Garmin Approach J1 Review: The First GPS Watch Built for Junior Golfers

***Updated July 2026 with Marc's in-depth Garmin Approach J1 golf GPS watch review***

Watch Our Garmin Approach J1 Golf GPS Watch Video

Once in a while since I’ve been reviewing golf tech, a product shows up that makes me wonder why nobody built it sooner. The Garmin Approach J1 GPS golf watch is one of those.

It’s the first golf watch made specifically for kids. And I think it’s really cool. And honestly, I think Garmin was overdue to make it.

Golf tech has been on a tear for years now. Launch monitors, rangefinders, GPS watches, shot tracking technology, I mean there are seriously new and exciting golf tech products coming out every single month. I’m talking about legitimate stuff worth paying attention to.

Meanwhile, junior golf has been booming right alongside it, with more kids playing and competing than just about ever.

But hold those two facts up next to each other and they just feel misaligned. Because pretty much none of that technology was ever built with a kid in mind.

I totally get it. Adults are the ones with the money and the ones who decide how the money is spent. Makes sense, obviously, to address their needs first and foremost.

But adults have kids. And a parent who golfs? Take it from me, nobody on earth is more eager to buy their kid golf stuff. The problem is there aren’t that many things worth buying.

So I just think it’s time, and I’m glad to see Garmin taking up the mantle to do something about that. The J1 is the first watch built from the wrist up for a young golfer, and the more time I spend with it, the more I am convinced they got it right.

Here’s why.

What Makes the Garmin Approach J1 a Kid’s Watch

First of all, this J1 watch has the same proven Garmin GPS and the same massive course database you’d get on their grown-up watches. So that’s obviously good news. I’ve reviewed many Garmin GPS products, and their accuracy and data quality are irrefutable. You get the same full-color hole maps, front/middle/back yardages, and a zoomed-in Green View you can drag the pin around on. Good to see the kids aren’t getting cheated on any of the baseline stuff.

The other thing that I noticed immediately is that the J1 includes the same AMOLED touchscreen display as you get with the newer-model adult watches. That display is as crisp and vibrant as anything in the industry. This makes all of that information contained within the watch much more inviting and enjoyable to interact with. Big win for the kids.

Another huge win is that the J1 includes a club suggestions feature. So you manually input distances for each club ahead of time, and then the J1 will recommend which club for them to hit depending on the distance of the shot they’re facing. Talk about powerful information. One of the hardest things for a young golfer to learn is what club to pull for what shot.

Physically, this watch is slim and light, with a ComfortFit fabric band that fits smaller wrists without getting in the way of a swing. I love the comfort of this band. It’s like a nylon-covered elastic, and it’s just very comfortable. I thought the same thing about the S50 when I tried that product. And if this J1 band were sized just a bit bigger for my adult wrist, I think I’d actually prefer the fit of this watch even over the silicone band on the Garmin S70 I wear daily.

Also, because this watch doesn’t have a heart-rate monitor like my S70 and because the case size is smaller at 43 x 43 x 11.4 millimeters, the watch just feels extremely sleek on the wrist. That’s obviously by design, and I think it will pay off very nicely on the smaller wrist of a junior. You forget you even have it on.

The watch comes in two colors: Cloud Blue with a Black and Azure band, and Silver with a Lilac band. Certainly nice to have a couple of options.

But here’s the good stuff. These are the features that make this a junior golf watch.

Garmin Approach J1 Golf GPS Watch Features

Tee-Off Guidance

This might be the coolest feature of the whole watch. Using GPS, the J1 gives you a forward tee location on every one of its 43,000-plus courses, scaled to the junior’s ability.

So when you set up the watch, you tell it how far your kid hits their driver. After that, on every hole, the watch walks them up to a spot that makes the hole play at a sensible length for them. A screen pops up on the watch showing them arrows to keep moving forward. Once they get to the recommended tee-off spot, the watch will tell them to stop and tee it up.

It’s really slick and it works really well.

Think about how cool this is. It makes the game so much more realistic and so much less intimidating for a kid if they don’t have to beat their brains in by teeing off from spots where they might not even be able to reach the fairway with their driver. I think it’s brilliant.

Playing from a set of tees that fits how far you actually hit it, is the exact thing the USGA and PGA of America have been pushing adult golfers to do for years through their Tee It Forward campaign. The J1 just wires that habit into a kid from their very first round.

Personal Par

Another feature that I love. I actually wish I could adopt this for my own game.

Again, when you set up the watch, it will ask you where relative to par you typically score on a hole. So if you play bogey golf, you can set your Personal Par to one-over. Or you can choose all the way up to five-over. That means that instead of playing a Par 4 as a Par 4, the kid can play it as a Par 9 if that’s what’s more appropriate.

Once again, I see this as a great way to make the standards more realistic for a kid. They can set goals that are much more realistic, and I think that has the chance to make the entire experience a lot more fun. Kind of the point of playing golf, remember?

And it’s not like there’s a downside to having this feature included. If your kid is already a decent player, you just turn the Personal Par or Tee-Off Guidance feature off. In fact, any of these junior-specific features can be turned off, which makes the watch relevant to a wide range of juniors.

On-Watch Celebrations

On that note of keeping things fun, the watch does a great job of celebrating successes. The J1 pops a little animation when the kid does something special, like make a birdie or an eagle. And it’s all tied to their own Personal Par. I think this is a cool and fun way to keep a young golfer interested and motivated and to help them feel successful.

Pace-of-Play Timer

Yet another awesome idea built into the Garmin Approach J1 golf GPS watch. As you’re playing, the watch has a ring around the perimeter of the watch face. It’s green for as long as you’re completing the hole on time. As you move along, the ring gets longer if you’re starting to move a little slower and shorter if you’re ahead of pace.

Pace is one of the first courtesies a young golfer needs to pick up. I think any of us who play regularly would agree with that and it’s probably one of the earlier lessons we were taught about the game.

But here’s the deal, and I can speak from the experience of teaching my own children. When it’s the dad nagging the kid to keep it moving, well, that dynamic eventually has the chance of turning caustic. And that’s exactly the type of vibe that steals the fun from a round and potentially makes the kid less interested the next time they’re invited to play.

So to have the watch be the bad guy for you — I love that. The kid gets to feel in control and yet they know when it’s time to pick up the pace and they learn what reasonable pace feels like.

The Approach J1 Is Scalable

I mentioned that any of those kid-specific features I just walked through can be turned on and off. That’s important, obviously, because when you use the term “junior golfer,” you’re potentially talking about a pretty massive range of skill.

Also, the whole point here is to help your kid fall in love with the game. And as they do so, they are undoubtedly going to get better at it.

So as some features become less helpful or interesting to them, you turn ‘em off.

Conversely, as they improve, the J1 gives you the option to tap into more advanced features like stat tracking. By pairing the watch with a Garmin Golf account, you can store all of your shots and scores so that you can compare and track progress over time. However, to do that, you will need a phone or computer, which brings me to my next point.

The Garmin Approach J1 Can Be Used Phone-Free

As I mentioned, if you want to go deep and track all your scores and stats, you can do that using the J1 paired with a Garmin Golf account. That’s cool and all, but it does introduce a phone into the equation.

And that can be a sticky subject for a lot of parents who aren’t crazy about bringing a cellphone into their child’s life prematurely.

Good news. You don’t have to. The J1 can be used entirely independently from a phone. All of those cool features — the Tee-Off Guidance, the Personal Par, the Pace-of-Play Timer, the celebrations, club suggestions — none of that requires connecting to a phone.

So, if your junior golfer doesn’t yet have a cellphone, no problem. In fact, this J1 might be a more appropriate way to introduce a bit of technology into their lives.

Another point along those same lines is that you’ve got the option to install parental controls on the watch.

Garmin Approach J1 Golf GPS Watch Makes a Great Gift Option

Let’s be real: It’s not the kid who’s going to be buying the kid’s golf watch. It’s most likely a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend. Someone with a bigger allowance than most junior golfers.

And that’s really why I’m surprised that so far this watch hasn’t become even more popular. I think it’s just a matter of more people knowing about it.

Think about it. There really aren’t that many golf gifts available for kids. Once you get them the clubs, a bag, some golf balls, a towel, maybe some shoes and a glove if they’re getting into it a little bit, there aren’t that many things to buy. Let’s face it: Pretty much everything else you find in the golf shop or online is for adults.

The J1 is something different. It’s a real piece of technology, made for a kid. They can wear it all day, show it off at school, feel proud about it, and of course use it to enjoy the game of golf more. I don’t know any golfing adults who wouldn’t want all of that for their kid.

Golf parents are evangelists. It takes one to know one. We want our kids to love the game we love. So, calling all the cool parents and grandparents out there: Here’s a gift with a real chance of landing. A kid’s own golf watch is big-time. It gives them some ownership in their own game and it just might help them fall in love with it for the rest of their lives.

At $299.99, it’s definitely a very nice gift. But for the right kid, I’d have a hard time naming a better one.

What this Garmin Golf Watch Is Not

The thing to know here is that this is a golf watch, not an advanced fitness tracker. At least not by Garmin standards. Yes, the J1 does include some basic stuff like a step counter and a stopwatch and distance measuring for things like running, biking, or swimming. But there’s no heart rate monitor, no sleep tracking, none of the health-and-wellness layer that comes on some of the adult watches.

This also isn’t a watch for receiving emails and doing online shopping.

Also, the J1’s screen is chemically strengthened glass, which is plenty tough. But it’s worth noting that the same-priced adult S44 uses branded Gorilla Glass, which is even tougher. Given what a kid’s watch is likely to go through, I would have liked to have seen that upgrade, especially at the same $300 price point.

Should You Buy the Garmin Approach J1 for Your Junior Golfer?

If you couldn’t tell already, I’m a fan of the J1. I just appreciate that Garmin decided to shine a light on the kids and give them some of this tricked-out technology they’ve developed.

But that definitely does not mean I think every kid playing golf needs one of these things.

For one thing, it costs $300. So it’s not cheap.

But I do think that the value is there. I actually think some of what it does could be termed priceless. If this watch helps a kid fall in love with a game they’ll play for the rest of their lives, I’d say you’re getting off pretty cheap for $300.

I think it comes down to where your junior is in their golf journey.

If they’re already hooked on the game or playing at a fairly advanced level, they’ve probably already passed what this watch does best.

But if you’ve got a young golfer on your hands who is showing interest but isn’t yet all-in or who may need some help making the game more approachable and fun, I think the J1 is a very easy yes.

For the junior who’s ready for it, this is the first golf watch that was ever actually made for them. Not a poor-fitting hand-me-down adult watch. Not an afterthought. Theirs. And I think the kids who end up with one are going to be very, very happy to have it.

Marc's Overall Garmin Approach J1 Rating