
Of the options out there for a golf simulator launch monitor, the Garmin Approach R10 is always in the conversation thanks to its simplicity and affordability. The Approach R10 retails for $599 and is on sale a lot of times. As I’m writing this right now, actually, you can snag the R10 for as little as $549 at multiple retailers. At that price, you can understand this single-radar launch monitor not being able to pick up on your low-speed putts.
But what if I told you that the putting limitation was in the process of being lifted? Thanks to some awesome work happening by the community of Approach R10 users, that is precisely what is happening. You can see in a few different videos this actual solution being implemented, and it doesn’t require a bunch of fancy hardware. In fact, it can be added with a simple webcam. It’s pretty technical and at the moment maybe a bit beyond what most users want to do, but it is still technically possible.
Welcome to a whole new Garmin Approach R10 simulation experience
We’ve not yet had time to put this through the paces, but it looks wildly promising. One of the Approach R10’s primary weaknesses is the fact that you can’t take part in simulator matches that require putting. For software like GS Pro, there are online matches and leagues that are separated by putting/no-putting, and with this solution, the R10 could open up quite a bit.
While this new feature won’t fix the finicky chipping you have to deal with on the Garming Approach R10, adding the ability to putt is quite significant. When you consider, again, that this is a $599 launch monitor, it is pretty staggering that there’s a way to get something as tough to measure as putting up and running on it.
We’re already getting things together to give this all a try and as soon as we do, we’ll surely let you all know what we find. My hope is I’ll be playing a round on GS Pro in the near future with the Garmin Approach R10 and this new putting setup and once I do, I’ll be able to share with you all the exact way we went about getting it to work. Stay tuned!