS. As I played my first round with the Approach I continually made comparisons to the yardage markers on the course, and found the displayed information on the GPS to be very accurate (within a yard or two). I paced off several hundred yard lengths and compared the number of paces to the GPS and, again, the device was very accurate...or vice versa, my paces were very accurate in comparison to the GPS : ). I've gone through this routine for every course I've played so far, with similar results. I have not had any issues with viewing the GPS display on bright days. As other reviews mention, the Garmin goes through a set of batteries in about two rounds so rechargeable batteries are a must. I purchased a set of four Enloop AA rechargeable batteries (the Approach requires two AA batteries) that claim up to 1,000 recharges per battery. That works out to be roughly 80 years of use out of a four pack of batteries if you play 50 rounds a year....suffice it to say, battery life is not a problem if you use rechargables. The auto hole change has worked flawlessly on every course. Green size is displayed accurately and the ability to move the pin to the actual location on the green is extremely helpful as many greens could be 30 or 40 yards deep....or more. As has been mentioned in other reviews, the touch screen is great and the menu is intuitive. I often use the movable crosshairs to locate a target that is 100 yards from the pin as this is the ideal position for a full 60 deg. wedge into the green for me. The shot measuring feature is easy to use and works well. Once you have set the shot measuring feature to start measuring your shot, you can navigate back to the course view so that you can study the map to plan your next shot (or help others in your foursome with yardages) while you walk to your ball. When you get to your ball, switch back to "measure shot" and it will display your shot distance. I choose not to use the belt clip (or carabiner clip) for the Approach because the device is small enough to put in my pocket or throw into one of the small pockets in my bag.
The Garmin Approach G5 is an extremely useful tool and I am pleased with the accuracy of the information it provides. I can't claim that it has lowered my scores but I will say that it has changed my club selection on many occasions as I am still in the habit of determining club selection in my head based on the center-of-green. With the adjustable pin location, the GPS lets you know exactly how large the greens are and often times I will change my club selection by one or two clubs. No more guess work on distances, or where to hit the ball (or where not to hit the ball) on errant shots into the rough or next fairway. Sand and water hazards are displayed accurately. All said, I am extremely pleased with the Garmin Approach and ultimately I believe most serious golfers will have a golf GPS in their bags as prices drop.
By John Mills (Southern Illinois)
No downloads. No annual fees. Good battery life. Locates courses nearby. Easy to see screen. Touch screen and no instructions needed! I love it and am selling my (3) previous models to friends. This makes course management so simple when a tap on the screen shows distance of next shot instantly. Playing an unfamiliar course like you know it makes golf more fun.
By Neil Blumenfield (San Francisco)
I didn't plan this comparison, just turned out that way. After reading a lot of reviews here and elsewhere, I decided on the Garmin Approach as the best Golf GPS device but I also wanted to try a rangefinder and picked up the Leupold GX-II, based on similar reviews. Leupold GX-II Digital Golf Rangefinder
Overall, I find the GPS easier to use for most of what I want in these devices. The Garmin has all the courses I play available and there is no annual fee. (The purchase price is high, but all the course maps are included.) So, if you want to know distance to a trap, to clear a hazard, to get to the middle of the green, that is all there for you with the Garmin at a glance. No need to stop, sight the target (and check a few times to make sure the rangefinder is picking up the exact target you are looking for). So, more convenient and faster for sure. Obviously, the one thing that the rangefinder does better is distance to the pin. With the Garmin (or any GPS), you are guessing where the pin is on the green and estimating distance based on the information you get on front and center of the green. You can move the flag to the location on the green where you think it is, but that is an estimate. For me, that's good enough. If I am off by 5 yards, that is a lot more accurate than my shot is likely to be. But the Leupold does a great job of picking out the flag (at least inside 225 yards) so if you want accuracy to the flag, it is better. It also will adjust real distance based on slope to the green, altitude and temperature and suggest a club based on what you enter for your normal distances for a few irons. Note that this feature is illegal in tournament play or in rounds that you use to determine your handicap. But it does help you get a feel for how much you need to compensate for that long downhill to the island green, which is 213 yards, but will play like 165. And, if you're willing to stop and sight your targets, hazards, etc., you do get that improved accuracy. So, convenience - GPS, absolute accuracy - Rangefinder. And I do think these 2 devices work great on the course.
However, during my 3rd round with the Garmin, the battery died and locked up the device after new batteries were put in. This was on a Saturday. Garmin support is not available over the weekend. When I got them on Monday, they promised to send a new unit out that day, 2nd day, so I would have it for my next round. Unfortunately, someone screwed something up, so it wasn't shipped until after I emailed a few days later, so I started looking at other options for my next round and found Golfshot, a $30 iPhone application. Seemed to have similar functionality to the Garmin, similar number of courses available, and no subscription. I downloaded it and tried it and it was great. Everything the Garmin did plus a bunch of scoring options so you can track clubs used off the tee, fairways hit, greens in regulation, number of putts, sand saves and penalty shots. (The Garmin only allows basic scoring.) Golfshot also shows you a list of the likely interesting distances on every hole (front and back of bunkers and hazards, front, back and center of green) as well as an aerial view. The only drawback is the GPS sucks iPhone battery. They suggest turning off wifi, 3G and bluetooth (which you don't need on the course) and also to turn off auto-lock so you get continuous information. The other good suggestion is get an auxiliary battery like External Battery for Iphone, Iphone 3g, Iphone 3gs, T-mobile G1, Ipod, Sidekick, Blackberry, Nokia, 5400 Mah. And this will get you through the round with plenty of battery left.
So, if you have an iPhone, Golfshot is highly recommended. For $100 you get the app and the extra iPhone battery. If you have no iPhone, for convenience, the Garmin is good, the Leupold for absolute accuracy. Any of these will help your game.
By Darwin (Redmond, WA United States)
It's Sunday night as I type this review. I have had my Garmin a total of three days now. It arrived on Friday, so I put in batteries, connected it to my PC, downloaded the OS upgrades and most current course file (about a 76MB file). I played with the preview function, using it to check my local courses, and also checked out Warwick Hills, where Tiger was storming back on day 2 of the Buick Open. Very cool being able to preview 1000s of courses across the country!
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and took it out to a course I had never visited before to see just how well this investment would pay off. Looking at the top-down, color view of every hole from tee to green, I knew everything I needed to know to reach the green in regulation--it didn't matter that I hadn't been here before.
On a par 5 with a sharp left dogleg, I used the Garmin to determine the distance to the middle of the left bend. I touched the screen and pinpointed a spot 190 yds to the center of the fairway, with bunkers on the left. I grabbed my 3I hybrid and let 'er rip. Perfect shot! Right in the center of the bend, and a straight shot at the green 250 yds away. A 3W got me to about 50 yds, and then a (lucky) little pitch and I was up and down for birdie!
A few holes later, the Garmin showed me a par 4 that goes out straight and level for about 200 yds. There the fairway ends and it's about 100 yds up a hill to the right with about 20 yds elevation difference to the green. Again, I grabbed my 3I hybrid and whacked the ball about 190 yds just short of the fairway's end. Then I grabbed my PW and knocked the ball up the hill to the elevated green and 2-putted for par. Sweet!
Eventually, it's the 18th hole (par 4) and the grand finale--there's water on the right and fronting the green, with bunkers on the left of the fairway and behind the green. The center of the green itself is about 260 yards off, and while the other 3 golfers in my foursome decide to break out their drivers and go for it, I used the Garmin to determine the best lay up point--about 180 yds to the widest part of the fairway past the water. I grabbed my 4I hybrid, plopped the ball perfectly in the fairway, and I had an easy wedge shot to the green to par the hole, while two of my compadres were flailing away in the bunkers, and the other was digging his ball out of the deep rough beyond and left of the green (I was willing to share my Garmin with them, but they'd all played the course before and "knew" what to do!).
Those are the three "highlight" holes of my first round at this course. The Garmin does everything but hit the ball--that part is still left for me to do, and, unfortunately, I don't always hit the ball so perfectly, or there would have been more highlights!
Nonetheless, the Garmin was the perfect aide for course management, and I know it saved me several strokes. Even though I had never visited this course before, each time I walked up to the tee box I was filled with confidence because I knew exactly what club to use and where to aim. I could see the shape and depth of every green, and I knew where my margin of error was when making my approach.
Sunday morning, I got up early again and took the Garmin out to a course I have visited several times before. Unfortunately for me, my shots were rather inconsistent, to say the least, and I shot a miserable round. However, that was entirely my fault--the Garmin was still an excellent guide throughout. On the rare occasion I did hit my shot straight and true, my distances perfectly coincided with what the Garmin was telling me. And again, each time I made an approach shot, I knew the depth of green and the locations of the hazards, and whether I should err long or short, left or right.
Additionally, I should mention that I've had a competitor's golf GPSR for a couple years now. It's been adequate for the job and was half the initial purchase price of the Garmin, but it was severely lacking in many ways because it:
-- required an annual subscription to download courses;
-- only held 10 courses in memory at a time, so I would have to connect to my computer and download courses if venturing out of my "home" area;
-- only showed distances to a handful of landmarks, e.g. bunker, end-of-fairway, water hazard, etc.;
-- had a monochrome LCD;
-- was NOT a Garmin (I admit, I have a pro-Garmin bias, as I've had two of their hand-held GPSRs and an in-car unit, all of which I've been impressed and satisfied with)!
On the flip side, the Garmin:
-- does NOT require a subscription;
-- provides a touch screen (no confusing manual buttons that do different functions at different times);
-- holds THOUSANDS of courses across the US;
-- shows the ENTIRE hole from tee to green with bunkers, hazards, and distances clearly marked;
-- has a COLOR display;
-- allows me to target specific locations through the fairway, with distance to the target from my current location and remaining distance to the green from the target.
Both units were basically equivalent in the following ways, both good and bad:
-- display shape of green;
-- display front, center, and back green distances;
-- allow movement of pin location for more accurate estimate to pin itself;
-- last about 2 complete rounds using AA rechargeable batteries;
-- allow measuring of shot distance;
-- do not display trees or other obstacles;
-- do not display elevation changes.
I am incredibly satisfied with my initial experiences with the Garmin Approach this weekend. I'll be using it on many more outings this summer and fall, but I especially look forward to visiting more new courses. Now that I'm no longer restricted to 10 courses in memory at a time, I can pick up and go anywhere on a whim, and with the great top-down view of the entire hole from tee to green I'll know exactly where to aim and what club to hit, as if I've visited the course dozens of times before.
A few other notes:
-- I did not use the scorekeeping function--I prefer to use a real scorecard to track some stats.
-- I noticed after finishing my 2nd round, turning the unit off, and putting in fresh batteries that I was returned to the hole I was on when I turned the unit off--it appears if you need to change batteries in the middle of a round, the unit will remember what "page" you were on and return you to it.
-- Manually navigating the holes when previewing a course is a bit awkward--there are "next" and "previous" buttons on the page, but no way to jump from, say, the 1st hole to the 14th without pressing the "next" button 13 times. I think Garmin could improve this by popping up a menu if the user were to press and hold the "next" button for example. This would also be a big help if the course you're visiting decides to flip the front 9 to the back 9, so you can start on the right hole.
-- In the Settings page, the unit lets you enter what type of batteries you're using, e.g. alkaline, NiMH rechargeable, etc. Curious...
-- When previewing a course, go to the "about course" (hole number) button to see the address and phone number of the course. Very convenient for calling ahead to make a tee time!
-- The ability to target anywhere on or about the fairway is EXCELLENT! Most GPSRs just give you the distance to the green (front/center/back), but that does you no good if you've got a tree or other obstacle in the way. Knowing what the distance is to any part of the hole can really save your bacon when you find yourself blocked and need to get back to the fairway.
By Succcessful Investor (Dallas, TX)
I played my first round with the Garmin Approach G5 today. I was very satisfied.
Strong points:
--finds satellites quickly
--lists golf courses by order of how far you are from them...closest first...makes finding local courses easy (you can also type in names, but I don't see why you'd do it this way)
--automatic hole advance worked flawlessly
--tap-screen feature to zero in on the green and the area around the green (incluing traps and stuff) was very helpful...I used it on most holes
--distances to hazards like traps was very helpful...it's good knowing that you can aim at a trap (because you know you can't reach it)
--tap-screen feature to "place" the flag on the green is very useful...greens can be quite large, and there can be a 1-club difference between hitting to a front flag rather than a rear flag...I credit it with getting me a par on a long par-3 by indicating to use an extra club for a rear pin position
--with July's update, there are 4400 courses mapped out
--all courses are stored in the device, not on your PC
--monthly course updates are free, never(?) a subscription fee nor disabling of courses you've already received...this makes up for the initial high price of the unit, in my opinion
--course downloads are handled by Garmin as a "purchase" of an item that costs $0.00, very straightforward once you understand that's what's happening
--once the unit is registered and you "purchase" this month's course updates, the downloading process itself took only about 5 minutes, which seems remarkable for 4400 courses
--color screen easily visible in bright outdoor light
--very sturdy and waterproof
--only one physical buttton (on-off switch)
--all other functions are handled by the touchscreen, and everything was pretty intuitive
--measuring a shot was easy and fun (I do hit my 3-wood as far as I thought)
A couple of drawbacks:
--I walk and carry my clubs, and was not satisfied with using the belt clip to attach to my bag; I was afraid it would snap off
--Clipping the belt clip to your belt makes the unit hang in an unuseable position...you'd have to keep unclipping it
--It seems a little too big to put in your pocket without noticing it
--So I've ordered the separate slipcase with caribiner clip to hold it to my bag...I think I'll feel more confident with that setup
--Got just one round out of pair of batteries...you'll definitely want to order a couple sets of rechargeable batteries and a recharging device
--Quick-start booklet contains little information...it tells nothing about the initial steps of registering your unit online, how to find the serial number, or how to order course updates
--That said, the website has all the clues you need, although a few were hard to find and not entriely intuitive
Overall, my first impression is very positive. I formerly used a first-generation unit from iGolf, which just gave distances to the green. On this unit, the course map showing the shape of the hole, distances to hazards, closeup of the green, and ability to place the pin anywhere on the green were big improvements.
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