Welcome everyone back to Golf Weekly where each week we dive into the latest golf gear, technology, apparel, and experiences. This week we jump into our Favorite Golf GPS Watches for 2021. We will dive into the newest releases for GPS watches and what new features you should be aware of. Please note that for convenience, all links to products will be in the description below.
Every year there are new advancements in GPS Watch technology. In our second annual review of our favorite GPS Watches we will be breaking down a list of 4 GPS watches that we feel are the best of the best this year.
The Garmin S62 is the latest edition of a long line of amazing products from Garmin. The S62 is a sleek design with a full color 1.3” display that is easy to see even in the sun. You can customize the watch face and the band to your liking. This year’s model comes with 41,000 courses pre-loaded, has a 20 hours in GPS mode, and like most Garmin Golf products is compatible with the Garmin Golf app which unlocks a ton of functionality and additional data.
Let’s talk about cool features that the S62 brings to the table. The virtual caddie calculates wind speed & direction and recommends the right club based on your typical club distances. The “Plays Like” feature adjusts yardages to account for uphill and downhill shots so you get the most accurate information based on the different elevations. The GreenView feature gives you each green’s true shape from wherever you are on the course, and it allows you to drag-and-drop the pin to see distances. The PinPointer feature will tell you the direction of the pin even on blind shots so you can know which direction to aim for every shot. Pair your watch with Approach C10 club tracking sensors for more advanced tracking capabilities, including locations, distances and club type. The custom target feature is cool too as you can pinpoint saved spots on any given hole so anytime you play that hole you will know the distance to that specific point. You can stay connected to receive texts, emails, and other notifications from your smartphone. The S62 also offers some great health tracking capabilities such as: wrist based heart rate, the Pulse Ox feature to measure blood oxygen saturation level, as well as other pre-loaded health activities. The S62 from Garmin is available now and costs around $500.00
Bushnell Ion Edge:
The ION EDGE features a new design with a touchscreen display and the Bushnell Golf app for automatic updates to the more than 38,000 preloaded courses worldwide. Based on early usability ratings, the ION EDGE is considered to be one of the industry’s easiest to use golf GPS watches with instant yardage measurements. When you combine the ease of use and the price point, the ION EDGE in our opinion is a steal at a $150.00 price point.
The Bushnell watch offers the golfer long battery life (15+ hours), and even more benefits such as a NEW touchscreen display, GreenView with moveable pin placement, Dynamic Green Mapping (front and back distances are shown based on golfer’s line of play), shot distance calculator, and the ability to get up to six hazard distances per hole.
The ION EDGE Golf GPS Watch instantly recognizes courses. It features an auto-hole advance which automatically changes from one hole to the next, so a golfer can start play and get front/center/back distances without touching any buttons the rest of the round.
The ION Edge from Bushnell comes in black or grey and will be available in the upcoming weeks in many major golf retail locations and online.
We featured the Shotscope V3 in last year’s “Best Shot Trackers video” which we will link in the description below. The Shotscope V3 launched in Oct/Nov last year, but we wanted to keep in on this list. The Shotscope V3 is about the size of an apple watch and offers an add-on of 16 screw-in sensor tags along with the GPS Watch. This system will allow the golfer to analyze their statistics, like club distances, accuracy with each club. The great thing about the Shotscope is there is no tagging or phone required. The 16 sensors will automatically sync with the watch to provide you shot tracking and other analytics. The Shotscope V3 provides you a great GPS watch to help with distances and comes in 5 different colored bands that you can switch out to match with any style. The watch also has 36,000 preloaded courses and comes with a color display screen that is easy to read even in the sun. The Shotscope V3 has a dual GPS antenna system for more precise yardages, and a 10-hour battery life to get multiple rounds in. The watch also has standard features such as front, middle, and back distances to the green, and your last shot distances. If you don’t have a GPS watch or Shot tracking sensors, this is a great low-priced option for you. This is a great value for both the watch and shot trackers right now the Shotscope V3 system costs $220.00.
Skycaddie promotes their new LX5 Ceramic Bezel as “GOLF’S SMARTEST, BRIGHTEST AND FASTEST WATCH™” and this next generation “smart” technology provides the closest thing to the award-winning SkyCaddie SX500 on your wrist. There are a few features in the LX5 that sets this watch apart from others. First is the size of the touchscreen at 1.39”. Their Full HD graphics touchscreen display offers state of the art new tech called HoleVue and IntelliGreen imagery powered by an ultra-fast processor to get yardages you can trust. The LX5 Ceramic Bezel is also scratch and fade resistant to keep it looking brand new for years. We love how responsive the touch screen is and how you can see the exact shape of the green w/ distances to the front, back and any point in-between as well as the ability to zoom & pan for precision targeting and yardage. The watch can also be customized with new silicon bands, and multiple watch faces. The SkyGolf LX5 Ceramic Bezel offers additional features like a digital scorecard, battery life up to 2 rounds, and preloaded with 35,000 ground verified and error-corrected maps. Includes 3-year worldwide membership providing real-time updates to over 35,000 ground verified course maps and SkyGolf 360 Cloud Service for performance tracking and analysis. The SkyCaddie LX5 is also equipped with some of the same features you’ve come to expect from modern fitness bands such as: heart rate monitor, step counter, step goals, stopwatch, and timer. The SkyGolf LX5 Ceramic is $349 and includes a 3 year Pro membership to Skycaddie 360.
What GPS watch are you excited about trying out this year?