Which GPS Watch is right for me?

[Z1ggy16]

Lately I've found apps like 18Birdies to be a little annoying to use on the phone, and sometimes the GPS fix takes a while to adjust/correct itself. I've decided it would be easier to just have a GPS watch that's constantly updating on my position and is more quickly accessible. I've been reading some of the threads here but I can't quite decide which would be best.

 

I'm looking for something to give me front, middle and back distances, but also distances to near by hazards, bunkers and especially doglegs off the tee as that's very hard to do on my laser (cheaper model, not super accurate).

 

I would only use this for golf and wouldn't be worn casually or for other sports. Being able to record score, especially something like net score if I was to play some other guys in match play could be a plus. The S60 seems like an obvious choice, but I'm not sure if it's too much watch as I don't need sleep + step tracking, etc. If it had an estimated calories burned function... then maybe I'd be interested, but I'm not sure if it does. Other choices I'm seeing pop up often are S2, S20, S6, X40, Bushnell Excel, etc. If I had to pick one function that I'm really looking for, it would be distances to bunkers on my approach shot and tee shots. My laser has a really hard time picking up bunkers unless there's a pretty big lip.

 

Off topic: Anybody use Golf shot? Seems like it does all these things I want, but an app similar to 18Birdies. If it wasn't super slow to find my position like 18B, I'd give that a shot first.

[Stuart_G]

Garmin just released/announced the s10 - looks like an s20 but w/o the fitness tracking or shot tracking functionality or smart phone notifications (although s20 does include calorie data).

 

If memory serves, I don't think the s2 had water hazards, only bunkers and layups.

[Z1ggy16]

Garmin just released/announced the s10 - looks like an s20 but w/o the fitness tracking or shot tracking functionality or smart phone notifications (although s20 does include calorie data).

 

If memory serves, I don't think the s2 had water hazards, only bunkers and layups.

Does any of them have ability to drag the distance circle or get approximate distance behind the green or off the sides? I can think of a bunch of holes at the courses I play most where back flags are extremely risky because there's OB/redsteaks behind the green.

[Stuart_G]

Does any of them have ability to drag the distance circle or get approximate distance behind the green or off the sides? I can think of a bunch of holes at the courses I play most where back flags are extremely risky because there's OB/redsteaks behind the green.

 

Not sure what you mean by 'drag the distance circle'. They all will give distances to front/middle/back regardless of what angle you approach the green from but the s5 (maybe s6?) and s60 are the only ones I know of where you can use the touch screen to find the distance to any arbitrary point on the hole. Most of the current models (except the s10) have the ability to manually adjust the pin position on the green.

[Z1ggy16]

Yes, I mean that arbitrary point where most apps assume middle green but you can usually drag it around to wherever you want.

 

May try the free version of Golfshot this week just to see if it's clunky or not before I decide on a watch.

[johntchow]

i use the garmin approach s60 and it does have the ability to drag distances to different points on the hole.

 

it also does provide front middle back green readings as well.

 

i first used clubhub and then arccos and have now settled on the garmin. while is isnt perfect, i like that i dont have to deal with sensors and it does some basic club distance tracking and hole overviews.