I started playing golf about 12 months ago. Our group then booked an overnight golf trip with dinner/breakfast to Avisford Park via Golfbreaks.com and after the 2 rounds I was bitten by the golf bug … and a mosquito. On my return I went out and got a decent Nicklaus set; shoes, trousers and some waterproofs and then the training and short games began. As a group we had a fab Spring, Summer and Autumn travelling to Portugal, Sicily and then back to Avisford Park, but this time with my wife who has just started playing.

Anyway back to the reason for the blog. I got looking at rangefinders and picked up a PGA endorsed one from Marks & Spencer. Using this, sometimes I could see the flag and other times could not, it was more hassle to align the thing, back it went to M&S (in the original packaging). Around that time I was looking at the market for a sports type watch and I accidently came across the Garmin Approach S1 and the Sunnto G6 pro, both serving different purposes – Sunnto was discontinued but still available.

I took the plunge and bought the S1. This is a great watch with a clear white dial, unlike the Titanium Polar watch I bought a few years back where you had to squint to see the time. The size of the S1 does not affect playing the game.

I got to use the watch at a recent trip to Islantilla (again booked via Golfbreaks.com). The art is to start the satellite search before hitting the first Tee and choose the course. Every hole was perfectly measured and as my wife and I were not counting the scores we ditched the cards and relied on the watch for distance and ball measurement, which just made the game more fun. The S1 did save on shots as it tells you exactly how far you are from the back, middle & front of the green, using this data you can select the right club for your type of swing. This watch does not have aerial maps so it helps if you first mentally map the hole you are on, i.e. dog-leg L/R or straight.

It’s not clear if the S1 has 5000 or 14,000 courses mapped, but no big deal as it does cover Europe. You can measure shots from any point, changes to next hole as you walk to it (you can press up/down otherwise), pedometer function if ever I feel the urge to walk and measure – which I did for a laugh during Christmas shopping to see how many miles I travelled whilst at a shopping centre – 1.4miles), very clear display as mentioned and it is waterproof.

Summary…

The bad : strap moulded to watch-face, on GPS mode charge will last 8 hours day otherwise a few weeks or so, manual not great but they have kept the menus simple.

Would I recommended it ?  YES.
Price: £149 price-match at American Golf.
Look out for: Sunnto G6 Pro replacement - no date yet – I am sure the new one will allow you to measure swing and will have GPS.
Also keep an eye on iPod Nano (next release) it may have GPS. Companies are already producing wrist bands to turn Nanos into watches – golf Apps will be required but companies are ready.