Garmin Golf, who prior to today was considered a competitor in the low-price home simulator market, is announcing the release of their new Approach R50 Launch Monitor. The Approach R50 signals a substantial change for the company based on its price alone. This full-feature launch monitor is packed with a boatload of high-end features that should appeal to many advanced launch monitor and simulator golf enthusiasts.
At a $4,999 base price, the Garmin Approach R50 is joining a very competitive segment of the home-simulator market. However, it does have one unique feature to set it apart from others – a 10” built-in color touchscreen that can be used for both launch monitor readings or simulator golf. Let’s take a look at the rest of the R50’s feature set.
High-Speed Cameras
- Fine-tune your form with a 3-camera system that captures precision metrics and slow-motion impact videos.
Ball and Club Metrics
- Use advanced measurements to dial in your swing, including ball speed, launch angle, face to path as well as improved spin rate and axis both indoors and outside (club tracking stickers required).
43,000+ Courses
- Play virtual rounds — including putting — with up to four players with the Home Tee Hero on the Garmin Golf™ App (subscription required).
Training Mode
- Understand every part of your game with training mode, which tracks stats for each club and shows a shot dispersion chart based on an advanced ball flight trajectory model.
Versatile Display and Portability
- Protective case included, and four hours of battery life means you can use the R50 away from home. The virtual course can be projected on a screen, while the built-in display on Approach® R50 shows the ball and club metrics you care about most.
Those of you familiar with Garmin’s Approach R10 should have immediately noticed the Approach R50 is a far more advanced looking launch monitor. With the included club stickers and a 3 camera system, it should be quite accurate for both club and ball data. While Garmin did not provide a full list, they are saying that the R50 will provide 15 different club and ball metrics.
The Approach R50 will provides game improvement features in its Training Mode by saving sessions and statistics for each club in the bag so that progress can be tracked over time. In addition to the shot-to-shot numbers and visual ball flight representation, the color touchscreen display can also show high speed videos of each shot, allowing the user to get a full picture of what their club is doing at impact.
The Approach R50 may be the first high-end launch monitor that provides users a one-stop solution for simulator golf. Using Garmin’s Home Tee Hero application (subscription required), it’s possible to play sim rounds on the R50 itself without using any external screens. For those users that would like to have a larger view, it can be connected to any projector or monitor via HDMI. In addition, users can customize views. For example, the simulator golf round can be viewed on a projector screen while all the shot-by-shot stats can be viewed on the R50’s screen.
Garmin is saying they’ve improved on the Home Tee Hero app for use with the R50. Though we haven’t had a chance to see these changes for ourselves, this would be a welcome improvement as the earlier versions of Home Tee Hero weren’t really competitive when it came to realistic simulator golf. It was nice to have access to the 43,000+ courses in the Garmin library, but the gameplay lacked things like elevation changes and the immersive environments that are expected in modern sim golf applications. If Garmin has made substantial improvements, HTH could be a viable option for use at home. Regardless, the Approach R50 does offer WiFi connectivity and will be compatible with 3rd party simulation software like GS Pro, E6 Connect, and Awesome Golf.
Details
- $4999.99 – some additional features may require subscription
- Available now at www.garmin.com
Of course for all of your indoor golf needs, do not forget to check out Rain or Shine Golf. They carry Garmin products as well as everything you need to create an amazing space at any budget.
