Garmin Approach R10 Portable Golf Launch Monitor

[jjschafe]

Cross posting from the facebook group...

Quick results testing with a metal dot (small piece of aluminum tape). Because Garmin app makes it so awful to review results, I'm going to speak in a lot of generalities from glancing through some shots. Test was run outside hitting into a net. 7ft from unit to ball, 9ft from ball to net. Using Garmin range.

• Preface - my complaint has always been that calculated spin with my irons has been miserably low. ~6000-7000 with SW, 3500-4500 with 7i. I know from trackman that this should be closer to 10,000 with SW and 6000-7000 with 7i.
• First things first. With the metal tape, the spin numbers ARE NOT in italics when using my SW and 7i. So, the Garmin is measuring spin.
• With driver, spin was always in italics. Maybe with my driver speeds (150+ ball speed), that small piece of tape was not enough for it to measure.
• Hitting the same ball with and without metal. Spin went from ~6000 rpm to ~8500rpm with my SW. Spin went from ~4000rpm to ~5900rpm with my 7i
• Much like the David Maxfield video, with SW + metal dot, I had no club data. With 7i I had data.
• I think there was a difference in reading depending on starting position of the dot but could be mistaken. I didn't have enough time to figure that out.

 

Conclusion? It definitely reads a metal dot and it definitely improves spin reading. How well? Unknown. I wish I had RCT balls to compare with. Tomorrow if it isn't raining, I may try different numbers of dots as well as patterns.

 

[Bubbtubbs]

34 minutes ago, jjschafe said:

Cross posting from the facebook group...

Quick results testing with a metal dot (small piece of aluminum tape). Because Garmin app makes it so awful to review results, I'm going to speak in a lot of generalities from glancing through some shots. Test was run outside hitting into a net. 7ft from unit to ball, 9ft from ball to net. Using Garmin range.

• Preface - my complaint has always been that calculated spin with my irons has been miserably low. ~6000-7000 with SW, 3500-4500 with 7i. I know from trackman that this should be closer to 10,000 with SW and 6000-7000 with 7i.
• First things first. With the metal tape, the spin numbers ARE NOT in italics when using my SW and 7i. So, the Garmin is measuring spin.
• With driver, spin was always in italics. Maybe with my driver speeds (150+ ball speed), that small piece of tape was not enough for it to measure.
• Hitting the same ball with and without metal. Spin went from ~6000 rpm to ~8500rpm with my SW. Spin went from ~4000rpm to ~5900rpm with my 7i
• Much like the David Maxfield video, with SW + metal dot, I had no club data. With 7i I had data.
• I think there was a difference in reading depending on starting position of the dot but could be mistaken. I didn't have enough time to figure that out.

 

Conclusion? It definitely reads a metal dot and it definitely improves spin reading. How well? Unknown. I wish I had RCT balls to compare with. Tomorrow if it isn't raining, I may try different numbers of dots as well as patterns.

 

Even assuming 3500rpm for driver:

 

(150m/h) x (1h/60min) x (5280ft/mile) = 13200ft/min

 

(13200ft/min) ÷ (3500rpm) = 3.77ft/rotation

 

In 9', you get about 2.4revs. 

 

Not much to measure, assuming I did the conversions correctly (lol miles).

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Bubbtubbs
Formatting.

[jjschafe]

15 minutes ago, Bubbtubbs said:

Even assuming 3500rpm for driver:

 

(150m/h) x (1h/60min) x (5280ft/mile) = 13200ft/min

 

(13200ft/min) ÷ (3500rpm) = 3.77ft/rotation

 

In 9', you get about 2.4revs. 

 

Not much to measure, assuming I did the conversions correctly (lol miles).

 

 

All I got from this is that I'm going to start telling people my ball speed is over 13,000ft/min 😄

[JGL]

do I really need a 'stand' for the r10 ?    ....in addition to the stand it comes with ?

[Carolina Golfer 2]

1 hour ago, JGL said:

do I really need a 'stand' for the r10 ?    ....in addition to the stand it comes with ?

I no longer have mine, but the stand it came with always worked fine for me.  Using it both on grass and mats, no issues

[tezzlacoil]

4 hours ago, JGL said:

do I really need a 'stand' for the r10 ?    ....in addition to the stand it comes with ?

 

Ive got one of those levelling stands with the little laser. I don't think they are an absolute necessity - it worked fine before then.

 

BUT - with the levelling stand, in my garage having set the level once and left it on that setting, it's super fast to get set up properly. Plonk it down in roughly the same spot, use the laser to point at the middle of the net in a straight line. Job done.

 

The ease of use, quality of life and also not having that insidious thought oh I wonder if it's not quite pointing straight or level... To me it's worth the cost of the stand ($50aud for me so about $30usd?)

 

Again though, my results without the stand were totally acceptable to me, it was just more fiddly to set up. I've always found shot shape to be accurate. Carry distance within 5% of what I'd expect for scoring to mid irons. Low irons/3w maybe 8-10%. Driver suspect.

 

 

4 hours ago, JGL said:

 

 

[jjschafe]

Has anyone paid attention to their swing tempo?  It's a "hidden" metric, in that you can get backswing and downswing times in your data export from Garmin.  My reported tempo is around 6:1.  If I RUSH my backswing I have gotten down to 4.5:1 .  Has anyone gotten close to the "benchmark" 3:1 tempo?  I don't think my backswing is that slow, so I question if it is just how the Garmin measures backswing vs downswing?  

[hammersia]

On 9/13/2022 at 4:02 PM, jjschafe said:

Has anyone paid attention to their swing tempo?  It's a "hidden" metric, in that you can get backswing and downswing times in your data export from Garmin.  My reported tempo is around 6:1.  If I RUSH my backswing I have gotten down to 4.5:1 .  Has anyone gotten close to the "benchmark" 3:1 tempo?  I don't think my backswing is that slow, so I question if it is just how the Garmin measures backswing vs downswing?  

Think I’d be checking that number against frame counts on video or something, sounds very high.

 

I’ve been using the metal dots since the update, seems to work very well. Didn’t try many chip shots but I think you get a reading at lower speeds than previously. I’m slightly tempted to waste a few dots on some range balls and see if that improves the overall accuracy numbers, particularly shot shape, that I reported on earlier ITT.

[JahGolfPhysio]

On 9/8/2022 at 2:48 PM, jjschafe said:

 

Lol, already out! (I haven't watched yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlrHJ2fbNQ0

Thanks for sharing!

Got to have a watch and see the concensus.

[JahGolfPhysio]

On 9/10/2022 at 4:10 PM, jjschafe said:

Cross posting from the facebook group...

Quick results testing with a metal dot (small piece of aluminum tape). Because Garmin app makes it so awful to review results, I'm going to speak in a lot of generalities from glancing through some shots. Test was run outside hitting into a net. 7ft from unit to ball, 9ft from ball to net. Using Garmin range.

• Preface - my complaint has always been that calculated spin with my irons has been miserably low. ~6000-7000 with SW, 3500-4500 with 7i. I know from trackman that this should be closer to 10,000 with SW and 6000-7000 with 7i.
• First things first. With the metal tape, the spin numbers ARE NOT in italics when using my SW and 7i. So, the Garmin is measuring spin.
• With driver, spin was always in italics. Maybe with my driver speeds (150+ ball speed), that small piece of tape was not enough for it to measure.
• Hitting the same ball with and without metal. Spin went from ~6000 rpm to ~8500rpm with my SW. Spin went from ~4000rpm to ~5900rpm with my 7i
• Much like the David Maxfield video, with SW + metal dot, I had no club data. With 7i I had data.
• I think there was a difference in reading depending on starting position of the dot but could be mistaken. I didn't have enough time to figure that out.

 

Conclusion? It definitely reads a metal dot and it definitely improves spin reading. How well? Unknown. I wish I had RCT balls to compare with. Tomorrow if it isn't raining, I may try different numbers of dots as well as patterns.

 

This is awesome little fix!

Thanks for posting, might have to give it a go until I get some RCT balls.

[JahGolfPhysio]

On 9/10/2022 at 4:10 PM, jjschafe said:

Cross posting from the facebook group...

Quick results testing with a metal dot (small piece of aluminum tape). Because Garmin app makes it so awful to review results, I'm going to speak in a lot of generalities from glancing through some shots. Test was run outside hitting into a net. 7ft from unit to ball, 9ft from ball to net. Using Garmin range.

• Preface - my complaint has always been that calculated spin with my irons has been miserably low. ~6000-7000 with SW, 3500-4500 with 7i. I know from trackman that this should be closer to 10,000 with SW and 6000-7000 with 7i.
• First things first. With the metal tape, the spin numbers ARE NOT in italics when using my SW and 7i. So, the Garmin is measuring spin.
• With driver, spin was always in italics. Maybe with my driver speeds (150+ ball speed), that small piece of tape was not enough for it to measure.
• Hitting the same ball with and without metal. Spin went from ~6000 rpm to ~8500rpm with my SW. Spin went from ~4000rpm to ~5900rpm with my 7i
• Much like the David Maxfield video, with SW + metal dot, I had no club data. With 7i I had data.
• I think there was a difference in reading depending on starting position of the dot but could be mistaken. I didn't have enough time to figure that out.

 

Conclusion? It definitely reads a metal dot and it definitely improves spin reading. How well? Unknown. I wish I had RCT balls to compare with. Tomorrow if it isn't raining, I may try different numbers of dots as well as patterns.

 

 

I want to let everyone know that I gave this a try yesterday using aluminum tape and the results were significant!

R10 was detecting spins of around 3500-4000 with my 7i before tape and those numbers jumped up to 6500-7200 with the tape.

 

These changes in spin, carry and total distance were much more comparable with my on-course numbers and those from higher end devices (i.e. Trackman)

 

Thank you so much for the suggestion! has been hugely helpful and made my R10 such a better oractice tool.

 

The only issue i noticed is after maybe about 7-10 shots with a ball I had to replace a piece of tape (i put 2 small pieces on each ball).

Minor inconvenience for much improve data.

[Bubbtubbs]

2 hours ago, JahGolfPhysio said:

 

I want to let everyone know that I gave this a try yesterday using aluminum tape and the results were significant!

R10 was detecting spins of around 3500-4000 with my 7i before tape and those numbers jumped up to 6500-7200 with the tape.

 

These changes in spin, carry and total distance were much more comparable with my on-course numbers and those from higher end devices (i.e. Trackman)

 

Thank you so much for the suggestion! has been hugely helpful and made my R10 such a better oractice tool.

 

The only issue i noticed is after maybe about 7-10 shots with a ball I had to replace a piece of tape (i put 2 small pieces on each ball).

Minor inconvenience for much improve data.

The Flightscope stickers are pretty durable and will outlast the ball they're put on, so long as it's clean when you start. If you don't want to mess around with the tape, you can buy sheets of them on eBay.

 

I've been using the same dot for 6 balls now and still going strong.

[nbar]

I don't know why but tried the metal dots and didn't see much difference. 200-400 spin difference which didn't add anything to the carry or direction. Had no difference on the short chips.

[jjschafe]

1 hour ago, nbar said:

I don't know why but tried the metal dots and didn't see much difference. 200-400 spin difference which didn't add anything to the carry or direction. Had no difference on the short chips.

 

Did you confirm that the spin was being measured? (was the spin number in italics or not?)

 

After reading a lot of reviews and impressions of RCT balls/metal dots, it seems that the amount of improvement is wholly dependent on your impact conditions.  If your normal impact happens to jive with Garmin's spin algorithm, then you won't see much change with the RCT ball.  This can be seen in the David Maxfield youtube videos.  If your impact conditions are more outliers to the algorithm (like mine) then the RCT is a big improvement.  It's a classis YMMV situation.

[FlashinLeather]

Had a lesson last night and took the R10 out with me. Coach was really impressed with what this thing can do for the price point. It tracked the ball extremely well with both face and path linking up to what we were seeing real time. It also seemed to track speed very well when I was trying to dial back a little. The one thing that this still struggles with was spin. I was working on my 55 deg., which is usually around a 100-105 club, hitting it well, and still could not get over 6000 spin even when trying. Really my only critique with this unit is spin. Not the biggest deal with wedges but it really changes the numbers when getting up into the long irons. I think part of the R10's issue with me personally is that I am very steep and that might be throwing the spin number off. On trackman i get 9000-10000 spin and on course my ball stops on a well hit wedge. This unit does so many things well - if it could figure out spin (for me) it would really be in a league of its own.  

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by FlashinLeather
Edit: To be clear this unit did not have the most recent update on it. I updated it this morning so that could change some of the numbers.

[FlashinLeather]

Getting ready to quit on this thing. Indoors over the weekend I was getting club head speeds on my 7i (175 club) of 108-116, 1700 spin, and 215 total yards. Just not even close to real. 

[jjschafe]

6 hours ago, FlashinLeather said:

Getting ready to quit on this thing. Indoors over the weekend I was getting club head speeds on my 7i (175 club) of 108-116, 1700 spin, and 215 total yards. Just not even close to real. 

 

Where you using RCT balls/metal dots? Was the "Spin Rate" in italics (calculated) or non-italics (measures)?  

 

What is the ball speed it's reporting? Those club speeds seem about right for ball speed.

 

Is there anything that could be messing with your reading? Fans, HVAC, metal structures, etc? Concrete between your unit and ball?

[hammersia]

15 hours ago, FlashinLeather said:

Getting ready to quit on this thing. Indoors over the weekend I was getting club head speeds on my 7i (175 club) of 108-116, 1700 spin, and 215 total yards. Just not even close to real. 

Needs the latest software update to measure spin and the metal dots work fine for me. Waste a couple of dots on balls at the range and verify it's working in a different environment then you can narrow it down to whatever is causing interference in your home setup.

[Simpsonia]

19 hours ago, FlashinLeather said:

Getting ready to quit on this thing. Indoors over the weekend I was getting club head speeds on my 7i (175 club) of 108-116, 1700 spin, and 215 total yards. Just not even close to real. 

 

Did you get rid of your fluorescent lights? As another posted responded to one of your earlier comments, fluorescent ballasts can interfere with the radar frequencies from launch monitors. You need to troubleshoot all potential interferences with the radar, including fans, lights, etc. 

[FlashinLeather]

1 hour ago, Simpsonia said:

 

Did you get rid of your fluorescent lights? As another posted responded to one of your earlier comments, fluorescent ballasts can interfere with the radar frequencies from launch monitors. You need to troubleshoot all potential interferences with the radar, including fans, lights, etc. 

 

No lights were on, this was during the day. No fans were on. Not saying that the final numbers were wrong only that there is no way i'm swinging a 7i 108 to 116 mph with sub 2000 spin. 

 

Haven't tried the metal dots yet. The reviews online seem to make very small (and possibly more accurate changes) - they are not going to be changing spin by 4000-5000+. 

[hammersia]

2 hours ago, FlashinLeather said:

 

No lights were on, this was during the day. No fans were on. Not saying that the final numbers were wrong only that there is no way i'm swinging a 7i 108 to 116 mph with sub 2000 spin. 

 

Haven't tried the metal dots yet. The reviews online seem to make very small (and possibly more accurate changes) - they are not going to be changing spin by 4000-5000+. 

Maybe ignore the random online stuff and take the advice of us experts on here 🖕

[Simpsonia]

On 9/27/2022 at 11:30 AM, FlashinLeather said:

 

No lights were on, this was during the day. No fans were on. Not saying that the final numbers were wrong only that there is no way i'm swinging a 7i 108 to 116 mph with sub 2000 spin. 

 

Haven't tried the metal dots yet. The reviews online seem to make very small (and possibly more accurate changes) - they are not going to be changing spin by 4000-5000+. 

 

The reason online reviews of the new changes with metal dots seem to be smaller is because by and large the previously estimated spins weren't that inaccurate (a delta of ~4-5k spin). If your R10 is reading things that wrong (116 mph clubhead speed with a 7i, and a ball with sub 2000 spin), then my guess is that there's either some radar interference OR you have a bad unit and you should RMA it with Garmin. Since Garmin is going to ask you all about potential radar interference anyways, it's probably best to try and eliminate all of those factors first. But if you've already made sure that you have no possible interference sources at all, then go ahead and contact Garmin and try to RMA the unit and see if a replacement is better. 

[gophers79]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, I did not go back thru all 55 pages of the thread.

 

Do people use a unit / alignment stand with their Garmin R10s? I just purchased one for a garage simulator and am curious whether a stand that you can stick an alignment stick in is generally best practice or not. Is it easy to get the unit correctly aligned?

[LeftDot]

5 hours ago, gophers79 said:

Sorry if this has been discussed already, I did not go back thru all 55 pages of the thread.

 

Do people use a unit / alignment stand with their Garmin R10s? I just purchased one for a garage simulator and am curious whether a stand that you can stick an alignment stick in is generally best practice or not. Is it easy to get the unit correctly aligned?

 

Yes, you'll find several of us heavily encourage it. This one is the one I bought and it comes with the little Ryobi laser to help you get it both flat and aligned, both of which are important.

 

[FlashinLeather]

Spent about 40 min on the phone with Garmin customer service - they were very nice and helpful. Basically troubleshot every possible thing that could be going wrong and we were not able to figure anything out. They ultimately asked for some screen shots of the high swing speed, low spin, etc. Hopefully they just replace this unit and I can get things dialed in with a new one. 

[0iron]

What are your thoughts on using an R10 outdoors into a hitting net?

 

The price point is obviously great but my main concern is that I've seen reviews and comments where people say the spin and face/path can be so far off with Garmin compared to Trackman and what is observed in actual flight on the range that you might hit actually hit a big draw but Garmin says you faded it and vice versa. I don't  know how much of this truth or exaggeration.

 

There's obviously a 'get what you pay for' component, as other Launch Monitors are 1000's of more dollars. I could tolerate 3% difference in distance, speed and curvature etc, but I'm not sure how much I could tolerate the device telling me im hitting draws when im hitting fades.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by 0iron

[tezzlacoil]

4 hours ago, 0iron said:

What are your thoughts on using an R10 outdoors into a hitting net?

 

The price point is obviously great but my main concern is that I've seen reviews and comments where people say the spin and face/path can be so far off with Garmin compared to Trackman and what is observed in actual flight on the range that you might hit actually hit a big draw but Garmin says you faded it and vice versa. I don't  know how much of this truth or exaggeration.

 

There's obviously a 'get what you pay for' component, as other Launch Monitors are 1000's of more dollars. I could tolerate 3% difference in distance, speed and curvature etc, but I'm not sure how much I could tolerate the device telling me im hitting draws when im hitting fades.

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoors with adequate space and no interference, from my experiences with a less ideal set up, I don't see how you are going to have any issues. Obviously YMMV but personally I'm in a garage with a metal door, barely the requisite space, and I'd say shot shape and carry distance on pw-5/6 iron are within 5%. Particularly shot shape.

 

With a stand to make setup easy, I haven't seen any shots where I've thought that was a draw and it's a fade or vice versa. I'm a bit steep so I do wonder sometimes if my carry is affected by hitting off a mat vs real grass.

 

But honestly for the price I think it over delivers. I do not use it for anything other than range sessions (e6 one) and I do not use my 3w or driver as I don't trust the numbers on those clubs but part of that is I don't trust myself to not smash the roof of my garage so i think it makes me do weird swings...

[jjschafe]

10 hours ago, 0iron said:

What are your thoughts on using an R10 outdoors into a hitting net?

 

The price point is obviously great but my main concern is that I've seen reviews and comments where people say the spin and face/path can be so far off with Garmin compared to Trackman and what is observed in actual flight on the range that you might hit actually hit a big draw but Garmin says you faded it and vice versa. I don't  know how much of this truth or exaggeration.

 

There's obviously a 'get what you pay for' component, as other Launch Monitors are 1000's of more dollars. I could tolerate 3% difference in distance, speed and curvature etc, but I'm not sure how much I could tolerate the device telling me im hitting draws when im hitting fades.

 

 

 

 

 

I use mine pretty exclusively outdoors into a net.  7ft from R10 to ball and 9'+ (longer the better) from ball to net is pretty critical.  Distances are great, and (for me) spin is much improved and pretty accurate using RCT balls or metal dots.  Similar to the post above, I use it pretty much only for range sessions, and for my 9 year old son to get feedback with.  I have been beyond happy with mine.

 

As far as fade/draw, I am convinced that nearly everyone having trouble there has a slight misalignment when setting up.  Remember that it uses launch direction to figure out A LOT of things, so if the unit is a few degrees off left or right you could see your ball move the wrong direction.  I eyeball my alignment, then hit a handful of punch wedges that I know are straight with no movement.  If it's going left, I move the unit slightly left and try again.  Vice-versa for going right.  Using that method it is really solid for all my clubs including driver.  It cannot measure/see gear effect, so a big toe or heel strike is always going to be very hard for it to depict accurately.  I don't think anything in the paragraph is much different for the Mevo+ (no personal experience, just anecdotal). 

[tezzlacoil]

11 hours ago, jjschafe said:

 

 

As far as fade/draw, I am convinced that nearly everyone having trouble there has a slight misalignment when setting up.  Remember that it uses launch direction to figure out A LOT of things, so if the unit is a few degrees off left or right you could see your ball move the wrong direction.  I eyeball my alignment, then hit a handful of punch wedges that I know are straight with no movement.  If it's going left, I move the unit slightly left and try again.  Vice-versa for going right.  

This!

 

Before I got a stand with a laser sight, I used this method always and never had issues with shot shape.

 

Once I got a stand I found it wasn't necessary anymore as I could use the laser to easily align it

[0iron]

On 10/2/2022 at 8:22 AM, jjschafe said:

 

I use mine pretty exclusively outdoors into a net.  7ft from R10 to ball and 9'+ (longer the better) from ball to net is pretty critical.  Distances are great, and (for me) spin is much improved and pretty accurate using RCT balls or metal dots.  Similar to the post above, I use it pretty much only for range sessions, and for my 9 year old son to get feedback with.  I have been beyond happy with mine.

 

As far as fade/draw, I am convinced that nearly everyone having trouble there has a slight misalignment when setting up.  Remember that it uses launch direction to figure out A LOT of things, so if the unit is a few degrees off left or right you could see your ball move the wrong direction.  I eyeball my alignment, then hit a handful of punch wedges that I know are straight with no movement.  If it's going left, I move the unit slightly left and try again.  Vice-versa for going right.  Using that method it is really solid for all my clubs including driver.  It cannot measure/see gear effect, so a big toe or heel strike is always going to be very hard for it to depict accurately.  I don't think anything in the paragraph is much different for the Mevo+ (no personal experience, just anecdotal). 

 

Thanks for the reply. Also wondering, do you have any insight on how Garmin does with delicate pitch shots with a lofted/lob wedge, you know like 20-50 yard shots?

Edited October 3, 2022 by 0iron