Caddy Confidential: Tips From The Tips

You can't help but be excited about playing a two-man scramble where the head pro boasts about putting the pins and tee-boxes in "places you'd never imagine." Such was the case at the season ending "Tilly's Terror" that a buddy and I played in a few weeks back at Swope Memorial. And with par fours that normally play 380 yards playing 450 yards, we felt like we had a bit of an advantage with our Approach G5. 

When we saw that the "tee box" for the first hole was set behind the practice putting green (pictured below), we knew our G5 would come in handy because we'd be playing from spots we normally hit our drives way, way past.

The 175 yard sixth hole was playing 220, the 330 yard seventh hole, over 400 yards, etc, etc... The Touch-Targeting feature was our secret weapon as we were hitting from spots heretofore unseen. Equally helpful was the Manual Pin Positioning feature - we used it extensively to get at the pins tucked in the corners of Swope's hilly greens.

Caddy Confidential: Garmin Teamwork and Tournament Time

You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play. ~Warren Beatty

 Well, that certainly could be said for the team of humble scribes here at the Garmin Blog. We all have the distinct pleasure of working on products we are incredibly passionate about. So when we packed up the cameras and headed to Swope Memorial Golf Course for our most recent Approach G5 photo shoot, we quickly realized "work" felt a lot more like "play." 

And in true Garmin style, everyone involved was an avid golfer. We had a lawyer, a cartographer, a guy from sales, yours truly and more - all pitching in on the shoot. And to a person, we're all crazy about golf. Which is one of the great things about Garmin culture. Not only do we make the products we sell, we use them on a daily basis. We test them, we talk about them, we beat on them, and then we put our heads together to make them better.   

So if you're strapping a new Astro on your bird dog, installing your 20-footer with a new GPSMAP, or a duffer teeing up the G5 for the first time, rest assured each and every one of those bad boys has been fully vetted and thoroughly enjoyed by a group of hunting/boating/golfing nuts here at Garmin HQ.

Finally, it's tournament time down here at the caddy shack. Your humble caddy will be teeing it up in a two-man scramble this very weekend - 40 degree temps and all. We'll be playing from the tips and the pins will be tucked in the hardest spots for the inaugural "Tilly's Terror." We're hoping to go low with the Approach G5 in hand, so stay tuned for details.

Caddy Confidential: The Numbers Don't Lie

I almost gave it up. Golf, that is. I feel dirty even saying it aloud. And worse for actually considering going through with it. I dreamed of kicking my clubs off a cliff, or setting them off in a fiery Knarr and forgetting forever that I'd ever even heard of the dreadful game...golf...mehh...

But fear not, golf fans. I came to my senses. And pretty quickly, too.

After seeing my early season handicap balloon to the heretofore unseen 12.4, I hunkered down deciding to either whittle 2.4 strokes off my beefy index, or, heaven forbid, start jogging with Peg and Jake.

My biggest issue was distance control - specifically, distance control from 100 yards and in. To help understand and hopefully improve control, I turned to my trusty new Approach G5 and the Measure Distance feature. For about a half dozen rounds in April, I quietly started measuring every iron shot I hit and made mental notes on how accurate each shot was.

For example, I learned early on that a 3/4 pitching wedge from 105 yards was far more accurate than a full sand wedge. And I don't actually hit a full 7-iron 170 yards - more like 163. Using the Measure Distance feature basically changed my entire approach to hitting iron shots.

Caddy Confidential: Tough Day At The Office

Life's been rough lately down at the ol' caddy shack. We've been subjected to all manner of torments - like having to spend beautiful morning after beautiful morning scouting golf courses in and around the Greater Kansas City area for the upcoming Approach G5 photo shoot.

Cut off from headquarters, we survived by our wits, fending off wild animals with nothing but a wedge, a digital camera and sunflower seeds. Beware the savage beast below, prowling the wilderness known as Swope Memorial Golf Course! (Although, he can be tamed by an expert hand packed full with said sunflower seeds.)

Thankfully, our quest for an ideal location to photograph the Approach has finally ended. As such, your humble caddy has returned safely to the friendly confines of Garmin HQ just in time to enjoy the ongoing celebrations. 

On the good news front, the caddy shack commanders saw fit to grant yours truly some well deserved R&R. Naturally, we headed north to the BMW Championship in Chicago this past weekend to witness the insanely impressive phenomenon of a group of men actually hitting fairway after fairway after fairway.

Approach G5: Perfect for your short game - and a long weekend

With a long holiday weekend ahead of us, we're sure that golfers will be hitting the links in great numbers. And one golfer who will be getting great numbers -- and accurate measurements -- is Jerry Spencer. Jerry sent us this email after falling in love with his new Garmin Approach G5 golf-specific GPS, which now has more than 10,000 courses available as a free download. He also owns a nuvi 255W that recently helped him navigate in New York, and he uses a Forerunner while he's cycling. Here are Jerry's first impressions of his Approach, in his own words.

I just purchased an Approach G5 and love it after one round. It helps in so many ways, esp. when I hit the ball off the fairway right or left. It gave me the exact measurement. What an improvement for me!

I also played at a course that has GPS on the carts and found that the distances on my Garmin and the cart were with in 1 -- yes 1 -- yard of each other. Gave me great confidence in my club selection. Also removed any doubt about the G5’s accuracy. Thank you so much - a great purchase.

I was deciding between another product and my G5 - man did I make a good decision. The competitor's product is not water- or shockproof – good job Garmin. Thank you so much, my golf buddies will soon be in the market as well.

Thanks, Jerry. Be sure to check out our online video learning center for tips on how to get the most out of your new Approach, and we hope you get in a few rounds this weekend!

Caddy Confidential: 10,000 preloaded courses and counting

As promised, there are now another 500+ plus course maps ready for download for the Approach G5. This brings the grand total of subscription-free course maps to more than 10,000.

Since debuting the Approach in April, we've added close to 5,000 course maps. We're hoping to continue to add courses until we've got the entire U.S. library of courses complete. If you're waiting for your local links to be added, just drop me a line here and we'll get your course mapped just as soon as we can. 

Speaking of courses - Swope Memorial Golf Course in Kansas City, the official home course of Caddy Confidential, is celebrating 75 wonderful years in existence. This past weekend, yours truly carded a nifty 81 while celebrating this historic layout. Designed by famed architect A.W. Tillinghast in 1934, Swope hosted the PGA Tour's legendary Kansas City Open in the 1940s. More recently, Swope hosted the 2005 U.S. Women's Public Links Championship. 

Featuring a tight, hilly layout, Swope is full of blind shots making the touch-targeting and green view features on the Approach G5 even more valuable. So if you ever find yourself in KC and you're itching for a fun, challenging round of golf, head up the hill to Swope Memorial and treat yourself to one of golf's hidden treasures.

 

Caddy Confidential: Hot New Software Update for Approach G5

Hang onto your hats golf fans. This humble caddy is about to go into bizarre and uncharted territory - that is, technical computer talk. Having been trained and coached on what to say by a few dozen of Garmin's top software men and women, I'm proud to announce the following: A software update is now available for the Approach G5! Just connect your USB cord to your Approach, then go to myGarmin to update your software.

That's right duffers, my better educated colleagues assure me the one's and zero's have been thoughtfully altered, and the result is a more intuitive Digital Scorecard and a more energy-efficient Approach.

Once you've started to use the Digital Scorecard during a round, Approach will now transition automatically from one hole to the next. Also, a scorecard screen will pop up as a reminder to post your score after each hole.

Having used the feature last week, it certainly is quicker and easier to use - although my scores didn't magically get better. As such, I have politely inquired demanded the software team come up with a way to turn an "8" into a "4."

Additionally, a bunch of buttons were pushed on a computing machine and now, magically, the Approach is a lot more energy-efficient. The benefits here are obvious. And as always, we suggest using rechargeable batteries so as to stay green when you're on the green.

One final computer related note, be sure to check out @JakesJournal if you're into this "Twitter" thing we keep hearing about. Jake does a bang up job updating all things Garmin and all things Approach with both personality and panache.

Meanwhile, we'll be hunkered down in our candlelit caddy shack, typing away on our portable Remington so as to bring you all the Approach news that's fit to print - like next week's course additions and downloads - so stay tuned!

Caddy Confidential: Approach G5 Makes Tour Debut

The Nationwide Tour made its way through Kansas City last week for the inaugural Christmas in October Classic. The Approach G5 and yours truly were on hand for the week as part of Garmin's sponsorship.

For Monday and Tuesday's practice rounds, this humble caddy spent the day at the Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate - just one of nearly 10,000 courses preloaded in the touchscreen Approach G5 - chatting up professional loopers to see what they found most useful about the G5 ... or, as I explained to my bosses here at Garmin HQ, conducting "product research."

Two G5 features - the movable pin position and measure distance feature - impressed the caddies as being particularly helpful. As "Steve" explained, the measure distance feature allows caddies to compare distances to the yardage books they're given each week. "This thing helps with accuracy, that's for sure" noted an astute Steve.

Wednesday, we sat on the first tee box for the Pro-Am offering yardages to carry the fairway bunker on the right (235 yards) and stay short of the left bunker (275 yards). Not only did the field get a hands-on look at the Approach, we also learned that every man, woman and child that announced "I can carry that bunker" could not, in fact, carry that bunker.

Australian upstart Michael Sim stole the show over the weekend posting -20 to capture his third Nationwide Tour victory in 2009, and earning the vaunted "battlefield promotion" to the big tour.

Stay tuned to Caddy Confidential as in the next week or two, we'll announce yet another round of course maps that will be available as a free download here.

Caddy Confidential: 9,400+ Preloaded Courses, Scrambling With The Approach and Hitting The Road

It's prime golfing season here in The Praire, and as such, we caddies down at the Garmin shack have been quite busy. Recently, we added 500+ new courses to the catalog of subscription-free courses available for the Approach G5 bringing the total number of courses to 9,400+. 

I also had the unique pleasure of putting the Approach into tournament play, but in a not-so-conventional kind of way. While it wasn't quite the Tom Watson Challenge, it was a great opportunity to use the Approach as a 'deciding-which-ball-is-best-in-a-four-man-scramble' machine.Turns out, arming each of the four team members with an Approach is perfect for figuring out who hit the best drive when your foursome is spread all over the fairway. It was particularly helpful to use the Touch-Targeting feature to determine who had the best angle to the pin. We ended up shooting -12 under, only three shots off the lead. Not bad for an afternoon of "product testing."

Garmin's fitness guru Jake and I teamed up for a few video tutorials that show off all the functions of the Approach G5. Being that Jake is our resident marathoner/biker/in-shape dude, I handle the golfing duties while Jake explains how to get the most from your Approach. If you're one of those, whatta-ya-call-it, exercisers, then Jake has a few more cool toys worth checking out, or so I'm told. 

Finally, this humble caddy hit the road for a little R&R over the holiday. And as we like to do at Garmin, I loaned out a few new gadgets to put through their paces. I commandeered a nuvi 1250 for the drive to Chicago and Michigan. Saving a few bucks with ecoRoute helped us buy much needed golf balls after we slapped it all over Cog Hill, home of the BMW Championship. And the cityXplorer maps helped us navigate the big city like seasoned Chi-town caddies.

We're continuing to update and map courses all over the States, so keep checking back in for more updates. If your favorite course isn't mapped yet, drop us a line and we'll get cracking on it right away.

Caddy Confidential: Dad's Day, The U.S. Open and The Watson Challenge

This past weekend, the Approach G5 made its tournament debut at the Tom Watson Challenge, an event that sees area pros and amateurs take on local hero and eight-time major winner, Tom Watson. Garmin supplied the field with a few dozen Approaches to test out the touch-targeting, scorecard and green view features. While scoring was closer than it sounds, Watson won handily by five strokes retaining his title as hometown champ. 

Speaking of championships, this weekend is not only Father's Day, but also the U.S. Open. This years tourney takes place at Bethpage Black, a course just added to the Approach G5 roster.

A fun little way to get some non-golfing use out of your Approach (or a timely trick for any golfer/Dad planning to take in the Open) is to fire up the Preview mode while watching the action. See how far the pros hit their drives, or just get a different perspective on Bethpage Black.

Check back in soon down at the shack as we Caddies are hard at work preparing more courses for the next free download (think July). Till then, Hit em hard, hit em straight and stay outta the rough.

Caddy Confidential: 7,500+ Courses Preloaded, Software Updated

Down here at the caddy shack we tend to not speak too technically - unless we're talking back-swings and follow-throughs. But today, we are happy to delve into software speak so as to officially announce an additional 2,500 course maps for the Approach G5 now available for download for free here. That brings the Approach's total number of subscription-free courses to 7,500, and we're already working on the next batch.

Our trusty staff of software engineers also just released the latest software update making some significant - and from this hapless hack's point of view - very helpful tweaks to the Approach G5 software. The big change, from a golfer's perspective, is that the Approach now lets you zoom in on targets for more precision. The new zoom feature allows you to get even more exact distances when you need to carry bunkers or hit it to a specific spot for a layup.

If you want more information about the Approach, hit up the home page, check out the minisite, or drop us a line. We want to hear what you think of the Approach thus far. That's all for now. Keep checking in as we've got new YouTube videos lined up, and more tales about how the Approach can help improve your game.

Caddy Confidential: Approach G5 Hits the Links

Hello Golfers! If you haven't yet had the opportunity to see what the Approach does, don't sweat it. We've officially launched the Approach minisite so that you can experience everything the Approach offers firsthand. You'll be able to see a 360-degree view of the Approach, check out all the cool features and see a video of the Approach in action.

If you still want more info, check out this page where you can view the list of preloaded courses, request a course to be added, and best of all, purchase an Approach. In the near future, as we add to the 5,100 courses already loaded on the Approach, you'll be able to update your database of preloaded maps here. So be sure to keep checking in to get all the most up-to-date courses loaded into your Approach.  

Finally, Caddy Confidential wants to hear from you! Drop us a line with your tales from the links about how the Approach is working for you. Has it cured your slice? Made those four-footers automatic? Shaved six strokes off your handicap? Whatever it may be, we're all ears. So let us know what your experience has been. Until next time, remember to keep your head down and follow through!

Caddy Confidential: Putting the Approach G5 into play

After months of belly aching about the grueling, golfless Midwestern winter, yours truly finally got an opportunity to play a few rounds with the Approach G5...in Arizona. Yes, sports fans, dreams do come true. And for this humble scribe, three days spent shanking Titleists into, and subsequently out of the Phoenician desert, was pure bliss.

While this sunburned caddy had a decisively disappointing showing on the course, there was one shining star; the Approach G5, which you can now buy directly from Garmin.com. As we've discussed in previous blogs and YouTube posts, the Approach offers a healthy dose game-improving features, from the Measure Distance feature to the Digital Scorecard. But perhaps the coolest and most useful feature this rusty duffer came to depend on was the Touch-Targeting feature.

Imagine finding yourself playing 36 at The Sanctuary in Scottsdale, a devilishly tight course surrounded by man-eating desert. Imagine that you've not played a round of golf in, say, five months. You suffer from both a spasmodic 30-yard slice and a you-never-know-when-it'll-happen 50-yard hook. As you can imagine, you'll visit the snake infested desert more than a few times. This is where the Touch-Targeting feature really earns your love.

Approach G5 golf GPS ships earlier than expected

Golfers, despite what your kids' school calendar says, spring break has just begun, thanks to the Approach G5. Already topping expectations, Garmin's new golf-specific GPS device is now for sale. There’s no other existing golf device that combines the ease of use, large color touchscreen and preloaded information -- more than 5,100 preloaded courses, with more to come -- all with no subscriptions or annual fees. Within minutes of opening the box, you can be ready to tee off. And that time is now.

This weekend, on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Home Shopping Network will be featuring - and selling! - the Approach G5. You can also find it online now at various Web retailers. The waterproof Approach, with its touchscreen 3" color display, keeps it simple by asking you to either Play or Preview any of the thousands of preloaded courses. Weighing only 6.8 ounces and powered by two AA batteries, the Approach G5 features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and conforms with the rules of the R&A and USGA. So stop guessing, and start golfing with renewed confidence. And be sure to check out our YouTube channel to see the measure-distance feature, the digital scorecard and other Approach videos.

Caddy Confidential: Heading to the Course!

Golf season has finally, thankfully and mercifully arrived! Well, at least here in Kansas…for the next few days…or hours, give or take. Naturally, down at The Shack we’re scrubbing the rust off the clubs, shining our cleats, stretching those ignored-all-winter golf muscles as we get set to hit the links this weekend. What makes this annual event even sweeter this year is the new high-power, high-tech weapon we’ll be carrying to the course – the Approach G5. Now that Garmin has posted a list of the more than 5,000 pre-loaded U.S. golf courses packed into the Approach, all we have left to decide is where to play. Being caddies, we’ve decided to test out ecoRoute, Garmin’s new software for fuel-efficient navigation, so as to save ourselves a little extra coin for – ahem – the 19th hole. Speaking of all things Garmin, be sure to cast your vote here for your favorite GPS device for 2008. Sadly, you won’t be able to vote for the Approach until the 2009 poll is conducted.

And to that end, word has been circulating amongst caddy confidants that the Approach may be available sooner than expected. We can’t make any promises, but the walls of The Shack are whispering that an early release is a real possibility. Stay tuned for more as we’ll bring you any updates on Approach availability as warranted. As always, check into the Confidential soon. We’ve got more YouTube videos in the hopper. Next post we’ll be bringing you a video illustrating how to manually set the pin position on your Approach. Till then, think birdies!

Caddy Confidential: Keeping Score with Approach G5

After months of being snowed in at the caddy shack, Mother Nature is finally giving us a few hints of the warm weather to come. And every day we get closer to golf season is also another day we get closer to launching the Approach G5. With that wonderful nugget of news, we’ve posted yet another YouTube video that highlights the Digital Scorecard feature…from indoors…because it was snowing…yet again.

Tune in to see Jake and Dan the Engineer roll through every aspect of the scorecard feature, including how to fire up the scorecard on your computer. If you missed any of the previous Approach YouTube videos, you can click here and here to see more of what the Approach G5 has to offer. As always, keep checking the Garmin blog as we’ll be posting more videos in the coming weeks.

First 5,000+ golf courses announced for Approach G5

Golfers, take note: The list is out. More than 5,000 golf courses in the U.S. have been mapped in great detail and preloaded onto the Garmin Approach G5, which will hit shelves in just a few weeks. More than 5,000. Preloaded. No annual fees. No subscriptions. Just two AA batteries, and you're ready to tee off with this touchscreen marvel. To put this staggering number of preloaded courses in perspective, you could play a different golf course every day and still need 14 years to cover every course that comes standard with the Approach G5. To see if your favorite course is among the 5,000+, just visit the Approach product page and the course list. If your favorite course isn't on the initial list, fear not, our list is growing and there's room on the Approach for all of your favorites. We've even made it easy for you to request a course.

So be sure to watch Caddy Confidential, where Carl will share tips and tricks (while humbling Jake in the process), and he'll also have more YouTube videos to share, in addition to the Approach overview and the long-drive contest that showcased the measure-distance feature. Start working on your swing, because we're going to keep you busy!

Caddy Confidential: California dreaming

Imagine yourself stuck indoors tasked with typing brilliant prose about the best, newest golf GPS product, Approach G5. Outside, a nightmarish rain/hail/snow concoction is dumping down on Garmin headquarters closing every area golf course for the foreseeable future. Sure, there is the odd 60-plus degree day where you can sneak out of the office to slap a few Titleists around. But for those sorry souls like your humble author, the long winter slog can tear apart dreams of golfing grandeur one salty snowplow at a time.

Thankfully, the Approach has one very cool feature that allows golfers living north of the Mason-Dixon line to live vicariously through PGA players, and that’s the “Preview” page. This week, your shivering author will be flipping through the Pebble Beach Preview page, hole by hole, as the pros play it. Not only is it a cool way to see courses you might (hopefully) play one day, it’s also fun to see the distances the pros have for each shot. In between sips of hot cocoa, yours truly will be using the Touch-Targeting feature to see just how far JB Holmes hit his drive, or how far Mickelson needs to hit it to carry the bunkers on #17.

Caddy Confidential: Tee 'Em High With Approach G5

Down here at Caddy Confidential, we're going nuts. Stir crazy. We're stuck indoors, cold and grumpy, seeing colleagues finish marathons in sunny Florida and cheering on Team Garmin as they pedal back into form Down Under. We're checking the weather religiously waiting for one good day to get out and fire up the latest and greatest from Garmin, the Approach G5. Finally, a few days ago, we got a blast of hot air from somewhere, pulled our clubs out of the closet and sped off to the nearest golf course. ...Or more accurately, we first groveled to get permission to do some, eh-hem, "research."

The conversation with our boss went something like this: "Excuse me, sir, it is imperative that we head out to the golf course today to capture some very important video that will highlight some of the great features of the Approach... Well, yes sir, we will be doing a bit of golfing... No sir, not because we want to. No no. Only because we have to."

Jake's Journal: Good day for golf ... I mean, work

It's not often we get a 65-degree January day in Kansas. So when today's temps started climbing, our minds started racing. How can we take advantage of a balmy winter afternoon while being productive? My friends Carl the Caddy and Dan the Engineer reminded me that we had promised to produce tutorial videos about our newest handheld - Approach G5, Garmin's touchscreen GPS for golf. So we convinced our buddy Jimmy to grab a camera and join us at Sycamore Ridge near Garmin HQ to shoot videos for the blog and our YouTube channel.

The good news: As models of efficiency, we shot a handful of how-to videos that Carl will be sharing with you in his weekly Caddy Confidential blog posts and on YouTube. We covered the "measure distance" feature, touch-targeting for club selection and manual pin placement for accurate distances. The bad news: As a model of futility, I shot a handful of golfballs into the rough and ravine. Our long-drive contest was a two-sided contest with my only contribution being comic relief. Using Approach G5's touch-targeting to display distances to a location - and from that location to the green - simply told me that I was in trouble. At least Jimmy was generous in letting me try as many tee shots as we had tape. Or else he was just collecting blackmail material. I really need help. And more 60-degree days. Until then, I'll be studying our Approach tutorials and listening to Carl and Dan. When they're not laughing at my swing.

Caddy Confidential: Dialing in Distance Control with Approach

If you’re like me, this time of year the golf bug starts biting pretty hard. And it stings. Watching tour pros dropping birds from the insanely picturesque island of Maui while there’s a foot of snow outside is a bitter pill to swallow – especially when you can’t wait to play a full round with an awesome new toy like the Approach.

So you read whatever game improving books are lying around, or maybe take out a few ceiling tiles tweaking your backswing. You tell yourself (or an irritated loved one) that you’re “keeping the rust off,” “working on tempo,” or most laughably, “keeping fit.” In reality, you’re a die-hard golfer.

One way I’ve learned to cope during the long, cold winter is to identify a specific aspect of my game to improve in the upcoming year; usually something that I struggled with the year before. After reading this fantastic Johnny Miller article, I decided to work on distance control with my irons. I was able to play a few holes with the Approach this past fall - we call it research - and one thing I realized is how perfect the “shot measurement” function is for improving distance control.

Greetings from Caddy Confidential

Hello all! Welcome to Caddy Confidential, your Garmin blog home for all things golf. I’m your host Carl the Caddy. My job – when I’m not scoping fairways and reading greens – is to keep you up to date on our new golf GPS handheld, Approach G5. If you haven’t heard already, Garmin is going golfing with a touchscreen, waterproof GPS device that comes preloaded with thousands of U.S. courses. For a quick peek at the capabilities of the Approach, check out this video that Garmin’s fitness guru Jake posted here.

We’re itching to dust off the clubs and get out to the course to show off the capabilities of the Approach. So as soon as we get a half-decent weather day (in Kansas, that’s about 45 degrees with no snow), we’re going to head out to the course to film and post a handful of videos that’ll show you all the cool stuff Approach can do, and how Approach can help you improve your game. We’re planning on updating Caddy Confidential weekly, so keep checking the Garmin blog for product info, tips for improving your game and to find out exactly how far Jake can hit his driver. Keep your head down, hope springs eternal and thanks again for touring Caddy Confidential!