Garmin Approach R10 Portable Golf Launch Monitor

[mohammedm]

Can anyone comment as to whether this unit works in conjunction with CT10 sensors (either alone or on a Garmin Approach S62 watch) so that club selection is automatically displayed in the Garmin Golf App when using the Approach R10?

[bearcatnut]

Is there a consensus as where the best site to buy one of these is?   Live in USA. 

[North_Berwick_Golfer]

A friend of mine has a great golf cabin set-up with GC Quad. If anyone in the Edinburgh, Scotland area gets an R10 then I’ll be able to set up an internal comparison versus GC Quad.

[1plane]

I was dialling in / checking out my 3W hosel setting / wedge gapping on Trackman yesterday and the Pro put this thing down next to it (it had just come in). The carry numbers were pretty much identical (that was what I was interested in…I wasn’t there to test the Garmin).

 

On the few shots where we compared the two, the quality of the data was pretty impressive. We were both surprised…

[Red4282]

Ordered mine, but looks like ill have to wait until september…

[Wildest1]

12 hours ago, bearcatnut said:

Is there a consensus as where the best site to buy one of these is?   Live in USA. 

 

The best return policy I've seen is at Playbetter.com:  60-days, full refund, no questions asked. You can return it even after registering the R10 with Garmin and playing with the free E6 courses. That's why I ordered mine from PlayBetter. They estimate late September delivery for new orders.

 

If you're looking for earlier access, you'll have to do a online search and then call around. The R10s seem to be back ordered just about everywhere.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Wildest1

[jimmies78]

Are we likely to only have E6 and Garmin HTH as software this will link with....I'd love it if Awesome Golf was supported

[BrewingSim]

1 hour ago, jimmies78 said:

Are we likely to only have E6 and Garmin HTH as software this will link with....I'd love it if Awesome Golf was supported

 

Is awesome golf available on anything other than Flightscope?

[jagmanjoe]

2 hours ago, jimmies78 said:

Are we likely to only have E6 and Garmin HTH as software this will link with....I'd love it if Awesome Golf was supported

I had submitted a post at the Garmin Forum asking if GSPro might be able to be an option and a day or two later there was a message from someone with Garmin to forward a follow-up message to him and he would submit my request to the Developer department.

[jimmies78]

1 hour ago, BrewingSim said:

 

Is awesome golf available on anything other than Flightscope?

don't think so

[rshinazy]

Got mine in. I've had one longer range session and one short one and about 5 shots with driver into my net. So far, it seems pretty decent for carry distance, so so for total distance and some of the other stats are still a little TBD. I thought it did a good job at picking up ball direction.

 

The spin numbers seemed a little lower with irons/wedges - granted, I was just using range balls. Had SW spinning around 8k which is a little on the low side for me. Some of the lower irons (8 for example) definitely weren't reading spin correctly because there were a number of shots that were in the 2k-4k spin range resulting in some 185yrd carry and 200yrd total distance - which for me is normally around 170-175.

 

The driver seemed like the most accurate (other than some of the rollout numbers). Ball speeds were seemingly right on and spin right in that 2k-2.5k mark. It would occasionally not pick up the club speed properly (would be 40mph off) but rest of the stats still read fine. I would say that it didn't register the side spin perfectly because I hit a couple of those dirty hooker shots and it didn't seems as dramatic based on what it registered. 

 

I got logged in for about 20 shots on the E6 range and feel that was better to see the stats as you were going and the graphics are much better, but seemed to register shots about the same.

 

I also have a Rapsodo and would say that the Garmin seems to add a little distance vs the Rapsodo - probable based on the lower calculated spin. I also feel like the user interface on the app is a little better with the Rapsodo; the Garmin needs to make it a little easier to go between shots and the auto detect of the shot video didn't work with the Garmin where as I've never had an issue with the Rapsodo. I also had a bit of trouble at first while trying to have the device connect to the app when using the E6 app. 

 

Overall, I think it's been good. I'm excited to keep using based on the club data - I'll need to spend a little more time on that to see how accurate that really is, but seems to be at least in the ballpark. I think the Rapsodo might be a little better for on course stuff because it's easier to use, connect and have it capture video, but in terms of the total info provided for getting better, I'm optimistic about the Garmin. More testing to come

[ZipinZ]

46 minutes ago, rshinazy said:

Got mine in. I've had one longer range session and one short one and about 5 shots with driver into my net. So far, it seems pretty decent for carry distance, so so for total distance and some of the other stats are still a little TBD. I thought it did a good job at picking up ball direction.

 

The spin numbers seemed a little lower with irons/wedges - granted, I was just using range balls. Had SW spinning around 8k which is a little on the low side for me. Some of the lower irons (8 for example) definitely weren't reading spin correctly because there were a number of shots that were in the 2k-4k spin range resulting in some 185yrd carry and 200yrd total distance - which for me is normally around 170-175.

 

The driver seemed like the most accurate (other than some of the rollout numbers). Ball speeds were seemingly right on and spin right in that 2k-2.5k mark. It would occasionally not pick up the club speed properly (would be 40mph off) but rest of the stats still read fine. I would say that it didn't register the side spin perfectly because I hit a couple of those dirty hooker shots and it didn't seems as dramatic based on what it registered. 

 

I got logged in for about 20 shots on the E6 range and feel that was better to see the stats as you were going and the graphics are much better, but seemed to register shots about the same.

 

I also have a Rapsodo and would say that the Garmin seems to add a little distance vs the Rapsodo - probable based on the lower calculated spin. I also feel like the user interface on the app is a little better with the Rapsodo; the Garmin needs to make it a little easier to go between shots and the auto detect of the shot video didn't work with the Garmin where as I've never had an issue with the Rapsodo. I also had a bit of trouble at first while trying to have the device connect to the app when using the E6 app. 

 

Overall, I think it's been good. I'm excited to keep using based on the club data - I'll need to spend a little more time on that to see how accurate that really is, but seems to be at least in the ballpark. I think the Rapsodo might be a little better for on course stuff because it's easier to use, connect and have it capture video, but in terms of the total info provided for getting better, I'm optimistic about the Garmin. More testing to come

 

 

Tks for sharing .... good info.

 

D.

[jvpark]

6 hours ago, rshinazy said:

Got mine in. I've had one longer range session and one short one and about 5 shots with driver into my net. So far, it seems pretty decent for carry distance, so so for total distance and some of the other stats are still a little TBD. I thought it did a good job at picking up ball direction.

 

The spin numbers seemed a little lower with irons/wedges - granted, I was just using range balls. Had SW spinning around 8k which is a little on the low side for me. Some of the lower irons (8 for example) definitely weren't reading spin correctly because there were a number of shots that were in the 2k-4k spin range resulting in some 185yrd carry and 200yrd total distance - which for me is normally around 170-175.

 

The driver seemed like the most accurate (other than some of the rollout numbers). Ball speeds were seemingly right on and spin right in that 2k-2.5k mark. It would occasionally not pick up the club speed properly (would be 40mph off) but rest of the stats still read fine. I would say that it didn't register the side spin perfectly because I hit a couple of those dirty hooker shots and it didn't seems as dramatic based on what it registered. 

 

I got logged in for about 20 shots on the E6 range and feel that was better to see the stats as you were going and the graphics are much better, but seemed to register shots about the same.

 

I also have a Rapsodo and would say that the Garmin seems to add a little distance vs the Rapsodo - probable based on the lower calculated spin. I also feel like the user interface on the app is a little better with the Rapsodo; the Garmin needs to make it a little easier to go between shots and the auto detect of the shot video didn't work with the Garmin where as I've never had an issue with the Rapsodo. I also had a bit of trouble at first while trying to have the device connect to the app when using the E6 app. 

 

Overall, I think it's been good. I'm excited to keep using based on the club data - I'll need to spend a little more time on that to see how accurate that really is, but seems to be at least in the ballpark. I think the Rapsodo might be a little better for on course stuff because it's easier to use, connect and have it capture video, but in terms of the total info provided for getting better, I'm optimistic about the Garmin. More testing to come

Thanks… I have a Mevo Plus and the spin numbers with my drive are horrible… always reads over 3,500.  Other clubs are somewhat accurate tho.

 

My Garmin is coming in on Wednesday, so excited to compare it against my Mevo Plus.

[whumber]

43 minutes ago, jvpark said:

Thanks… I have a Mevo Plus and the spin numbers with my drive are horrible… always reads over 3,500.  Other clubs are somewhat accurate tho.

 

My Garmin is coming in on Wednesday, so excited to compare it against my Mevo Plus.

Do you know that the driver numbers are actually inaccurate?

[North Butte]

6 hours ago, jvpark said:

Thanks… I have a Mevo Plus and the spin numbers with my drive are horrible… always reads over 3,500.  Other clubs are somewhat accurate tho.

 

My Garmin is coming in on Wednesday, so excited to compare it against my Mevo Plus.

Almost every time I've ever demoed drivers in various golf stores, their launch monitors say I'm spinning over 3,000 and it's been as high as 3,500 a couple times. That isn't to say your MEVO+ is right, just saying 3,500 is not a particularly unbelievable spin number generally speaking. 

[amj6135]

I can confirm my Mevo+ was dangerously inaccurate with the driver indoors even with about 15 feet of ball flight.  My spin on GC2 is around 2,000.  The Mevo+ read between 3500-4500 every time.  But irons and wedges pretty spot, maybe a little long.  

[whumber]

1 hour ago, amj6135 said:

I can confirm my Mevo+ was dangerously inaccurate with the driver indoors even with about 15 feet of ball flight.  My spin on GC2 is around 2,000.  The Mevo+ read between 3500-4500 every time.  But irons and wedges pretty spot, maybe a little long.  

That's interesting, I see very similar behavior with the SC300. Iron spin is pretty reasonable (it doesn't do wedges) but driver spin is high by around 50-75%. I would have thought Mevo+ would be much better since it's actually measuring the spin. Is this with metallic dots indoors?

[games]

Regarding MEVO+, I've found it solid across all clubs.  I do think driver accuracy starts to degrade with swing speeds 105+.

 

Based on the early testing, I suspect the Garmin R10 has the same capacity for measurements as the OG MEVO (not MEVO+).  Maybe an added bell or whistle to attempt to capture semblance of path/face relationship.  But when you get fade reads out of what is clearly a hook swing, there's issues.  At that point, might as well put a random number generator on the spin axis and side spin metrics...

 

  

[whumber]

43 minutes ago, games said:

Regarding MEVO+, I've found it solid across all clubs.  I do think driver accuracy starts to degrade with swing speeds 105+.

 

Based on the early testing, I suspect the Garmin R10 has the same capacity for measurements as the OG MEVO (not MEVO+).  Maybe an added bell or whistle to attempt to capture semblance of path/face relationship.  But when you get fade reads out of what is clearly a hook swing, there's issues.  At that point, might as well put a random number generator on the spin axis and side spin metrics...

 

  

I just got mine this morning and I'll take it out to the range for some testing later, but I wasn't too concerned about those results just yet. For one, all the shots that were in the wrong direction were more or less straight shots with just a tiny amount of draw on the GC2. If it was a straight up hook that read as a cut, that would be more concerning. Second, like others have mentioned, the Foresight monitors definitely seemed draw biased. When I got fitted for my current driving iron the GCHawk was telling me that I was consistently hitting 40yd hooks with it but when I took it out to the range immediately after the reality was that I was hitting dead straight to baby cuts every time. I'll do some shot shaping on the range to see if I can get the R10 to make any obvious misreads on the spin axis.

[North Butte]

8 minutes ago, whumber said:

I just got mine this morning and I'll take it out to the range for some testing later, but I wasn't too concerned about those results just yet. For one, all the shots that were in the wrong direction were more or less straight shots with just a tiny amount of draw on the GC2. If it was a straight up hook that read as a cut, that would be more concerning. Second, like others have mentioned, the Foresight monitors definitely seemed draw biased. When I got fitted for my current driving iron the GCHawk was telling me that I was consistently hitting 40yd hooks with it but when I took it out to the range immediately after the reality was that I was hitting dead straight to baby cuts every time. I'll do some shot shaping on the range to see if I can get the R10 to make any obvious misreads on the spin axis.

Whether R10, Foresight or otherwise isn’t this cut/hook stuff very demanding of precise alignment?

 

I just can’t imagine any technology that could do shot shape correctly with the the unit aimed three or four degrees off in some direction. 

[whumber]

11 minutes ago, North Butte said:

Whether R10, Foresight or otherwise isn’t this cut/hook stuff very demanding of precise alignment?

 

I just can’t imagine any technology that could do shot shape correctly with the the unit aimed three or four degrees off in some direction. 

Foresight shouldn't be terribly dependent on alignment since they're, at least I would assume, measuring the actual angular velocity of the ball at the surface. I'm also a bit skeptical of just how sensitive the R10 should be to alignment for spin axis since what's important is the face-to-path angle. Even if the alignment is off by 10 degrees, both the measured ball path and club path vectors should be off by the same amount preserving the face-to-path angle. That said, none of us truly knows what assumptions are baked in behind the scenes so who knows how sensitive it will be.

[hammersia]

Don’t know if these videos have been mentioned, but this guys channel seems to be independent and doing some tests. Wedge one below and there are at least two others.
I’d had a drink and wasn’t paying too close attention but I believe he’s saying the R10 is producing some good numbers but slightly questionable on direction, although he may have misaligned things:

 

 

[BrewingSim]

37 minutes ago, hammersia said:

Don’t know if these videos have been mentioned, but this guys channel seems to be independent and doing some tests. Wedge one below and there are at least two others.
I’d had a drink and wasn’t paying too close attention but I believe he’s saying the R10 is producing some good numbers but slightly questionable on direction, although he may have misaligned things:

 

 

 

I appreciate all the videos this guy is putting out, but his swing is just painful to watch.  I know I'm being really judgmental right now.

[tezzlacoil]

34 minutes ago, BrewingSim said:

 

I appreciate all the videos this guy is putting out, but his swing is just painful to watch.  I know I'm being really judgmental right now.

Haha this is what I call real world testing and data... Some of em look a little like a swing I might put on a ball when under pressure 😂

Edited August 14, 2021 by tezzlacoil

[hammersia]

1 hour ago, whumber said:

Foresight shouldn't be terribly dependent on alignment since they're, at least I would assume, measuring the actual angular velocity of the ball at the surface. I'm also a bit skeptical of just how sensitive the R10 should be to alignment for spin axis since what's important is the face-to-path angle. Even if the alignment is off by 10 degrees, both the measured ball path and club path vectors should be off by the same amount preserving the face-to-path angle. That said, none of us truly knows what assumptions are baked in behind the scenes so who knows how sensitive it will 

Edited August 14, 2021 by hammersia

[hammersia]

42 minutes ago, BrewingSim said:

 

I appreciate all the videos this guy is putting out, but his swing is just painful to watch.  I know I'm being really judgmental right now.

Yes yes, swing looks sub optimal. But the numbers seem to be popping up very quickly and accurately with no misreads. 

[North Butte]

Do you think that guy even plays golf? That little no-turn armsy flip at the ball looks to me like something that would only work off a mat. 

[games]

2 hours ago, whumber said:

I'll do some shot shaping on the range to see if I can get the R10 to make any obvious misreads on the spin axis.

I do think the straight shot (or at least a starting line with 0* horizontal launch angle) is the key litmus test for this LM since we know it doesn't measure spin.  If clubhead is square to path, and path is down the target line, how is the system going to calculate placement of the spin axis and amount of spin?

[Xt1ncTnz]

2 hours ago, BrewingSim said:

 

I appreciate all the videos this guy is putting out, but his swing is just painful to watch.  I know I'm being really judgmental right now.

Who cares. He has a sweet set up. And is giving us great info. 
 

fwiw the R10 looks awesome. I’m in NZ so is a few weeks away but will likely pre-order. 

[whumber]

So first impressions from hitting with the R10 outdoors are mostly very good. I only had about 30 minutes of range time before my round so things were a bit rushed this time. Started off just hitting some wedge shots, vertical launch angle seemed much more realistic than my SC300 and spin numbers seemed consistent with what I've seen from aboutGolf simulators at our local indoor place. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that while starting direction is very sensitive to alignment the vertical launch angle, backspin, and sidespin didn't seem nearly as sensitive. Our grass range is never perfectly flat and moving the R10 around a little bit to perturb the lie didn't change my numbers very much. I then went through 7i, 2i, 3W, and driver to test numbers and shape some shots to see how realistic the spin axis numbers were. Carry distances were all right around where I expected them whereas I've found the SC300 tends to overpredict carry with the irons when you bring down the launch angle. The goods news with the shot shaping is that out of around 60 total balls that I hit only one had a shape that didn't match reality and that one was a 3 wood off the deck that I hit way off the toe, the R10 called for a slight fade while the actual ball duck hooked. I wasn't really surprised by that as the R10 doesn't really have any way to account for gear effect.

 

The 3some I was supposed to be paired with never showed up so I ended up playing 9 by myself behind an extremely slow group. Normally would have annoyed me but this gave me the opportunity to hit some tee shots with Home Tee Hero running to see how well it could predict were the ball would end up. Out of the three I tested this with, two of the tees shot ended up within 5 yards of where the R10 expected while the other had the distance right but on the wrong side of the fairway but there was a strong crosswind on that hole that the software couldn't know about.

 

The only problematic thing that I saw was with chip/pitch shots. I hit a few chip shots in the 20-40yd range and the reported distances were all over the place. Some were spot on, one shot that I know for certain went about 20yds registered as almost 60 yards, other were 5-10 yards short. I'll need to do more testing on this but this was the only area that I saw a significant issue. I may try to go back out to the range later this afternoon for another test but overall it's looking quite good. Tomorrow I'll try hitting it into an outdoor net to see how that performs.

Edited August 14, 2021 by whumber