Garmin S70 Golf GPS Watch - 2023 Forum Review

[FallenSaber]

5 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

Charging the watch for the first time since getting it. It was still at 17% but figured I'd go ahead and charge it up. 

The health features have been amazing. I'm getting all the data I need about my heart rate and variability, and for the first time in a long time I'm able to accurately and comfortably monitor it overnight. I'm loving how lightweight this watch is and how versatile it is as a watch. Getting out for another two rounds this weekend to further test that part of it.

About to charge mine for the first time as well! 9 full days, 9 holes of golf (drained ~9%), 2 runs while listening to music (~7% for the second run which was 36 minutes. Not sure about 1st), and downloading music (~8%). Ive also had pretty much all of the health features running. Currently at 7% remaining. Need to charge for golf in the morning. Also have golf planned for Sunday but Hurricane Hilary looks to disrupt the Sunday plans. Also have Torrey South planned for Tuesday afternoon!

[FallenSaber]

14 hours ago, Parshooter36 said:

It dims as soon as I step outside. I was hoping I had some kind of adaptive brightness setting turned on, but I cannot find anything like that in the settings.

That's incredibly strange. Mine is doing just fine outside, I'll be posting my outdoor tempo work soon where you can see the watch with my glove and in the sun. Have you tried different display types?

[Shrek74]

I owned a home in FFG for 11 years.  Know all those courses quite well.  How is the playability now that most are zoysia vs. the old bent and blue?

I didn't know they changed their grass. I haven't played here for the past 4 or 5 years before moving here 2 months ago.

Sent from my Samsung Note20 Ultra 5G using Tapatalk.

[FallenSaber]

Got to the range and did some tempo work today. Figured out that the best setting for me was Amateur Fast. I knew I had a faster swing tempo so started with Medium but quickly figured out that medium was not for me. By the end, I was getting both the back swing and down swing green.

One thing I like about the tempo trainer and one thing I do not like and both mostly have to do with  swinging without a ball. The Tempo Trainer feature has a vibration option that can be turned on and off. If you have it on, it will vibrate for the start of your back swing, vibrate a second time for the start of the down swing then vibrate again for the end. I like doing this without a ball so you can solely focus on your tempo. Now, the part that I do not like is that it rarely records a swing, 1 in 20+ if you are practicing without a ball. When I get home from work and after I pick up my boys, I usually set up my phone with a swing recording app and I'll do 5-15 swings with a club. I tried 3 separate days and only registered a swing on 2 days. It's hard for me to get to a range on a regular basis and it would be nice to practice on tempo at home. That's where the vibration feature helps.

As for visibility outside and placement with the glove, I had no issue with the brightness of the screen or placement with my long. I am wearing a Mizuno glove and their design might be better suited for wearing a glove. Gloves that are not as low profile by the wrist seem to be causing some issues with the other reviewers. @goaliewales14 @Josh Ross @Parshooter36 what are your thoughts on the idea that it's possibly the back profile of the glove?

[Josh Ross]

44 minutes ago, FallenSaber said:

Got to the range and did some tempo work today. Figured out that the best setting for me was Amateur Fast. I knew I had a faster swing tempo so started with Medium but quickly figured out that medium was not for me. By the end, I was getting both the back swing and down swing green.

As for visibility outside and placement with the glove, I had no issue with the brightness of the screen or placement with my long. I am wearing a Mizuno glove and their design might be better suited for wearing a glove. Gloves that are not as low profile by the wrist seem to be causing some issues with the other reviewers. @goaliewales14 @Josh Ross @Parshooter36 what are your thoughts on the idea that it's possibly the back profile of the glove?

Yeah, mine doesn't interfere much but glove design will definitely play a big role in it along with watch placement. I've always worn my watch a tad higher than some people so that probably helps.

[goaliewales14]

4 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

Got to the range and did some tempo work today. Figured out that the best setting for me was Amateur Fast. I knew I had a faster swing tempo so started with Medium but quickly figured out that medium was not for me. By the end, I was getting both the back swing and down swing green.

One thing I like about the tempo trainer and one thing I do not like and both mostly have to do with  swinging without a ball. The Tempo Trainer feature has a vibration option that can be turned on and off. If you have it on, it will vibrate for the start of your back swing, vibrate a second time for the start of the down swing then vibrate again for the end. I like doing this without a ball so you can solely focus on your tempo. Now, the part that I do not like is that it rarely records a swing, 1 in 20+ if you are practicing without a ball. When I get home from work and after I pick up my boys, I usually set up my phone with a swing recording app and I'll do 5-15 swings with a club. I tried 3 separate days and only registered a swing on 2 days. It's hard for me to get to a range on a regular basis and it would be nice to practice on tempo at home. That's where the vibration feature helps.

As for visibility outside and placement with the glove, I had no issue with the brightness of the screen or placement with my long. I am wearing a Mizuno glove and their design might be better suited for wearing a glove. Gloves that are not as low profile by the wrist seem to be causing some issues with the other reviewers. @goaliewales14 @Josh Ross @Parshooter36 what are your thoughts on the idea that it's possibly the back profile of the glove?

As you know the watch has definitely interfered with my glove and I can't move it up much more unless I get a new strap

[Parshooter36]

9 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

Got to the range and did some tempo work today. Figured out that the best setting for me was Amateur Fast. I knew I had a faster swing tempo so started with Medium but quickly figured out that medium was not for me. By the end, I was getting both the back swing and down swing green.

One thing I like about the tempo trainer and one thing I do not like and both mostly have to do with  swinging without a ball. The Tempo Trainer feature has a vibration option that can be turned on and off. If you have it on, it will vibrate for the start of your back swing, vibrate a second time for the start of the down swing then vibrate again for the end. I like doing this without a ball so you can solely focus on your tempo. Now, the part that I do not like is that it rarely records a swing, 1 in 20+ if you are practicing without a ball. When I get home from work and after I pick up my boys, I usually set up my phone with a swing recording app and I'll do 5-15 swings with a club. I tried 3 separate days and only registered a swing on 2 days. It's hard for me to get to a range on a regular basis and it would be nice to practice on tempo at home. That's where the vibration feature helps.

As for visibility outside and placement with the glove, I had no issue with the brightness of the screen or placement with my long. I am wearing a Mizuno glove and their design might be better suited for wearing a glove. Gloves that are not as low profile by the wrist seem to be causing some issues with the other reviewers. @goaliewales14 @Josh Ross @Parshooter36 what are your thoughts on the idea that it's possibly the back profile of the glove?

Your glove definitely looks watch friendly. Also, you have a much quicker back swing than me but the downswing time is about the same.  I struggled to get my tempo down to 3.5 with my normal swing being right around 4.0. Oh, and your screen looks great outside. I factory reset mine last night to see if that would improve my screen brightness.

[ole gray]

On 8/7/2023 at 11:14 PM, Josh Ross said:

Hello, everyone!

First, I want to thank MyGolfSpy and Garmin for this amazing opportunity! If you couldn’t tell from my super creative username, my name is Josh, and I’m 33 years old. I work in the golf industry for Edison Golf and I’m the biggest Georgia Southern alumni/fan/supporter you’ll ever meet. I live in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains and play most of my golf at the course where I live, Whitepath Golf Course. I’ve been swinging a club since I was old enough to hold a cut down 7-iron my dad made for me as a little boy, but started to take it seriously at 14 years old. I’m a pretty competitive person and am constantly working to better my golf game. I finally got back to a 5 handicap last year before tearing every ligament in my ankle and missing nine months of golf. The game is starting to come back to me and I’m still chasing that elusive scratch handicap. My top goal however, is a shared goal I have with my 9 year old nephew to play golf in all 50 states (pictured below is us crossing off Alabama). I’m looking forward to my third official review for MGS (2020 SkyCaddie LX5 and 2021 MaxFli Tour and TourX) and couldn’t be more excited that it’s for this particular product.

I’ve skipped signing up for quite a few really nice review opportunities because I was hoping this watch would pop up. As many know, I suffer from some cardiac issues that require me to monitor my heart rate and other metrics when things aren’t feeling right. Up until I was picked to test a different watch for MGS, I had to keep different devices around such as a pulse oximeter so I could log my heart rate.

This watch will not only be tested for golf accuracy, but also for its health monitoring accuracy as well. On the golf side of things, I will be testing this out on multiple different courses and comparing it against the SkyCaddie LX5 that I previously reviewed and also comparing yardages with a Bushnell rangefinder. One place my last watch lacked was that a lot of the courses I played were “Member Mapped” meaning they were lacking any details, had plain layouts, and were very inaccurate. I’m hoping to see huge improvements on that front. The Virtual Caddie is something I’m very intrigued by and I have no experience using anything like it. Almost every few holes here in the mountains have some sort of drastic elevation change so that should be interesting to see how accurately it calculates the distance. I’ve watched a lot of videos about this watch already and I’m excited to give this watch a thorough breakdown.

On the health side of things, I really want to track my heart health more than anything. I’m sure there are others out there that may be in a similar situation as me so I want to do my best to give good feedback on the accuracy of the readings this watch gives out.

I chose the 47mm version of this watch, and for it to earn a spot in my daily life and in my golf bag, it needs to be a premier product that I can fully trust. How is battery life and do I spend more time charging it than wearing it? Are the readings accurate for distances and health metrics? Is the watch easy to use both in terms of quickness and UI? The biggest advantage to a GPS for me is that I can see yardages to the front and back of greens and hazards, something that can be difficult for my rangefinder. 

I hope you’ll all follow along and ask plenty of questions for us testers!

First Impressions (9 out of 10)
In what has to be one of the quickest deliveries ever, the watch showed up last night and I was able to charge it, get it set up, and check some things out! It was evident right away that the build quality was premier. I could do without the red accents, but I love the look of the watch. With the proper band attached (more on that later) the fit is perfect and the size is exactly what I want in a watch. The buttons are tactile and easy to press, and even with me putting a tempered glass protector on the screen, the watch is very responsive. I love that the watch goes to sleep and wakes when I lift my arm to look at it.

 

Garmin says "If golf is your world, this is your watch" and they describe the Approach S70 as "the premium GPS golf watch with the tools and insights you’ll need to improve your game both on and off the course." In my almost 24 hours of use, I can say this seems to be accurate so far. The data I've been able to track and learn about my health has been incredible and somewhat overwhelming at first. We're talking sleep tracking, heart variability, calories burned, etc. For people who are usual smartwatch users that's probably not a big deal, but I've never had this data available to me before. 

For golf, we had rain roll in shortly after I got off work so I wasn't able to get out. Living on the course has it's perks though, and I started a round of golf on the watch to see what the hole looked like. The display was stunning, had good graphics and was vibrant. The distance was spot on when compared to my rangefinder from the back porch, even the "Plays Like" distance which was factoring in slope. The best part so far, was that the green was shaped properly and actually had the bunkers around the green. The SkyCaddie I had featured a circle green and no sand on the same hole. The GPS is very fast, as is the watch in general.

The only "issue" I had, and I knew it was one going in, was that the band wasn't big enough for my big wrist. After being selected I purchased a couple of aftermarket bands for bigger wrists and thankfully they fit well and we're good to go! The original band fits, but it is a little too snug and that's on the very last hole of the band. I think it'd be a good idea if they had a small and large band included with the watch like some others have.

Great intro buddy!  If you can get that thing to talk to ya up in them thar hills, you know it has good reception. 

[ole gray]

Congrats Team Garmin!   I'll be following you all in this thread as this watch looks like a doozy!

[FallenSaber]

Got out to Torrey this morning for 9 holes and had an issue with the watch that I couldn't figure out. Any time I hit the action button to initiate the golf activity, the watch would ask me if I wanted to end sleep with a red check mark for no and green for yes. No matter how many times I hit yes, nothing would happen. I tried to change the setting for sleep mode but nothing seemed to work. After about 4.5 holes, I was able to shut down the watch and turn it back on. When it came on, it was showing an activity which I wasn't sure what it was. I was able to discard that activity then initiate the golf activity.

I'm starting to explore the data and really like what it provides. Can't wait to get some more rounds in. As you can see, in struggling off the tee but my irons are saving me. I don't understand how it can say my drives are in the 69% based on the 3 it recorded and how terrible they were. Meanwhile, the drive distance was a measly 2%. Also not sure why it's only showing approach stats for the 6 iron.

 

[Josh Ross]

Got out for a quick 9 over the weekend due to some unforseen issues that came up. Still really loving the watch altogether. I did notice some errors on the golf GPS part today. My home course did some renovations a few years ago, probably in 2018 or so. Two of the changes were done to the front 9, where a pond was removed on hole 1 and a bunker removed on hole 9. When I played I noticed the hole layout showed the old pond and bunker, and it was missing a creek that has always been there on hole 1 and hole 9 as well. Obviously I'm not hindered by this as I know the course, but it's troublesome to know there are outdated course maps being used that could be a problem at other courses I play.

I still find the yardages to be pretty spot on though. Nearly had my first ace today and chose my club solely based on the yardage that the Garmin provided. 

One thing I'm not overly fond of is the club tracking ability. With all the big slopes around here, I'm sometimes clubbing up two clubs at minimum. It's thinking my average 5 iron goes 186 yards when in reality I'm hitting my 7 iron from 185 out. My Cobra 4 hybrid is usually in the 235 range and it's got it marked at 215. Again, it's all because of the slope around here and I get it, but I'm afraid it will mess with my virtual caddie when it kicks in soon. It did track this nicely hit 4 wood today. I never pull driver at my home course so this was the longest knock of the day. 

Other than that, it does a fairly solid job of tracking what's actually happening on the course. I hit 6/7 fairways today but it had me down for 4/7, though a couple of mine were close to the first cut so I wouldn't really dock any points for that. I would love to have the sensors but I've never been a fan of having sensors in my clubs. Still thinking if I find a used set I'll give it a go because chip shots and putts aren't tracked automatically without them.

I put my handicap in as an 8 because my game has been worse after my injury, but ever since a couple weeks ago I'm back to playing like my 4-5ish handicap self. Garmin seems to think I'm doing better than an 8 handicap too. Hopefully I can play a course that needs a driver soon so I can get my driving distance up there a little bit, haha. It doesn't have the ability to accurately read chip shots so I'm not sure what it's basing that on. Chipping is one of the best parts of my game (it better be if I work in the wedge business!) so I'm just ignoring that.

 

[Fongle]

The clarity of the image that it gives is awesome. I've been using a free tracking app on my smart watch, and I was looking at that Garmin mostly just from the level of extra detail it gives, so having the club tracking and the additional features as well is really selling me on it. Loving the reviews so far all!

[nvizble1]

Great update, thanks.  Good to see the +s and -s in real life use.

[Shrek74]

7 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

One thing I'm not overly fond of is the club tracking ability. With all the big slopes around here, I'm sometimes clubbing up two clubs at minimum. It's thinking my average 5 iron goes 186 yards when in reality I'm hitting my 7 iron from 185 out. My Cobra 4 hybrid is usually in the 235 range and it's got it marked at 215. Again, it's all because of the slope around here and I get it, but I'm afraid it will mess with my virtual caddie when it kicks in soon. It did track this nicely hit 4 wood today. I never pull driver at my home course so this was the longest knock of the day. 

I wonder if there's a way for you to track your game and have the virtual caddy make recommendations but only use a list of user inputted distances instead of it's tracked distances. Still continue to give all the stats you like, but to a point ignore the distances.

I know in Shot Scope I can mark a stroke during the editing process as a positional shot so it doesn't take that distance into account for it's average distance for that club. Maybe see if Garmin can do that, if that helps you at all.

[Parshooter36]

1 hour ago, Shrek74 said:

I wonder if there's a way for you to track your game and have the virtual caddy make recommendations but only use a list of user inputted distances instead of it's tracked distances. Still continue to give all the stats you like, but to a point ignore the distances.

I know in Shot Scope I can mark a stroke during the editing process as a positional shot so it doesn't take that distance into account for it's average distance for that club. Maybe see if Garmin can do that, if that helps you at all.

I have Shot Scope as well, but have not found anything similar to the positional shot option yet.  I also like the Performance Average option that Shot Scope has that automatically kicks out any shots that are abnormally long or short.  It creates a better useable club average in my opinion.  

[Shrek74]

15 minutes ago, Parshooter36 said:

I have Shot Scope as well, but have not found anything similar to the positional shot option yet.  I also like the Performance Average option that Shot Scope has that automatically kicks out any shots that are abnormally long or short.  It creates a better useable club average in my opinion.  

Totally agree. Having the option to look at all shots for the average and the performance average is a great help. More of these companies need to figure that out as it's more helpful than just an average of all shots for each club.

[Parshooter36]

I've been comparing some of the Garmin data versus my Shot Scope data. This data is not from the same rounds, but the stats are very similar.  You have to add the C10 sensor to get chipping and putting data from Garmin, which is unfortunate.  I don't know why it won't allow you to edit the putt positions on the green so you can get more accurate data.  

Garmin data:

 

Shot Scope data:

[Bluetrumpet]

Really good reviews so far! Definitely going to add this to my Christmas list

[goaliewales14]

Have any of the other testers tried starting on a random hole? 

I was in a 1-man scramble over the weekend and it was a shotgun start. My group started on 13. When I went to go start the round, I was able to change the hole to 13, but it wouldn't automatically go to the next hole after I entered my score like normal rounds. I had to keep choosing the next hole through the menu each time until I got back to the first hole.

[FallenSaber]

1 hour ago, goaliewales14 said:

Have any of the other testers tried starting on a random hole? 

I was in a 1-man scramble over the weekend and it was a shotgun start. My group started on 13. When I went to go start the round, I was able to change the hole to 13, but it wouldn't automatically go to the next hole after I entered my score like normal rounds. I had to keep choosing the next hole through the menu each time until I got back to the first hole.

Yes and no. I've only played back 9s so far and so I've always started on 10. The first time I used it, it had me starting on 13. I manually switched it to 10 and then it was fine. 

[Josh Ross]

1 hour ago, goaliewales14 said:

Have any of the other testers tried starting on a random hole? 

I was in a 1-man scramble over the weekend and it was a shotgun start. My group started on 13. When I went to go start the round, I was able to change the hole to 13, but it wouldn't automatically go to the next hole after I entered my score like normal rounds. I had to keep choosing the next hole through the menu each time until I got back to the first hole.

I haven't had that come up. One of the courses I played has both the 1st and 10th tees close to each other. The watch picked up hole 10 but with a quick change it was on the right hole and functioned properly.

[Parshooter36]

8 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

I haven't had that come up. One of the courses I played has both the 1st and 10th tees close to each other. The watch picked up hole 10 but with a quick change it was on the right hole and functioned properly.

I haven't had a shotgun start, but have started on the back 9.  The only thing I remember having to do was switch to hole 1 after I finished the back 9 because it wanted me to end my round.

[KC Golf]

Keep the updates coming.  This looks very promising.  May need to buy my wife one of these watches!

[revkev]

Enjoying the reviews. In the past I’ve used ARCOSS and currently use Shotscope. From my perspective each of these systems has their strengths and weaknesses.
 

I’m interested in this one because I want the multi use functions. Are the testers wearing theirs as a watch? Are you also measuring steps and fitness?

Just curious.  

[Parshooter36]

I now have enough rounds that the virtual caddie has kicked in on my S70. Apologies for the picture quality, I am working with tech support on my brightness issue.  The shot from the image was 108 slightly downhill shot.  Typically that would be a gap wedge yardage for me, but the virtual caddie recommended a sand wedge which was the right call for this shot.  My sand wedge is usually 95-98 yards and you can see the distance arc on the map shows my sand wedge should be just short of the green or maybe on the front edge. I did hit sand wedge and was flag high just on the right hand fringe, so +1 for the virtual caddie.  I did notice in my longer clubs that it did not alway call the club I would use, but I am betting that will get better it gathers more shot data.

 

[Josh Ross]

4 hours ago, revkev said:

Enjoying the reviews. In the past I’ve used ARCOSS and currently use Shotscope. From my perspective each of these systems has their strengths and weaknesses.
 

I’m interested in this one because I want the multi use functions. Are the testers wearing theirs as a watch? Are you also measuring steps and fitness?

Just curious.  

Yeah, mine has been used as a watch. I've only taken it off to shower, to charge once, and at football practice.

I'm also tracking calories burned and steps. Of course the steps can be of because it picks up on other things sometimes. I was waving at my niece over and over (she's 3 and was playing peek-a-boo) and it buzzed in the middle of it and said I had just hit my step goal even though I was sitting. That made me check the steps and continue to wave to see if it went up and it did. Now I don't have any other way to measure caloric data, but I've been tracking calories consumed for about a month in an effort to lose weight and this watch had helped me know if I'm staying in a caloric deficit. It seems to be working because I'm dropping weight and feeling better than ever.

[Parshooter36]

5 hours ago, revkev said:

Enjoying the reviews. In the past I’ve used ARCOSS and currently use Shotscope. From my perspective each of these systems has their strengths and weaknesses.
 

I’m interested in this one because I want the multi use functions. Are the testers wearing theirs as a watch? Are you also measuring steps and fitness?

Just curious.  

I am wearing it as my everyday watch.  I am not a smart watch power user, but I do have it tracking steps and my heart rate.  I have even been trying to wear it at night (which is not something I normally do), so it can tell me that I do not get enough sleep. That was one of my biggest draws to the S70 as before I would have my everday watch, then switch to my golf watch when I was at the course. This is definitely a feature packed all-in-one solution.

 

[revkev]

1 hour ago, Josh Ross said:

Yeah, mine has been used as a watch. I've only taken it off to shower, to charge once, and at football practice.

I'm also tracking calories burned and steps. Of course the steps can be of because it picks up on other things sometimes. I was waving at my niece over and over (she's 3 and was playing peek-a-boo) and it buzzed in the middle of it and said I had just hit my step goal even though I was sitting. That made me check the steps and continue to wave to see if it went up and it did. Now I don't have any other way to measure caloric data, but I've been tracking calories consumed for about a month in an effort to lose weight and this watch had helped me know if I'm staying in a caloric deficit. It seems to be working because I'm dropping weight and feeling better than ever.

Thanks to both you and @Parshooter36  I highlighted yours because my music director tells me that her Apple Watch adds steps whenever she conducts a choir.   It always seems to be a trade off.  

[FallenSaber]

6 hours ago, revkev said:

Enjoying the reviews. In the past I’ve used ARCOSS and currently use Shotscope. From my perspective each of these systems has their strengths and weaknesses.
 

I’m interested in this one because I want the multi use functions. Are the testers wearing theirs as a watch? Are you also measuring steps and fitness?

Just curious.  

Hi @revkev 

Yes, I am wearing my watch as an everyday watch and to track my fitness and overall health. To me, that is what sets this watch apart. It's a good golf watch. I like the features and the various stats it provides about my golf game. It's more convenient than using a free golf GPS app like Grint but not enough for me to spend $700 on it. Factor in all the other benefits of the watch and now you've got my attention.

I go on runs multiple times throughout the week. I like to use 2 to 3 apps for runs, Nike Run Club, Strava, and Relive. I can leave my phone at home,  go for my run, listen to music I downloaded to the watch, and when I return, the run is automatically synced and uploaded to all 3 apps. Before, I'd have to bring my phone and start all 3 individually. This watch makes fitness incredibly convenient. I've also been tracking my steps and used 2 apps to track steps. Google Fit and Samsung Health. The watch seems to pick up a couple of thousand extra steps per day but when I use my push cart while golfing, it seems to be lower than the phone apps by 2/3 thousand. Just played 16 holes last night and made a conscious effort to not use my rohht hand when pushing the cart and the step totals were practically the same. Hoping to get some biking and strength training in to test out those features.

[Josh Ross]

Does anybody have any questions you haven't seen answered yet that we could answer for you?