The S70 Revisited by an Apple Watch/Arccos user

[Golfcrzy]

I decided to give the Garmin S70 another chance. I got it when it was first announced and found the UI to be cumbersome compared to my Apple Watch. I returned it after three rounds.

 

I’ve repurchased the S70 because boredom, mostly, but specifically I’ve been diving into green maps and wanted to try it with the S70. I have just found that the GolfLogix Apple Watch app has detailed green mapping w slope and heat map, and arccos works in the background. Tough to beat. 

 

So, for four rounds I’ve had the S70 either on my wrist or on the steering wheel. I have barely gotten along with it. The interface is still cumbersome and slower than the Apple Watch. The screen refresh is still annoying. It’s a pain in the butt to use the arrows to navigate to different points of interest. The green orientation is slow while moving around and confusing. But it is gorgeous. Absolutely stunning display. It’s the only reason I have tried to make it work. 

 

GolfLogix, on the other hand, allows for the hole view and green view on Watch. You can manipulate the parameters. There is a list of all relevant landmarks on the hole you can swipe to. It’s full featured. 

 

18Birdies is great for the phone, but the Watch app is basic. Same with many of the others, but I pay for 18Birdies and their green representation is cartoonish, despite an excellent mapping and measuring tool. 

 

StrackaLine digital app is pretty bare bones over the hole EXCEPT for the excellent green maps. This is by far the best representation of the greens on an app, but there is no Watch app. Being able to place the flag AND GET FALL LINES is not available on any other app I’m aware of besides some tournament level software that allows for precise pin placements. 

 

Arccos is my scoring and stats app, and that isn’t changing. I tried running with the S70 on wrist and Arccos Link, and it sucked. I’m not putting my phone in my pocket again. Oh well. 

 

So, I’m left with the decision to run GolfLogix Watch App for distance and greens reading away from the cart, Arccos Watch (background) for pin placement and score/stat tracking, and StrackaLine on the phone. 

 

Further, I have the greens books from PuttView, GolfLogix, and soon StrackaLine to compare with the apps. I find this to be the fastest method of reading the green, but I don’t like to keep the book in my pocket because of how $$$ they are. 

 

If the S70 interfaced with Arccos we’d have a longer discussion. But, right now, the Apple Watch Ultra is the best sensor they’ve got, and GolfLogix has the greens maps. $700 back in my pocket and I continue to test for the best tool for me. 

[3PuttLefty]

Ive used ArccoS for the past few years (without watch or link). I too was bored and bought the S70. I used the S70 for 5 rounds then sold it. 
 Today i used Arccos with my Apple watch for the first time….it makes it so much easier to use Arccos and glad i saved the $700 ditching the S70.  S70 is a great watch and easy to use.  But i prefer rangefinder and Arccos via watch. 

[TayTaySlam]

Is there a way to use the Apple Watch only for golf . Meaning not linking it to your phone apple account and texts and email and everything that goes with it . Or do you need your apple account hooked up for functionality.

[Golfcrzy]

16 minutes ago, TayTaySlam said:

Is there a way to use the Apple Watch only for golf . Meaning not linking it to your phone apple account and texts and email and everything that goes with it . Or do you need your apple account hooked up for functionality.

Don’t see how because all functionality traces back to apps. You can choose what you get notified about on the watch. You can disable apps, etc. 

[mstuewe]

8 hours ago, TayTaySlam said:

Is there a way to use the Apple Watch only for golf . Meaning not linking it to your phone apple account and texts and email and everything that goes with it . Or do you need your apple account hooked up for functionality.

you need to connect it to your phone and Apple account, but you can choose the apps you want to push from your watch to your phone, and which notifications to deliver, silence, or keep just on your phone.  

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

Honest question, for how long have you been using these apps and watches during golf rounds? Is it getting tedious to use technology or do the advantages outweigh that for you?

I‘m asking because I used to be big on using apps, I‘m a premium subscriber with The Grint (love the stats and the look/navigation), and my friends call me „Gadget King“…but I‘ve grown tired of fiddling with watch/phone on the course, correcting the little hiccups, then after the round transferring stuff from phone to app or whatever, charging batteries, managing more accounts/subscriptions/hardware, and so on. 
Lately, I enjoy Golf much more than my buddy who has to register each gimme putt and so on. 
Not here to hijack a discussion about technology with an anti-tech stance, just curious if it got easy/automatic enough yet to be able to enjoy your rounds. 

[3PuttLefty]

10 hours ago, TayTaySlam said:

Is there a way to use the Apple Watch only for golf . Meaning not linking it to your phone apple account and texts and email and everything that goes with it . Or do you need your apple account hooked up for functionality.

I would believe u would need to connect it to an account, but can shut off all notifications but golf. 

[Golfcrzy]

2 hours ago, LukeDonaldsTiger said:

Honest question, for how long have you been using these apps and watches during golf rounds? Is it getting tedious to use technology or do the advantages outweigh that for you?

I‘m asking because I used to be big on using apps, I‘m a premium subscriber with The Grint (love the stats and the look/navigation), and my friends call me „Gadget King“…but I‘ve grown tired of fiddling with watch/phone on the course, correcting the little hiccups, then after the round transferring stuff from phone to app or whatever, charging batteries, managing more accounts/subscriptions/hardware, and so on. 
Lately, I enjoy Golf much more than my buddy who has to register each gimme putt and so on. 
Not here to hijack a discussion about technology with an anti-tech stance, just curious if it got easy/automatic enough yet to be able to enjoy your rounds. 

I’ve been using golf gps apps on my phone (or similar devices) for at least the last 15+ years. 
 

I do all the work in the cart between shots. I review the hole/green from the tee before we even start, so by the time I’m on the green I’ve already understood the complex layout. 
 

Arccos watch app is very simple. It’s mark pin placement and ensure accurate putt count (and mark a putt as a chip when required). I mark the flag as part of my pre-putt routine when pacing off distance. It takes no extra time, and I ensure putts are accurate as I walk off. 

Doing most of the work/research while your partner is playing and you’re waiting is also key. By the time I’m at my ball, I should know my next move. 
 

Until it gets to the green, for me, the apps are for rough ideas. The green map is good to help identify targets if you aren’t going for middle of the green. The green maps (print version or GolfLogix App) are also pretty quick to review. 
 

S70 was not quick about anything. It got in the way quite a bit. Familiarity? Maybe. But I’ve done about 8 or 9 rounds and except for the screen, it’s cumbersome and the data isn’t unique. 
 

So, for me, the apps are advantageous in general. 

 

[3PuttLefty]

I did not find the S70 to be slow.  Fwiw. 

  I have been using arccos for several

years and just got my first Apple watch this week. So without reviewing how to use the watch w Arccos i played my first round yesterday.  I found that using the watch made arccos even better and it was easy to learn.  It read all strokes but a few putts, which doesnt bother me quickly adjusting the putts between holes. 

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

Thanks. I walk 99% of my rounds, and other than sometimes looking up a hazard or moving the flag in my Garmin S12, I’m happy not needing to do anything but play my next shot. 

I used a couple apps extensively for the first two years and grew tired of it. 
But I get it, it’s great to have and use reliable data. 

[3PuttLefty]

And only reason i didnt keep the S70 is bc i like to use the rangefinder to get the exact number to pin.  
i thought S70 was a great watch.  If u shoot middle of green then S70 would

b a great fit. 

[Golfcrzy]

When I say the S70 is slow I’m referring to:

 

1) Doesn’t draw the map well when zoomed in. Screen lags and has to redraw every single time. 
 

2) Green orientation is slow and doesn’t load or land in the right place very well. 
 

3) The on screen buttons are finicky and hard to press, especially if you have any modicum of sweat on your hands.

 

4) Extra functionality is buried in menus requiring multiple clicks or taps 
 

Just my .02

[North Butte]

5 hours ago, LukeDonaldsTiger said:

Honest question, for how long have you been using these apps and watches during golf rounds? Is it getting tedious to use technology or do the advantages outweigh that for you?

I‘m asking because I used to be big on using apps, I‘m a premium subscriber with The Grint (love the stats and the look/navigation), and my friends call me „Gadget King“…but I‘ve grown tired of fiddling with watch/phone on the course, correcting the little hiccups, then after the round transferring stuff from phone to app or whatever, charging batteries, managing more accounts/subscriptions/hardware, and so on. 
Lately, I enjoy Golf much more than my buddy who has to register each gimme putt and so on. 
Not here to hijack a discussion about technology with an anti-tech stance, just curious if it got easy/automatic enough yet to be able to enjoy your rounds. 

I'm pretty sure I've got enough on-course watch/app/device usage over the years to make the following conclusion with considerable certainty and confidence...

 

For my game, it is tedious and distracting, full stop. Unless you literally don't care whether the data is correct at the end of the day, no device is anywhere near "easy/automatic". 

 

I have pretty much photographic recall of every shot in a round of golf, at least until the next time I play. So I do have an app that I can use at home to calculate simple Strokes Gained metrics by entering the distances and lies into the app the evening after a round. I'll go for periods of time doing that because I find it interesting.

 

But I'm not thinking in the slightest about that stuff while playing. For me at least, it is impossible to switch back and forth between "data collection mode" and "playing golf mode" dozens of times during a round and it's "playing golf mode" that always suffers. 

[Golfcrzy]

4 hours ago, North Butte said:

I'm pretty sure I've got enough on-course watch/app/device usage over the years to make the following conclusion with considerable certainty and confidence...

 

For my game, it is tedious and distracting, full stop. Unless you literally don't care whether the data is correct at the end of the day, no device is anywhere near "easy/automatic". 

 

I have pretty much photographic recall of every shot in a round of golf, at least until the next time I play. So I do have an app that I can use at home to calculate simple Strokes Gained metrics by entering the distances and lies into the app the evening after a round. I'll go for periods of time doing that because I find it interesting.

 

But I'm not thinking in the slightest about that stuff while playing. For me at least, it is impossible to switch back and forth between "data collection mode" and "playing golf mode" dozens of times during a round and it's "playing golf mode" that always suffers. 

Apple Watch and Arccos is “easy.” Takes less time to log your score than using a scorecard, and the benefits are huge. The iphone apps are easy and quick, on the whole. 
 

What have you used that you’d define as difficult to use, and what about it was difficult?

[North Butte]

8 minutes ago, Golfcrzy said:

Apple Watch and Arccos is “easy.” Takes less time to log your score than using a scorecard, and the benefits are huge. The iphone apps are easy and quick, on the whole. 
 

What have you used that you’d define as difficult to use, and what about it was difficult?

Not difficult. Just a continuous pain in the butt, an ongoing distraction. Unless, as I said, you don’t care about wrong locations, lies, putt lengths, pin positions, etc. 

 

BTW I don’t keep a scorecard unless it’s my turn to keep scores for the foursome. 
 

Maybe you are going to be fiddling with your watch and phone while you play golf anyway but I do not. 
 

An automatic system you would simply turn on and it would record each shot, in detail, correctly. There is no such system and it is not possible with existing technology. 

Edited May 8 by North Butte

[Golfcrzy]

The only one of the concerns you mentioned about accuracy that I fully agree on are lies, and that’s because Arccos haven’t (yet?) enabled you to change your lie on the Watch like you can mark a putt as a chip.
 

Locations are generally correct, you can easily mark the pin in four or five different ways, putt length is fairly accurately determined once you’ve set the flag…after a hole it is easy to see if something is amiss with a quick glance, and a drag or a tap fixes pretty much anything you might disagree with. 
 

Perhaps it is the familiarity and fluency with the software and sticking with it through several tests until arriving at something that is very process based and useful. I would not keep any of the stats it does without it, and I wouldn’t have the insights into my strengths and weaknesses, and the progress or regression, without it.
 

I am the proverbial happy customer. They’ve valued my business, their support is always available, and they even created a winter layout of my home course in no time a couple of seasons ago when they didn’t have one available. 
 

Happy to talk to anyone with loose sensors they’d like to part with. 
 

 

 

 

[North Butte]

22 minutes ago, Golfcrzy said:

The only one of the concerns you mentioned about accuracy that I fully agree on are lies, and that’s because Arccos haven’t (yet?) enabled you to change your lie on the Watch like you can mark a putt as a chip.
 

Locations are generally correct, you can easily mark the pin in four or five different ways, putt length is fairly accurately determined once you’ve set the flag…after a hole it is easy to see if something is amiss with a quick glance, and a drag or a tap fixes pretty much anything you might disagree with. 
 

Perhaps it is the familiarity and fluency with the software and sticking with it through several tests until arriving at something that is very process based and useful. I would not keep any of the stats it does without it, and I wouldn’t have the insights into my strengths and weaknesses, and the progress or regression, without it.
 

I am the proverbial happy customer. They’ve valued my business, their support is always available, and they even created a winter layout of my home course in no time a couple of seasons ago when they didn’t have one available. 
 

Happy to talk to anyone with loose sensors they’d like to part with. 

It's not "accuracy" if you have to go change it after the fact. And it isn't "automatic" if you have to mark the pin yourself then go back and rejigger things to get the correct first-putt distance by moving where it recorded the first putt and where it recorded the flag.

 

So like I said, if you are happy fiddling with your watch throughout the round and having "fairly accurate" (meaning wrong) data then of course Arccos or any such system is great. 

 

I'm out there to play golf, not play Arccos. 

[Golfcrzy]

You don’t have to change anything. I don’t have the same experience you do, and I was explicit about that. The only time I double check a lie is in sand. You can make changes if you don’t agree with the accuracy of the reading.
 

Nobody said anything was automatic. That’s unreasonable. 
 

But it’s not for you, and that’s fine. I just hope people will test for themselves who may be interested, because it is very fluid in use and quite beneficial for scorekeeping, stat keeping, bag mapping with dispersion, course/shot planning and improvement.
 

Horses for courses. 

[Gohigh]

1. Either S70, GolfLogix, and whatever other GPS devices you use... Only accurate most of the time as opposed to all the time with lasers. Yes, there are advantages with GPS, especially when playing unfamiliar courses, but I take every yardage as an estimate, with accuracy within 5-10 yards. But if Im stuck in between clubs, and the GPS says I have 143 to carry the water, I would much rather know exact number with laser. YMMV, but I use both Garmin and my Bushnell V6, and the yardage is way off about 8-10 times a round between the two. 

 

2. GolfLogix costs subscription fee of $60 per year or double that if you go monthly. Garmin is free for what its worth. 

 

3. I think the biggest benefit to GPS is how quickly you can go from shot to shot. Ive used it to just play a quick casual round when I feel lazy, and its much more convenient to have something on the wrist all the time. BUT when I have to scroll through many pages of different yardages, distances to various hazards, "heatmap" of the breaks, move the cursor to approximate location of the pin, zoom in and out of hole, etc etc, is it really quicker at this point? 

 

4. I know golf has become more data driven and these data are helping people play better... I suppose. Its only matter of time before Augmented Reality headsets or glasses will come to golf, replace all devices like watches or rangefinders, with overlays of hole, wind, yardages, etc all projected somehow onto something... And Im sure I will see a guy who cant break 90 on his best day carefully scrolling through flyovers and green maps, with AI showing him the optimal trajectory and yardages to any target of his choice, only to chunk one 20 yards in front of him... For me, golf is my time away from my phone and technologies that remind me that I work for a living... But then again, I fought hard against using laser range finders 20 years ago, but look at me now... lol. 

[Mudguard]

5 hours ago, North Butte said:

An automatic system you would simply turn on and it would record each shot, in detail, correctly. There is no such system and it is not possible with existing technology. 

 

To be fair. The Garmin isn't that far from that. I've had a different experience with my S62 in that I don't really use it much other than data recording. Occasionally I'll try work out a carry, but I'm playing at my home course 90% of the time. 

You hit a shot, Garmin just asks what club you hit (and after awhile it guesses pretty accurately). If you want to you can record stats at the end of the hole. For me as I walk off a green it reminds me, score, fairway left or right, putts and penalties. What I love the is shot history from every round from all over the course. But I'm looking at that on my phone away from the course.

On mine the green reading was exactly like the reviews. Terrible. It would try auto rotate with the slightest movement, why oh why they didn't just lock the orientation (or give the option).

 

But from someone who loves stats I think it's brilliant. But I use it for health metrics and some other stuff, actually mostly non-phone based stuff ironically for a Smart Watch. 

 

I love the graphic of all the tee shots I've ever hit, the way they drop the balls down and show how far, wide (and short 😂) the driver goes. Or any club you select.

[Celeras]

3 hours ago, Mudguard said:

 

To be fair. The Garmin isn't that far from that. I've had a different experience with my S62 in that I don't really use it much other than data recording. Occasionally I'll try work out a carry, but I'm playing at my home course 90% of the time. 

You hit a shot, Garmin just asks what club you hit (and after awhile it guesses pretty accurately). If you want to you can record stats at the end of the hole. For me as I walk off a green it reminds me, score, fairway left or right, putts and penalties. What I love the is shot history from every round from all over the course. But I'm looking at that on my phone away from the course.

On mine the green reading was exactly like the reviews. Terrible. It would try auto rotate with the slightest movement, why oh why they didn't just lock the orientation (or give the option).

 

But from someone who loves stats I think it's brilliant. But I use it for health metrics and some other stuff, actually mostly non-phone based stuff ironically for a Smart Watch. 

 

I love the graphic of all the tee shots I've ever hit, the way they drop the balls down and show how far, wide (and short 😂) the driver goes. Or any club you select.

 

I agree with you. Putting a single CT10 on my putter eliminated all "fiddling" for me, just need to set the pin. It should be less clicks to do it on the watch, but besides that its automatic and as accurate as GPS can get.

 

I gave feedback on that green reading years ago, and brought it up again when the S70 came out. It's a damn shame they never did anything about it. Wasted feature as-is.

[Golfcrzy]

Garmin charges $9.99 a month for the green feature. It’s 2x GolfLogix app.