Garmin Golf Reviews

by Ilovedobby

I have a Garmin Venu. I bought this $400 watch instead of a cheaper Fitbit because I loved the golf features. Except that the golf app is horrible. It shows all my shots, and even the flag, as being behind and way to the right on the map. I’m a bad golfer but not that bad. I cannot even see what my drive distances are because the tee where the distance is shown is off the screen. You cannot zoom in/out, feels like a 2007 app. Btw, I reached out to support twice about the issue, never got a response. I have deleted and redownloaded both the connect and golf apps multiple times. I cleared the golf course cache on connect. Nothing has helped. If I could return the watch and get arccos instead I would.

by Dez E Ray

I like GarminGolf and will give 5 stars once this glitch is addressed.
I’ve had my Approach 20s for two weeks now and have played around 10 rounds with it. I’ve enjoyed the watch and app when they’ve worked together. However, my last 3 rounds, while saved in the watch, did not migrate to the GGolf app. First of all, I’d like to see my score from yesterday as I didn’t keep it on a card. At this point that whole round is gone. Secondly, I’d like to see where I need to improve. A handy feature when the watch and app work well together. I’ve tried deleting and reinstalling GarminGolf . I’ve turned the watch off/on. Disconnected reconnected the Bluetooth. Disconnected reconnected the Garmin connect app. Tried syncing both GGarmin and GConnect app to watch several times. I get notifications from phone to watch. I see my steps and “activity”. It’s only the scorecard that doesn’t sync. Without that it makes the watch good for distances only. Which is not worth it. Please fix this issue!

by Pupjr

I have used GarminGolf for two years. When Garmin decided to take all the golf functions off of Garmin Connect and link them to GarminGolf they RUINED it! It is more or less useless since all it does is record your rounds. You can get the same function using the GHIN app and at least that app will give you useful stats such as GIR averages, putts per round etc. GarminGolf won’t even give you hole by hole averages even though the data is right in it easily available. This tells me that Garmin couldn’t care less about its golfers using its hardware. I like using my Vivoactive HR for golf and its golf function works well but GarminGolf supporting it, this one, is a loser. Step up your game Garmin!

by Oaf6455

Been using the g80 for 3 months. Scorecards upload to my iPhone after each round. Also sync to garmin connect on my computer. The garmin golf app shows all score cards and the courses played. I can see each individual stats for each score card but the course stats DO NOT SHOW on GarminGolf . I can login to computer garmin connect and see my stats for each course played but I want to see it on the iPhone in GarminGolf . I have complained and garmin says they fixed it with the lasted release. NO THEY DID NOT. Also in both the golf app and garmin connect I am unable to get course stats for my playing parters. For the 500 bucks I put out for the g80, consider another manufacturer. Garmin needs to get their programming right if they are going to have those features in their apps and do it timely.

by BTMarathon

It may work better if all clubs had the CT 10 accessories. However, I don’t feel you should need them to be able to get semi-accurate shot statistics. For example, I accidentally put that I hit a 3 wood off the tee. When I went in to look at the round, I noticed that I hit the 3 wood button. I updated that to my driver, but it still shows that drive as the average for my 3 wood. I hit the ball nowhere near the average 3 wood totals in GarminGolf . I have several clubs like that now, but Garmin uses your last 10 rounds, so it will be on there for awhile. No way to manually update it. I really wanted the help of this functionality to tell me how far that I’m hitting each club. It isn’t valuable with all the skewed data. Since the CT 10’s connect directly. They would probably help with this, but I’m not ready to spend that kind of money until GarminGolf gets a bit better tracking.

The watch is fantastic and functional. GPS works great and the features are first rate. I will keep uploading to Garmin Golf just in case it gets better in the future, but at the moment this isn’t helpful.

by ErinIsCoolX2

I always use my watch (Approach S20) when I play. The course always loads, and I enter shots, putts, fairway hits, and penalties, finish, save the round, and review the stats. However, the round doesn’t always upload to GarminGolf on my iPhone. It doesn’t matter if I have GarminGolf open on my phone during the round or not.

I have revised my rating to downgrade from 3 to 2 stars. I played a round today and used both my watch and GarminGolf to log my scores, fairways, and puts. The scorecard is the only thing that shows up. It’s the first time I used GarminGolf to record the stats, but still no hole-by-hole shots. I have those from other rounds without using he app.

I would not recommend wasting your time with GarminGolf since it’s so hit and miss if you’re going to be able to review your round. There are many other apps that are much more reliable.

by Original Otis

Bought the approach R10 and set up my indoor simulator setup with projector. The HUGE problem is that the simulator only works in GarminGolf . There is no way to use on a computer, there is no option to stream directly to a smart device (Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, etc), and the absolute lowest option isn’t even available either in the fact that you can even put the phone in landscape mode and mirror the phone. The ONLY option is the mirror your phone in VERTICAL mode. So you have a tiny vertical iPhone screen in the middle of your TV or projection when you cast/share your screen to smart devices. These are such basic things to iron out when you spend all this time advertising a simulator. At the very least set up your app for landscape mode! So disappointed.

by Takin' Yo Chips

I love GarminGolf with the Garmin Approach R10, comes with tons of golf courses including tiny municipal courses and executive courses. The interface is great, this should be a 5 star review, HOWEVER….

There is no left handed support at all in GarminGolf. I am using with a ball flight tracker to improve my swing mechanics but I have to mirror all of the visual data in my head. I’m sure the interpretation of the ball flight data is favored towards accuracy of right handed shots, and I’m ok with that, but the user interface visuals should be easy to add (literally just mirror the images) and I am sure the left handed community would greatly appreciate it!

Hopefully this happens at some point then I will be happy to change to 5*

by Gandy Those Detroit Guy

I switched from an Apple Watch to the Garmin family. The golf app is lacking and competition is catching up and utltize the Apple Watch as a input! The animation of the course is very unwellming. Scoring is pretty easy from Tee to Green but entering putts can only be done post round on GarminGolf ! I like to review the performance data post round for areas for improvement! I would like to see more data by Par 3, Par 4, and Par 5s. I really wish Garmin would connect to the GRINT or other scoring and tracking apps to easily input scores and performance stats.
I will say the Garmin watch is an upgrade over the accross inserts in every club! Don’t plan on putting inserts in my putter and wedges!

by Oscarrob

I like GarminGolf . It works well with my Garmin Approach S62 watch. I don’t like apps that make things hard or complex. GarminGolf along with the watch generally makes things easy including shot tracking, club performance (even without the C10 system which I also got), scoring and distance. There are a few minor issues. First it’s impossible to import anything from other apps, so if you are switching you either have to enter manually or start over. Second the standard club lofts are not editable. They’re all wrong for my new clubs. That seems like it should be an easy fix. Third, I used club performance tracking first and then added the C10 system. All my club performance stats seemed to get wiped out. Then the next day the came back. Not sure what happened. Other than those minor imperfections I like GarminGolf a lot. Especially for use with the watch.

by Disappointed2much

For us old timers who are still running with the F3HR we don’t have the capability to input fairway hits and putts into the device while in play. Would be beneficial to us if GarminGolf allowed you to do this to saved rounds, not while round is in play. I leave my phone in the car when on the course and could then input the data while at the clubhouse. Who wants to hook up to their computer to input the info? In other words, allow users of older devices to play out the round on the device then save it. Once saved we can then edit the round on GarminGolf (i.e. fairway hits, GIR, putts). Having these additional statistics means a lot to us.

by Bigla125

Pros: fairly accurate distance to holes, good sir distance measuring, like the scorekeeping and syncing to Garmin golf app which saves all your scorecards and stats. Bluetooth to phone let's you know when you get a call or text and every other notification which I don't like.
Cons: Hazard distances are not good and difficult to maneuver. Can't fine tooth notifications. Seems to be all or nothing. Can only get 2 round on a battery charge.
I really do like using the watch had a handheld Garmin gps and enjoy having the device on my wrist and not have to carry it.
I don't use the activity tracker so can't comment on that.

by Jogriff124

I’ve been using the Garmin S20 for the better part of year, a friend told me about the Garmin Golf app within the last couple months, I feel like an idiot for not having been using GarminGolf along with the watch the entire time. It does a great job of journalizing your rounds, tracking stats and even calculating your handicap. I play 4 times a week, so I’ve developed a large sample size, GarminGolf let’s me know how far I hit each club, it tracks historical data where you can look up every shot you’ve played on a single hole over a period of time and it has greatly improved my course management and my overall scores. Great job keeping it simple and user friendly, even old people should be able to figure it out!! Lol

by GerryNH

I have been using my Garmin S20 with the CT10 club sensors for the past few weeks. The hardware, software and gps system have worked flawlessly. The system is easy to use, works very reliably, is clear and simple. I have used similar products that missed shots, got confused, posted incorrect data and often distracted me from the game. Garmins system never distracted me and provided useful data at appropriate times. I love this product.

by Kmackinley

I downloaded GarminGolf to use with the R10. I truly believe this is a huge market disruption in a great way. Far superior than Optishot and much cheaper but comparable to the other radar launch monitors. The stats and the 41k courses out of the box are unbeatable. I played the same course right after I got home and got a very similar score (a tad lower due to the benefit of the doubt most simulators give). Was hitting left all day and it showed on the simulator. Best purchase in a while.

by Michael3912

I recently bought an Approach S42 and it works very well with GarminGolf . All I did is pair it with my phone and off I went. When you get home from the round, GarminGolf has all your shot data and overlays it on the course making it very easy to see where things went wrong or right. The only thing I would change is to make the place to find course data a little easier to find.

by Bbwordsmith99

I’ve been using the S60 approach for three years. Absolutely love it. Courses appear and load quickly. Yardage, image of the hole showing where things are, and scoring all work well during play. The new feature on scoring is nice- yardage is available to the end and you decide when to input score. After play- I can review every hole on GarminGolf to see where I went and how long the shots were. I can even review previous rounds. Best golf purchase ever!

by JMWic

The S20 provides excellent basic functionality for golfers including distance during round and tracking and reporting of stats after. There were some issues during winter of 2020 when GarminGolf wasn’t working and the watch wouldn’t sync with GarminGolf on phone which were annoying. However the watch still functioned great on the course. Once the issue was resolved its been working well. Really like the extra functionality features on this watch!

by Sure Shot 27

I’ve only been golfing for about 2 years, I’ve been using my S20 approach for the last 8 months or so and it’s a great tool for out on the course. Just realized there are features to measure shots , hazard distances. Once you are finished with your round , sync it with your app on your phone and it shows all of your drives and approach shots. Tracks your handicap, even compares and tracks your progress with other similar handicaps. It is simple to use and doesn’t waste time during your rounds. Just walk up to your ball, check the distances to the green (3 locations Front , Center and Back) grab your club and swing away.

by Huntrdan

I own a lot of Garmin products like dog training collars, GPS unit, Instinct watch and more. When I was informed about the Garmin Golf App I decided to connect it with my Fenix 5 watch and was not disappointed. Garmin makes everything easy to learn without having to be a computer programmer to make it work. I can keep my score easily as I make my way through the course and then review my stats at the end of the day. I love that it tracks your club performance with just a little bit of extra effort to enter your clubs information.
Garmin customer for life!

by Mre1905

Few major functionalities are missing making GarminGolf unusable. You can’t edit scorecards like you can on the website and it doesn’t show you the shot information (Garmin connect app does). Until GarminGolf has equivalent functionality as the Garmin connect app don’t bother.

Also a it would be nice if it calculated your handicap. Lots of free apps do this and there is no reason Garmin can not provide it.

by Boutdislife

When I got my s60 a couple months ago and started using GarminGolf I could add/delete shots to my scorecard when the round ended. Then after a recent update they removed this feature from GarminGolf but you can do it on the website.

Also now when you delete shots that assigned to the wrong hole, it removes that hole from the scorecard for editing. The score and stats for the hole is there but you just can't view that hole anymore. Does this on both the website and GarminGolf .

Also wish it would show all your clubs and the average distance like the website does.

by Bluereys

It shows the layout of the hole, and you can keep score with it...not that great otherwise. Does not show distance from hole, only syncs with your device when you manually sync with it, the course layouts are low resolution. Just very not impressed overall. I thought it would be in constant sync with devise to show a map layout of where you are in the hole if you needed more information or detail on occasion than you had on your Fenix or Approach.

by JefePM

There are things I like about GarminGolf. The shot info is helpful. Shows the drive distribution and best yardages to the hole for me.

What I don’t like is the lack of editing available. It would also be nice if I didn’t have to sync to get my round info. I’d rather see it in real time. Also if using a watch the course stats are unavailable. This to me is the biggest drawback.

by 1a2a

Like GarminGolf and does have good information to track how my game is going but is not always accurate.

On many holes I notice that when my group is going to our shots I will stop prior to getting to my shot and wait as another member of my group hits their shot and then go to my ball and hit my next shot. For some reason GarminGolf reads that I hit a shot while I was waiting for the other member of my group to hit

Not a major issue but does make for not completely accurate data when reviewing my round.

by Ejpfeifer86

Overall easy to use. Just wish there was a little more information available on my watch(it’s an all around watch, not a golf only watch), and wish you could input more stats info on GarminGolf . Hard to keep track of other stats on scorecard and sore on watch/phone.

by DHender499

This watch is not only impressive looking, but highly functional. It greatly assists me when I am on the course. The only setback is that the lock sign comes on all the time and I am constantly fidgeting with it to enter my score. Otherwise, it is excellent.

by GarminGolfer!

I got out today with my Garmin and it’s already helping my play and score better! I’m hitting the correct club more often. It saves me the from hunting for sprinkler heads! My wife got this for me for our anniversary and I told her I never need another gift as long as I live!

by Veloking

I really like the scorecard feature,distances and the download to my phone. On the phone app I can see each shot and distance in the hole by hole function. It collects tons of data, putts fairways stuff like that. Only thing i wish it provided on the scorecard is the hole handicap for betting and games purposes.

by Stevecouch

I’ve only played 5-6 rounds with my new Garmin S60, but I totally dig it. I love having yardages in my wrist at all times, so I don’t have to pull out my phone or scope every time I need a distance. It also syncs really nice and gives you a great visual overview of your round on your smart phone (Garmin Golf app). I have 58 y/o eyes, so was a little curious how I would read it w/o readers, but it’s fine for me.

Couple minor drawbacks:
Plenty of juice for one full round. Touch & go on that second round, though. I keep a battery brick in my bag, just in case.

Also, you can zoom in a little and check yardage on that bunker or Creek, but it’s a little clunky for that. Not a smoothe pinch in/out for zoom.

All in all, definitely a good purchase.

BTW, I think you can get pretty much the same yardage functionality with Garmin’s more basic models for a cheaper price, but I was happy to pay more for the upgrade to Approach S60.

by Lefty6202

The automatic shot tracking capability while playing a round is awesome. It shows each shot with distance and placement almost as if it were able to track the ball! Great for reviewing swing performance and course strategy.