Garmin Approach S20 GPS Golf Watch
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The Garmin Approach S20 GPS Watch is an 'entry level' golf watch that displays front, middle and back distances next to the hole number, par and a rough outline of the green - while is it considered 'entry level', we think it is one of the best Golf GPS Watch's on the market.
Below, you will find several independent reviews that have been hand picked by us to highlight both the good and bad points. Once you have watched them, then you should get a better understanding of if this watch is the one for you!
If you are considering purchasing a smartwatch for golf, we have also included a list of pros and cons, and our standard rating table.
In A Hurry?
Our Top 3 Reasons To Buy
Garmin Approach S20
Why is it better?
- It has a slick and modern slimline design. If we are totally honest, you could wear this both on and off the course.
- It's hard to fit everything onto a small screen, but Garmin have done it - it's clear, readable and accurate.
- Even though it is 'entry level' it has more than enough features to satisfy the majority of golfers.

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Garmin Approach S20 GPS Golf Watch Video Reviews
If your struggling with a high handicap and looking for a new club, then you should certainly give the GX7 a try.
It comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, so you literally have nothing to lose!

GARMIN S20 reviewed by Mark Crossfield for GolfOnline
Video Transcription
[Music] Oh guys my crossword here out on the golf course because we're trying today Garmin s 20 watch so the team at golf online have sent me this down want me to test it so we're going to take it on the course here and see what it does it's a GPS unit it's gonna count my score for me it knows where I am I literally turned it on knew what golf course I was that he gave me a list of two or three and I just selected the top one which was the rock which was the Warren which is where I am it then asked me if it wanted to keep count for me which I said yes now this one isn't touchscreen so that threw me at the star I wanted it to I just like touching the screen I'm so conditioned these days the touching the screen then it did feel funny that I couldn't do that from Garmin do have ones that you can touch the screen are and I guess this one might be just a different price point which is they're not giving you that technology it's live counting now the yardage as I walk it's tracking me basically I like that I like that I can get my club ready as I'm walking up certainly get an idea for the distance as I go and you start actually wearing a watch unit which is different to my watch is something that I do struggle with with these devices absolutely nothing stopping you you wearing it as a watch day in day out sick that goes keep the time and does it connects to my smartphone I can get notifications through it so it can allow me to do everything I need it to do if I want it to so now we're really talking about kind of a fashion thing out way so ask me how many shots either it hits after each half not sure if it's using audio or vibration but it knows how many times I've hit it and it's right every time again I try to touch the screen but it's not touchscreen it's literally clicking a button but you get around that pretty simply you know your head will adjust and it's very easy to use really so the Galman s20 it counts my scores I like that it counts me down as I walk I like that you can even get it plugged into your phone and if you count your steps it becomes almost like a Fitbit kind of idea I like all that front middle back yardage is so easy just the glance down and get your yardage quick it's simple it's easy and it's fast I'm not a massive fan of how the watch looks it does feel a bit plasticky on my arm but I think for the price point if you want just that simple function function of distance it's gonna tick those boxes you
Best Garmin Approach S20 Golf Watch For Golf Review
Video Transcription
this tutorial explains how to play a round of golf with your approach s20 watch it's almost teatime so let's get started before you take your first swing while in an open area outside the course select ok on your watch then select start round at this point your watch locates the satellites and finds the nearest course to your location this may take 30 to 60 seconds now select the course you are playing from the list just follow the on-screen instructions from there to complete the setup and start your round when you step to the tee you will notice the device shows the hole you're playing you'll see the whole number part for the hole in the distance to the front middle and back of the green if you have been provided to pin locations for the day you can also set the pin location more accurately to move the pin location on your watch select ok then move flag choose up or down to move the pin position to the closest approximation of today's pin placement on the green after you crush a drive or other shot you'll probably want to know how far you hit it right the approach s 20 has built-in auto shot detection that senses and automatically records each shot for post round analysis select ok then measure shot for more information on this feature watch the garment auto shot round analyzer tutorial video when you finish the hole if scoring is enabled you'll be prompted to enter your score of course you can also adjust the score manually at any time during around to do so select ok then scorecard choose up or down to select the hole and select ok then up or down to set the score and select ok as you move to the next tee the s20 automatically transitions to the next hole and that's how you play golf with a garment approach s20 watch you can store your rounds track and analyze statistics even share your games with friends using and connect for your free account sign up at garmin connect comm slash golf that's it for this video learn more features of the Garmin approach s20 but watching the other videos in this series this tutorial explains how to play a round of golf with your approach s20 watch it's almost teatime so let's get started before you take your first swing while in an open area outside the course select ok on your watch then select start round at this point your watch locates the satellites and finds the nearest course to your location this may take 30 to 60 seconds now select the course you are playing from the list just follow the on-screen instructions from there to complete the setup and start your round when you step to the tee you will notice the device shows the hole you're playing you'll see the whole number part for the hole in the distance to the front middle and back of the green if you've been provided the pin locations for the day you can also set the pin location more accurately to move the pin location on your watch select ok then move flag choose up or down to move the pin position to the closest approximation of today's pin placement on the green after you crush a drive or other shot you'll probably want to know how far you hit it right the approach s 20 has built-in auto shot detection that senses and automatically records each shot for post round analysis select ok then measure shot for more information on this feature watch the garmin auto shot round analyzer tutorial video when you finish the hole if scoring is enabled you'll be prompted to enter your score of course you can also adjust the score manually at any time during around to do so select ok then scorecard choose up or down to select the hole in select ok then up or down to set the score and select ok as you move to the next tee the s20 automatically transitions to the next hole and that's how you play golf with a garment approach s20 watch you can store your rounds track and analyze statistics even share your games with friends using Garmin Connect for your free account sign up at garmin connect comm slash golf that's it for this video learn more features of the Garmin approach s20 but watching the other videos in this series
Garmin Approach S20 in-depth Review for Golf!
Video Transcription
so this is the Garmin s 20 the golf watch and as you probably know government has a lot of golf watches but this is kind of new at this moment don't know when you see this video it's in black and white it does not have touchscreen like some comments do have it does not have a wrist part weight measurement but it does have all the cool go features so if you like golf then it's a it's quite nice and although it's not in color it's very good beautiful better than this view for active HR in my opinion so that's nice but some people like to color screen and this doesn't have the color screen and it doesn't have a map like for example the Garmin epics or the more expensive approach so you can see I'm in the goal function so you can see the first one it's a Power free oh the second one puffy and you see all the distances they all power fee you can see the actual size so it said they are all in the memory and the first time I open the package it was just there so the golf yacht in my neighborhood and also the second one and the third one they were just delivered to me like that I didn't need to upload them a selfie so it's it's really easy to use and that's very important in my opinion so I didn't use the manuals so if you push this button you can just change the flag touch so you can just put like this so no touch between just use these buttons this is the back button and then you can keep score of course I'll go back to do the measure the shot and watching for the camera so that's why it's a little difficult so last field swing to begin measurement so that's that function the two symbol you you do have to use the two swing yeah this is okay it's kinda difficult to look food for the camera so it's searching for the true swing gear so let's go back so Guillemette salad it means a mileage measurement like you measured the distance and the steps of course because it's also an activity tracker and so now we have sent them all so that's it for this for the rest you see here all kind of data like sunrise Sun going down the date of course at time did a seder the steps it's now zero you can set your own goal you can measure it with Garmin Connect it's it's a better app than it used to be a couple of years ago but I don't think it's the best app in the world but and no brand of watches has the best app in my opinion because the best app is like Strava or a run keeper or Auto app cell just more yeah they're all focused on the app and for for garment and that the Polar's in the Tom Thomson the meals the app is also nice but not the main thing but jawbone does a good thing with the app in my opinion so the steps so is the goal seven point five thousand so it's kind of low normally I set it a little higher the mileage calories burned and we are back oh those are the function of the approach as 20 I think it's quite nice it's not that expensive it's good readable it's with the four buttons quite big button so you can make a lot of mistakes with that it doesn't have the optical heart rate measurement unit what it does have is already box like really good fixation on the wrist either kind of a small wrist and it fits just great it's not like the old garments I yeah I used I think almost all garments the last years and so it is quite it feels very better just the first time you just wear it it's feels like just normal it looks also kind of normal that's yeah I like that but some people would like it in color or a more like metal thing so yeah that's just really up to you of course so I don't really have an opinion on that so approach as twenty so thanks for watching hope you liked it hope you yeah you can use it for your goal I think it's er it's quite nice it works quite good will while you are playing golf and for the daily activity tracking and now see you perhaps in the next video so thanks for watching hope you waited a little fun
Approach S20: Starting a Round of Golf
Video Transcription
this tutorial explains how to play a round of golf with your approach s20 watch it's almost teatime so let's get started before you take your first swing while in an open area outside the course select ok on your watch then select start round at this point your watch locates the satellites and finds the nearest course to your location this may take 30 to 60 seconds now select the course you are playing from the list just follow the on-screen instructions from there to complete the setup and start your round when you step to the tee you will notice the device shows the hole you're playing you'll see the whole number part for the hole in the distance to the front middle and back of the green if you have been provided to pin locations for the day you can also set the pin location more accurately to move the pin location on your watch select ok then move flag choose up or down to move the pin position to the closest approximation of today's pin placement on the green after you crush a drive or other shot you'll probably want to know how far you hit it right the approach s 20 has built-in auto shot detection that senses and automatically records each shot for post round analysis select ok then measure shot for more information on this feature watch the garmin auto shot round analyzer tutorial video when you finish the hole if scoring is enabled you'll be prompted to enter your score of course you can also adjust the score manually at any time during around to do so select ok then scorecard choose up or down to select the hole and select ok then up or down to set the score and select ok as you move to the next tee the s20 automatically transitions to the next hole and that's how you play golf with a garment approach s 20 watch you can store your rounds track and analyze statistics even share your games with friends using Garmin Connect for your free account sign up at garmin connect comm slash golf that's it for this video learn more features of the Garmin approach s20 but watching the other videos in this series
Approach S20 Golf Watch: Using AutoShot Round Analyzer
Video Transcription
this tutorial explains how to set up and use the auto shot feature on your Garmin approach s20 with auto shot round analyzer you can collect data to review map and analyze all your shots from each round you play so let's start improving your game to take advantage of all the cool features provided by auto shot on your watch you need to get connected to Garmin Connect if you haven't already download the Garmin Connect app to your Bluetooth compatible smartphone or mobile device follow the steps within the app to wirelessly pair your devices you can also watch our other tutorial video in this series pairing your phone once your devices are paired you can use your garmin watch with auto shot to upload data automatically to your garmin connect online account what types of data will you get well that's the fun part during a round you can use the measure shot function to see how far you hit a particular shot like that drive you crushed on number 12 you can also check distances for each shot during your round syncing your device with Garmin Connect also allows you to view the auto shot map the map shows the distance and location for each shot after it has been automatically uploaded for post round analysis you can compare your stats from previous rounds and analyze your tendencies for example are you missing to the left or right and by how much was it a hook or a draw before you start your round you will also be prompted to choose if you want scoring mode to be turned on select yes if you want auto shot to save and upload your round if you choose no you can still use the measure shot feature to see the distance you're getting on each shot however the information won't be saved to Garmin Connect another choice you need to make before teeing off is whether or not to turn on Club tracking the first time you turn on Club tracking your golf watch will ask you to enter your typical drive distance this information is used to predict what club you're likely to use for each shot all you do is confirm the correct Club with club tracking turned on after each shot your Garmin device will ask you to identify the club you just used the Garmin Connect app uses this information to calculate your distance for each Club you can identify the club you hit any time before you hit your next shot if you forgot to enter a club for a shot don't worry Club tracking marks the club for that shot as unknown you can correct the entry later when you're reviewing the data on Garmin Connect when it comes to improving and fine-tuning your golf game there's a lot you can do with auto shot technology and the Garmin approach s20 or other capable watches you can learn more by watching other tutorial videos in this series
Garmin s20 approach
Video Transcription
what up youtubers summers two three six today but a video I haven't done one in a while before I'd show you this and pick this up over the Christmas holiday period and it is a garment approach s20 so it's for the gulf side out it gives you distance season to greens to you Near East sort of hazards you're bonkers if there's any water hazards haven't tested yet on the course hopefully we'll be doing that soon but not many videos from the UK regarding these so for a do one now how do you can blue you can get black white and it's like a slate color as well I've charged you tough enough and so I'll show you how it works you've got your on switch there so you just hold that in and it comes on weight forwards now obviously it says press back now to enter demo mode well I don't want to do that and I'm going to click back so this gives you the front so the many fourteen fourteen quarter past two so the up and down here changes what's at the bottom there so if I press down it tells me how many miles and the calorie counts it which needs to reset it gives me when the Sun rises and sunset and today's date and the amount of steps so move stop it reset suit when you turn the watch on and off of it and calorie count because that's obviously not right and then to get into it you click OK here you've then got start round you've got notifications so I'll show. You some of the notifications click OK again so it might be Instagram I've sent a message messenger Sky Sports per click okay so it says Paul climate will be your point two swans these new manager the Press Association understands more Sky Sports and Youth HQ okay click back you've got the diameter distance steps click OK again you can't in the half you can reset it if I click reset takes me back to 0 to swing we haven't got the it and it's like a separate thing for the truce win which I haven't got it I'll click back off then oh look into okay you can knock the beeps off as well just go on okay click back sat inside and go down to turns ok Ketones click OK ah Keeton's sorry so much knocked off the wrong one okay stops the beeping so you've got your activity tracking again you can set yourself a goal it's got to move early it on get it black and I also put your hand settings call theme which again it's not in it basically this is the best close up it's just black and gray it's not touch button assistance you know you put your Bluetooth on to sync to the course use start tracking you've got your club tracking there which asked if you want to do this when you put your driver distance then and then the it recognizes what club you should use obviously wit bed once you've been up on the course do you want to keep your score whilst you're playing golf always ask off on time format language units software updates no updates minute when you're ready to start to play golf you would click on start round it won't pick anything up at the meters we're indoors but I'll just show you normally it would locate satellites and then it would start picking off all my local courses it seems that you know to pick them up there we go so there's almost an ting Greenway golden ale Newcastle Trenton Westwood Golf Club so I'm in the stoke-on-trent Harry Stafford UK and say I went to plague beers on Golf Club or click okay but then load the course and tells me so hole number one two par 4 it's four hundred and nine yards to the middle of the green it's four hundred twenty two to the back and three nine five to the front and then as I start moving it would then I can move the flag so I can select okay I can say what you know if I'm in range in a flag I might say right it's at the front click it okay so now it moves that am i say layups and if I want to get leave myself 200 yards then down 210 yards scorecard I was meant to be take two that can go through the holes as well measure shots notifications so if I start moving with this night it think is it going to be yardage not yet but it may do obviously when take taps on the course while it will do well to be honest yeah I mean impressed rates are one of the people I've played golf with they've got it and it's great stuff foxy knowing what club you're going to be heading into the holes going to make a massive difference I hate being in between clubs so now I'll just be able to pick the right Club and swing knowing it's going to be the right distance so yeah I mean I was a little apprehensive for getting one of these and bought after seeing the person I play with habits I was very very impressed and kept bugging him every time to ask him how many yards I had left in so yeah if you will get the opportunity pick one of these up and I would definitely do that by cracking di atom out to email through to me and then it was 10% off GPS week and I bought this from online golf I can go back to you yes sitting there like oh it tells me I've had two pots and one fairway don't know it's got that but okay and then what you do with this is you can connect it to your mobile phone which then goes really data can show your green to regulation or things like that so yeah very impressive and it would definitely recommend for your golf out there if you've got opportunity to test the GPS watch or play with someone who's got one and just ask him about it so I got into this I wasn't really going to get one or once authority it was making a massive difference just knowing that yardage into the hole and there we go comment rate subscribe thanks
Garmin Approach S20 Functions and Settings
Video Transcription
so the government approach 20 now we'll wait for the clocks to stop so there you go so the approach s 20 just taking a first look at it I will compare it 50 other governments like the fee for active and real sport watches of government so I will compare them while sporting and golfing of course so how does this work so that's your first answer it doesn't have touchscreen like ah this does have it's also cheap and v-vector that's not real comparison but it's good to know that some garments do actually have touchscreen and it works quite nice if you're not too sweaty so I'm not really let's put this to just yards 24 hours left is that sorry for that now it's seeking the GPS so we can just see how quick it is so it's also just the first good test how quick it is so there it is that is quite quite fast so the options and just let me just push this one sorry for the shaking and but it's kind of windy it's also raining as you can see and there we see the first golf course it's Burke golf it's here it's new to my home at the half-light in then boss if you know that but the fat lie it's a little bit further so it's it's real it's nice you can see them just as the closest one first and then who wants more some further away so it's quite cool so just take a look at this one now it's loading the track of course you want to keep scores and there we are for the first one cell it's yeah so this back button as you can see okay button so I will go use it and then make it in that breathe a bit is just the first quick peek it's it's in black and whites not color it's not touchscreen as I mentioned but it looks good it looks very sharp also it's quite bright outside although it's little raining and I think it will be readable in the sunlight like the other garments and just put it next to the visual active HRO real little comparison in looks we have a little comparison it's already shaped to the arm so it's already a little around I think the band looks better than the usual active HR and let me just put on a small activity tracker here you can see the smallest one compared to the garment and I have a really small wrist so I think it's not too big on my wrist it's s Vick it's the fever active HR so that's it for now and I will go testing it and make and in the preview and I will put it on this YouTube channel so for now a good first impression I have to test it more further and help you at some fearsome use of this video and waited a little fun bye
Final Words
Ok, so it's pretty clear that the S20 is one of the best GPS watches you can buy today - so much so that it's an Amazon Best Seller!
Honest Golfers opinion - and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend it!
Click here to see reviews and prices for the Garmin S20 on Amazon.com