Garmin Approach G80

Is the Garmin Approach G80 worth buying?

Yes, the Garmin Approach G80 is worth buying at £253.34 for the golfer who wants yardages on the course and a handful of radar figures from the same handheld. It carries more than 41,000 course maps on a 3.5 inch sunlight-readable touchscreen, and 679 owners rate it 4.3. Buy it when the mapping is the main job and the radar is the bonus.

The radar side is narrow but real: club head speed, ball speed, smash factor, swing tempo and estimated distance, five figures in total. Practice and game modes let you test those numbers and work on them, and a quick button jumps from the course view straight to the radar. Anyone chasing spin data or indoor rounds should look at a different unit, because this one will not produce either.

What does the Garmin Approach G80 cost per metric?

The Garmin Approach G80 works out at £50.67 per metric, because £253.34 spread across its five figures is £50.67 each. Only the Voice Caddie SC200+ at £67.25 and the Voice Caddie SC4 PRO at £75.02 cost more per figure, and the FlightScope Mevo delivers eight metrics at £33.63 each for £15.66 more than this unit.

The number shows where the money went: the 41,000 course maps, not the radar. Because the radar counts only five figures, each one carries a bigger share of the £253.34 than it does on a unit built around data. Club head speed is the loosest of the five at +/- 5 mph, fine for watching a trend across a bucket of balls, too coarse for fitting a shaft.

What comes in the Garmin Approach G80 box?

The box holds the Garmin Approach G80, a trolley and cart mount, a lanyard carabiner, a USB cable and the documentation. The rechargeable battery is included, so the unit is ready to use on the first round. The mount and carabiner mean it clips to a trolley or hangs from a bag, and handheld mounting covers the rest.

The unit measures 5.8 cm long, 11.4 cm wide and 1.5 cm high, so it sits in a hand or a bag pocket like a large phone. The 3.5 inch transflective colour TFT screen runs at 282 x 470 and stays readable in direct sun, which is the point of the transflective layer. Bluetooth handles pairing, and GPS is the satellite system it locks onto.

Where does the Garmin Approach G80 fall short?

There is no spin figure, so the curve of the ball stays a matter of the eye rather than a number. That rules it out for anyone trying to diagnose a slice indoors, where the flight is not visible at all. Spin is the one measurement that separates a practice tool from a fitting tool, and this unit does without it.

The distance reading is estimated rather than measured, which makes it the weakest of the five figures when you compare two clubs head to head. Club head speed also carries a tolerance of +/- 5 mph, so a 3 mph gain between sessions may be nothing more than the unit's own margin. Treat all five figures as a trend line across a session, not as a verdict on a single shot.

Most of the £253.34 pays for course mapping and the screen that shows it. A golfer who practises in a garage and never plays a mapped course is paying for 41,000 maps that will go unused.

How does the Garmin Approach G80 compare with the Garmin Approach R10 and the FlightScope Mevo?

The Garmin Approach R10 costs £445, which is £191.66 more, and in exchange you get ball spin among its figures plus 10 hours of battery against the 15 hours here. The R10 is the better buy for anyone who wants to see what the ball is doing in the air or practises indoors with a net. The Approach G80 wins on the course, where its bigger screen and course maps do the work.

The FlightScope Mevo costs £269, £15.66 more, and names eight metrics at £33.63 each against the £50.67 per figure here. It covers spin, apex height and flight time, and it weighs 49.8 g, but it has no screen and no course maps. Choose the Mevo for data on the range and the Approach G80 for yardages during a round.