Garmin Approach R50 Review: Revolutionizing Golf Simulators With All-In-One Innovation ... But Should You Buy?

The new Garmin Approach R50 is totally unlike any golf launch monitor or simulator you’ve ever seen. It’s an absolute statement product, and it’s going to blow some people’s minds.

The R50 combines golf launch monitor and simulator functionality in a completely innovative way that gives you ball and club data, simulated golf courses, virtual ranges, impact video, and even more on a full-color, large, gorgeous built-in touchscreen display. All without needing any connection to a phone, laptop, or gaming computer.

And the Approach R50 connects directly to a projector or TV via HDMI, again without the need to go through any kind of computing device. Meaning you could have a full-blown simulator setup with just the R50 or by adding nothing more than a projector or television.

To put it simply, in terms of a golf launch monitor or simulator, the Garmin Approach R50 can go anywhere and do anything.

Watch a Garmin Approach R50 Review Video by PlayBetter!

Garmin Approach R50: The Wait Is Finally Over

Just like the Garmin Approach R10 did a few years ago, the R50 is going to completely shake up the industry and challenge competitors to match or even further its innovations. I’m so confident in that prediction that I’ll call it a guarantee.

I know you’ve never experienced anything like the R50 because nobody has.

But does that mean you need one of these? Well, maybe… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

For one thing, the R50 retails for $4,999.99. That ain’t cheap. So now we’ve got to figure out if it’s worth it.

Another thing is, this thing is gigantic. Too big for some people? We’ll get into that too.

The golf intelligentsia has been waiting for the R50 for a couple of years. Online forums have been buzzing. Inquiries were flying around at the 2024 PGA Show. Everyone who had their ear low to the ground in the launch monitor space has been anticipating this product ever since someone discovered a Garmin patent application for the R50 online sometime in 2022.

But for more than two years now, nobody outside of Garmin had any idea what this new golf launch monitor would actually deliver, or even if it would ever come to market.

Finally, the wait is over. Let’s dig in and find out what the Garmin Approach R50 is all about.

Unveiling the Approach R50

So, what exactly is the Garmin Approach R50? In simple terms, it’s the world’s first portable golf launch monitor with a built-in simulator displayed on a stunning 10-inch touchscreen.

We talk a lot in this space about the difference between golf launch monitors and golf simulator software. In short, the launch monitor is the device that reads the golf shots and delivers the data. The golf simulator software, typically by way of a computer or mobile device, interprets that launch monitor information and displays it on a virtual golf course setting.

This launch monitor/simulator relationship often leads to some confusion. And the two terms are sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably.

But the Garmin Approach R50 is both a golf launch monitor and a golf simulator all in one. It’s the first of its kind; a totally contained unit that not only reads the golf shots but also delivers the simulator experience without the need for any additional hardware or software.

My initial reaction to the R50? Holy ******* ****!

Hopefully you’re a little classier than that. But regardless, prepare to be shocked.

Unboxing: A First Look At the Stunning Display

Two things jump out immediately upon unboxing the R50: The built-in screen and the size of the device.

First, the screen. In a word, it’s beautiful. It’s a vibrant 10-inch color touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels. The display is crisp, responsive, and easy on the eyes, even in bright sunlight.

Unlike other devices that might offer basic data readouts, the R50 provides rich graphics and interactive elements that enhance the user experience. We’ll get into what all of that includes. For now, just understand that this display is unlike any you’ve seen on any other golf launch monitor.

Navigating through menus and settings is a breeze, thanks to the intuitive touchscreen interface. There are no physical buttons aside from the power button, which keeps the device’s design clean and uncluttered.

I also love how the information is large enough to easily read, even from several feet away. I’m someone who wears reading glasses for small print. But I don’t wear glasses when I play golf. With some products that I test, there’s a real inconvenience of having to go back and forth between hitting shots without glasses and then putting on my readers to see the information the device captured. No such issue with the R50.

Next, the size. The R50 is, um, yeah, huge. Measuring 17 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and 7 inches deep, it’s significantly larger than any other portable launch monitors on the market.

For context, it dwarfs the Foresight Sports GC3 and Bushnell Launch Pro.

I do think the size is going to be a turnoff for some. But a deal-killer? I’m not sure about that.

After all, it does only weigh 9 pounds. And that large size is required to accommodate the large screen, which I don’t think anyone is going to complain about.

The Approach R50 comes with a carrying case that is far more robust than anything else I’ve encountered with a golf launch monitor. This thing is like a large YETI cooler, complete with a shoulder strap.

When you load the R50 into its case, taking it out to the range feels like you’re going on a camping trip. For real. If you were bringing this thing on an airplane, you’d probably have to check it. But you could do so without worrying about damage. The case is very well padded, and the R50 fits in the contoured space very snuggly.

In addition to the R50 itself, you also get an AC adapter and power cable and 250 fiducials (club stickers), which, as we’ll discuss later, you’ll need if you want to get club data.

I reviewed a demo R50, so it didn’t come with a manual or quick-start guide. But I’m assuming the final production units will include that. Honestly, though, I’m not sure you’ll need any instructions. Once you hit the power button, everything is completely intuitive.

Design and Build Quality

Again, I think the size of this Garmin Approach launch monitor may turn off some people. Especially when you compare it to something like the tiny Garmin Approach R10, Garmin’s last golf launch monitor innovation, which was the first accurate launch monitor for under $1,000.

The screen itself on the R50 seems extremely durable. It looks to me to be made of gorilla glass or something similar. From what I've heard, the screen has stood up to direct toe or shank shots.

As for the body of the unit, I don’t have the product specs yet so I can’t say what the material is. It does seem to me to be a bit more plasticky and slightly cheaper feeling than the screen. And when I compare my overall gut feel for the durability of the R50 vs something like the GC3 or Launch Pro, I think the Foresight/Bushnell products win out.

Aesthetically, I think the R50 is a looker. When fired up, the full-color large screen is definitely bringing sexy back. But again, the size… For some, it’ll come across as more of a good thing. For others, it’ll be unwieldy.

Mind you, the device itself does include a built-in handle very similar to what’s on the Foresight GC3 and Bushnell Launch Pro. Weight-wise the R50’s 9 pounds is 4 pounds heavier than the Foresight GC3. And yet, the GC3 feels like a cannonball of durability compared to the top-heavy R50.

Setting Up the R50: Plug-and-Play Simplicity

It just doesn’t get any easier than playing or practicing with the Garmin Approach R50. Whether you want to hit the range, play some practice games, or play on a simulated golf course, it literally can be as simple as hitting the power button.

If you’ve ever used a golf launch monitor, especially if you want to use it in concert with golf simulator software, you know that there’s always at least a little bit of work to do.

Oftentimes with radar devices that sit behind the golf ball, including with the Garmin Approach R10, there’s some fiddling with setup that’s required to get the launch monitor properly aligned so that it can accurately read shots.

Well, the R50 is an optical device, meaning it sits to the side of the golf ball. That means that all you need to do is set it down parallel to the direction in which you’re hitting the ball, and you’re good to go. There’s an alignment screen on the R50 that makes perfectly dialing everything in a task of no more than several seconds.

Once you have the R50 powered up, you’ll be able to swipe through the homescreen to choose between a driving range, target practice games, and Garmin’s Home Tee Hero simulated golf courses, which does require a subscription that we’ll talk about in a minute. You can also choose to interface your R50 with third-party golf simulator software, which I’ll also discuss below.

The thing to keep in mind here is that, unless you’re using third-party software, you can do all of this with nothing more than the R50 itself.

One of the great advantages of other optical golf launch monitors like the Foresight Sports GC3 and Bushnell Launch Pro, is that the built-in screens on those units allow you to get data with nothing more than the golf launch monitor. But, even with each of those devices, if you want to do something like hit shots on a virtual driving range or play a simulated golf course, you’ll need to employ a mobile device or computer.

The Garmin Approach R50 is the only launch monitor with the simulator software built into the device itself. You don’t even need an internet connection once you’ve downloaded the simulated golf courses you want to play!

How’s this for crazy? I timed how long it took me to turn on the R50, let it power up, choose Pebble Beach from the Home Tee Hero menu, and head for the first tee. Forty seconds! It took me only 40 seconds from having a turned-off R50 to being ready to hit my opening tee shot at Pebble Beach! Is that not wild?!

Here’s the other insane thing: If you want to display the R50 simulated experience onto a larger screen, like an impact screen or TV, all you need is a single HDMI cable. That’s it. It’s a direct connection from the R50 to your projector or TV. Once again, every other golf launch monitor requires you to connect your launch monitor to a mobile device or computer and then to your projector or TV. With the R50, it’s a straight shot.

So think about the use cases that become available with a golf launch monitor that’s this simple to operate. It’s pretty much anything you can dream up. Basically, if you have an R50, enough room to swing a golf club, a surface from which to hit shots, and somewhere for the golf balls to fly, you’re in business!

That means at the driving range, in your backyard, in your garage or basement, at your buddy’s house, in a random field—anywhere!—you can play simulator golf or practice.

Again, you can’t do that with other golf launch monitors. Even the ones that include a built-in screen require some additional hardware and software when you want to use them as golf simulators.

R50 battery life is rated at 4 hours. So eventually you’ll need to make sure you’re near an outlet to keep the fun going.

R50 Ball and Club Data + Is This Garmin Golf Launch Monitor Accurate?

The hits just keep on coming for the Garmin Approach R50. Next up: Data and accuracy.

With most golf launch monitors, you get ball data out of the box and then club data for an additional fee. There are exceptions to that, including the FlightScope Mevo+, but that add-on expense for club data is the norm.

Well, with the Garmin Approach R50, you get it all right out of the box. And we’re talking about a lot of metrics.

Ball Data:

• Ball Speed
• Launch Angle
• Launch Direction
• Spin Rate
• Spin Axis
• Sidespin
• Smash Factor
• Total Distance
• Carry Distance (in both yards and degrees)
• Total Deviation (in both yards and degrees)
• Apex Height

Club Data:

• Clubhead Speed
• Path Angle
• Angle of Attack
• Face Angle
• Face to Path

Also, it’s worth noting that in terms of the Garmin Approach R50 vs R10, with the R50, spin rate and spin axis is actually measured rather than calculated as it is with the Garmin Approach R10. That’s hugely important when it comes to accuracy, which extends into accurate shot shapes and ball flights.

Speaking of accuracy, I gotta say, I was incredibly impressed with the R50. I put it head-to-head against the Foresight Sports GC3, which I know is dead-on accurate. Across the board, the R50 was right there, within a yard or two, a degree or two, and a hundred-or-so RPMs on all of the data points. Very, very impressive!

Like the GC3 or Launch Pro, the R50 is using three high-speed cameras to measure all of this data. In the R50, those cameras are lined up horizontally, rather than vertically with the GC3 or Launch Pro. But in my testing, they do the same excellent job of reading the shot.

One thing I really like about the R50 is that the ball is placed directly across from the unit. With the GC3 and Launch Pro, the ball needs to be placed a few inches diagonally behind the device. That makes it more prone to getting hit with a shank or toed shot. You’d really have to hit the ball directly off the edge of the club’s toe to hit the R50.

Club Stickers the Size of Beach Balls?!

Here’s something I’m not so crazy about: The Garmin Approach R50 fiducials (otherwise known as club stickers).

Yes, we know that fiducials are a bit of a pain. But for optical or photometric launch monitors like the R50, GC3, and Launch Pro, they are necessary if you want to capture club data.

But here’s the thing: With a product like the Foresight GC3, the club stickers that are required are at least discreet. They are pretty small. With the Garmin Approach R50, the club stickers are huge by comparison!

And there’s no getting around using these giant fiducials if you want consistent and accurate club data with the R50. I had Foresight fiducials on my clubfaces from some previous testing. When I first started using the R50, I just left the Foresight stickers on, assuming that they would also work with the R50.

No such luck.

I started noticing that the R50 wasn’t reading the club data on about two-thirds of my shots. Initially, I thought there was a problem with the R50 itself. I thought I had identified a serious issue that was going to call into question the overall accuracy of this golf launch monitor.

But then I installed the fiducials that come with the R50. That’s when I noticed how big they were by comparison. But, with the correct stickers installed, the R50 did correctly read the club data for 100 percent of my shots.

Incidentally, the Foresight GC3 read the club data with both the smaller and larger stickers. So, score a definite point in my book for the GC3 when it comes to fiducials. Nobody likes them to begin with. But having them be so large with the R50 is a definite bummer. When I pull a club out on the course, it looks like I have a billboard on my clubface with these R50 stickers. I’m not a fan of that.

Display Features and Impact Video

The R50 screen is a showstopper. But it’s not just the beauty of the full-color display. It’s the functionality. It’s all touchscreen click and swipe. Super intuitive.

And fully customizable. That’s another thing that’s really awesome. You can see your data in multiple ways.

You can choose to see a map, complete with a ball tracer. Or data tiles that you can arrange in whatever order you’d like. You can also get club path, face angle, and spin visuals, showing you exactly how the ball is coming off the clubface for each individual shot. And the R50 automatically records a close-up impact video of each of your shots.

What’s really cool is that you can choose any of these looks as a full-screen display, or any combination of two as a split-screen.

And it gets even crazier. If you connect via HDMI to a projector or TV, you can choose to mirror the R50 screen or choose different information to display on your larger screen. That means that between the R50 itself and your impact screen or TV, you can see every possible bit of information all at the same time. 

Also, the R50 stores your practice sessions on the device itself, meaning you can review past shots right on the built-in screen. Or, if you connect to the internet via WiFi, you can link all of your session information with your Garmin Golf app account for even more information insights.

Speaking of connecting to the internet, you’ll want to do that at least occasionally just to check for any software updates.

Huge Home Tee Hero Improvements

Here’s yet another strong selling point for the Garmin Approach R50: It comes with massive improvements to the Garmin Home Tee Hero simulator software. But there is still a subscription requirement.

If you’re familiar with the Garmin Approach R10, you probably know about Home Tee Hero. It’s their proprietary sim software that includes pretty much every golf course in the world. But, while using Home Tee Hero with an R10 and a cell phone is a lot of fun, it’s somewhat limited. The graphics quality is pretty meh; much more cartoon or video game than lifelike.

With the R50, Garmin significantly improved the Home Tee Hero graphics and mapping. Major improvements, actually. It’s still overall a more arcade-like experience, but the graphics are so much more vivid and realistic and the accuracy is greatly enhanced.

Also, the R50 can read putts, meaning that the Home Tee Hero experience is much more complete with the R50 than with the Garmin R10.

And, Garmin says they are not adding these Home Tee Hero improvements to the R10. So, in the Garmin Approach R50 vs R10 debate, this is yet another big win for the new R50.

Now don’t get me wrong, the improved Home Tee Hero experience, for as fun as it is, can’t compete with the realism of software like Foresight’s FSX Play or 2020. Or with something along the lines of what you’d get with GSPro. With those software packages, the details are incredible and the experience is as close to lifelike and realistic as you can get in a golf simulator.

With Home Tee Hero, all of the trees look the same, whether you’re playing a course in Florida or California. And there may be a few extra trees or a few that are missing relative to what you’d find on the real course. Small details aren’t nearly as pinpoint as with something like FSX Play, where Foresight’s team has gone to incredible lengths to map the golf courses and recreate every last elevation change, tree limb, cart path, etc.

That said, the overall shapes of the holes and green complexes are realistic with Home Tee Hero. Same with the yardages of the holes. And you’ve got more than 43,000 virtual courses from which to choose. I played a Home Tee Hero round on my home course, and it was a blast. All of the shots and angles were very familiar and accurate. Some of the fine details were off, but not enough to kill a good time.

And once again, you can play all of these Home Tee Hero courses without even an internet connection or having to pair with a computer. All you need is the R50 itself, or, if you want a larger image, an HDMI cable and a projector or TV. Plus you can play with up to four players at a time.

Home Tee Hero does require a $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year subscription, but I think that’s quite reasonable. If you own an R50, I think paying that subscription is a no-brainer.

Another cool feature is that Garmin hosts a Home Tee Hero weekly tournament, often at the course where the PGA is playing that week. That means you can use your R50 to compete against other sim golfers around the world.

Third-Party Simulator Software Compatibility

While the R50’s built-in Home Tee Hero feature is definitely sweet, it’s not your only golf simulator option.

The Garmin Approach R50 is compatible with GSPro, E6 Connect, E6 Apex, and Awesome Golf via WiFi and a PC. You will, of course, have to pay additional subscriptions if you choose any of those third-party software packages.

I have not had the chance to test this third-party compatibility, but assuming it works as seamlessly as it should, it’s great to have so many options available.

Approach R50 Practice Ranges

I love the fact that you’ve got multiple practice ranges available with the Garmin R50.

But I do wish that Garmin had gotten just a little bit more creative.

When you turn on your R50, the home screen is neatly organized for you to swipe between options to practice or play. For practice, you’ve got a traditional driving range setting that’s fantastic. Then, you’ve three additional target-shoot ranges. There’s one that includes about 10 greens at varying distances with water and sand. Another includes a collection of island greens spread out within a large body of water. And then there’s a range that includes a bit more fairway with further-off targets so that you can work on clubs like driver.

All of these target ranges are fun and useful. But they are all very similar. By contrast, a product like the SkyTrak+ includes software that is continuously updating and featuring more inventive ranges that work on specific types of shots. I just think it would be cool if the R50 included some of these more creative types of practice feature options.

Garmin Approach R50 Review: Pros and Cons

I think it’s likely obvious that I think the pros far outweigh the cons with the new Garmin R50. To summarize some of my favorites:

Pros

• 10-inch, full-color built-in display
• Ability to play and practice without the need to connect to another device or even the internet
• Very impressive array of ball and club data, all included in the purchase price
• Excellent accuracy
• Customizable display views, including split-screen options
• Direct connection with a projector or TV via HDMI
• Built-in golf simulator software means golf anywhere, anytime
• Third-party golf simulator software compatibility
• Improved Home Tee Hero graphics and mapping
• Included impact video
• Optical or photometric golf launch monitor offers indoor space savings compared to radar units

The cons aren’t nearly as clear-cut. In fact, most of them are subjective, or just my opinion. But, to me, cons include:

• Larger fiducials (club stickers) are a drag
• Size of device is going to be a turnoff for some
• Build quality beyond the screen itself may not be as robust as some competitors
• Virtual practice features could be a bit more inventive
• Optical or photometric golf launch monitor means you’d have to move the R50 back and forth if playing with righties and lefties at the same time

So, Is the Garmin Approach R50 Worth $4,999.99?

The Garmin Approach R50 is totally unique. We’ve never seen anything like it before.

Does that make it worth $4,999.99?

Well, that depends on how much you value the things that differentiate it from any other golf launch monitor or simulator.

Namely, do you love the idea of a large, full-color display? And do you love the idea of a completely self-contained device that is both a golf launch monitor and a golf simulator without needing to connect to any other hardware or software?

Having used the R50, I’ve got to say that I value those things a lot. Maybe even more than I thought I would.

And that’s without even getting into things like the fact that it includes club data right out of the box, that the data is so reliably accurate, that the Home Tee Hero graphics are so massively improved, and that you can hook up to a projector or TV with nothing more than an HDMI cable.

The R50 is going to turn some heads, that’s for certain. It’s not too often that we get a golf product that we can term as truly revolutionary.

My recommendation: Buy with absolute confidence.

PlayBetter Overall Rating for the Garmin Approach R50