How This Launch Monitor Can Help You Get More From Your Game
As the winter comes rolling in, it’s only natural that we play a little less golf and find it harder to get as much practice in. For many of us, this naturally means that our golf game suffers a little bit over the colder, darker months and it can take a while to get back up to speed when the season rolls around again. But, this doesn’t have to be the case any longer. Portable, affordable and user-friendly launch monitors have been flooding the market over the last few years and give golfers a fantastic opportunity to get much more for their game and dial in those practice sessions over the winter.
While the range is a useful place to hone your skills during the off season, a launch monitor is a device that can help keep your swing in shape all year round while allowing you to get even more understanding of your game in the process. Certainly very few of us will have quantifiable evidence of how far we hit all of our clubs on average or what the spin rate is on our pitching wedge, but a launch monitor is the ideal device to help you understand these sorts of metrics. The Garmin Approach R10 is a great example of a portable launch monitor that can allow you to get more from your game all year round and learn about the key metrics that can allow you to play your best game out of the golf course.
Portable, lightweight and with up to 10 hours of battery life between charges, the Garmin Approach R10 can be taken anywhere with you indoors or outdoors to help you get the most from your game. Simply set the device behind the ball, connect it via Bluetooth to the Garmin Golf app and you have access to a dozen metrics, a detailed dispersion chart and even virtual rounds of golf on over 42,000 courses. While access to the virtual rounds of golf requires an £8.99 per month membership, it's an immersive way to practice from the comfort of your own home or local driving range. Combined, these features on the Approach R10 not only help keep your game in shape over the winter months, but add a whole new dimension of detail and fun to your practice regime.
The device tracks a myriad of metrics that you can be as detailed and specific with as you like. These metrics include club head speed, ball speed, launch angle, smash factor, club path, club face angle and estimated distances all of which are stored within the Garmin Golf app. These are the sort of metrics that are impossible to track on your own but, when captured by the Approach R10, can give you a much greater understanding of your own golf swing, how you strike the ball and what you need to do to improve your swing. Having the knowledge of how far you hit your 7-iron on average, where the face of your driver is at impact or how high you launch your pitching wedge is invaluable when it comes to getting more from your game on the golf course.
Left: Dispersion data colour coded for each club in the bag
Right: Grouped data from clubs across the whole bag, listing maximum total and carry distances as well as average total and carry distances
The device and app also allow you to record your swing and analyse the data side-by-side, allowing you to visually learn more about your swing and make the necessary adjustments. The real beauty of a device as portable as the Approach R10 is you can take it anywhere with you. Whether it’s on the driving range, in a net at your golf club or even in your back garden at home, the Approach R10 can be easily and quickly set up wherever you like to practice. Especially useful over the winter months and if you have a net area at home is Garmin’s Home Tee Hero (subscription required).
The Garmin Approach R10 gives incredibly detailed analysis about how your club face interacts with the golf ball at impact.
This feature allows you to play virtual golf on 42,000 courses without having to leave the comfort of your own house or local driving range. Whether you’re looking to touch up your knowledge and strategy around your local course or play Augusta National in your downtime, Home Tee Hero adds a new element of genuine fun to practicing and allows for more focused concentration on the quality of your ball striking on a virtual golf course.
Screenshots from the Home Tee Hero section of the Garmin Golf app when connected with the Garmin Approach R10 launch monitor.
So, whether it’s to gain a better understanding of how far you hit each club, or you want to make your winter practice sessions more enjoyable and practical, a device like the Garmin Approach R10 is readymade to help you get more out of your game and convert that into better scores on course.
