11 of the best gadgets to up your golf game

Lords of the swing: 11 of the best golf gadgets

For most golfers it’s a game of frustration: one minute you’re firing shots down the heart of the fairway, the next it’s shanked into a farmer’s field. Fortunately, you can call on tech to help you avoid spending more time in the sand than a beach volleyball team. Here are our favourites…

1) Garmin Approach X40 (£169/$250)

With 40,000 courses preloaded and an ace shot-tracking feature, the Approach X40 combines the features of a GPS golf watch with the calorie-counting skills of a fitness band. It even monitors your heart rate, in case you want to see how nervous you were on that crucial matchplay putt, and with a 10-hour battery life it’ll easily last two rounds without needing to be charged in between.

2) Zepp Golf 2 (£130/$150)

This small sensor attaches to your glove, and once paired with the Zepp app, gives you readouts on your hand speed, swing speed, back swing position, hip rotation and your swing plane – all represented in a glorious 3D representation of your golf swing. The app also analyses your swing and gives you tips on how to improve, while Course Mode shows statistics from round-to-round, so you can see just how consistent (or inconsistent) you are when it matters.

3) Bushnell Pro X2 (£400/$500)

Handheld laser rangefinders tend to be much more accurate than their GPS equivalents, and give you the added accuracy of being able to hone in on an exact pin location, which the Pro X2 confirms with a little vibration. This rugged Bushnell is accurate to half a yard, plus there’s also some cool slope-reading tech, so you can get added accuracy on uphill and downhill shots.

4) Game Golf Live (£169/$100)

Game Golf was the original on-course shot tracker. It works via a GPS device that you strap to your belt or bag and a series of ‘tags’ that screw in to the top of each club. When you’re out on the course, tap the tag on the main unit before each shot and it’ll track each one as you play. If you forget, NFC shot tracking does a pretty good job of automatically filling in the blanks.

5) Garmin Approach S6 (from £350/$350)

At the heart of Garmin’s Approach S6 is a high-res colour screen with CourseView, which shows you the layout of a hole at the touch of a button. If your course likes to play around with pin positions, Green View also lets you tell it exactly where the flag is for more accurate yardage. It’ll even coach your swing, with SwingTempo and SwingStrength helping to improve your tempo with audible beeps.

6) PIQ Robot (£229/$209)

The PIQ Robot system combines shot tracking with GPS rangefinding and swing analysis, meaning it can tell you which club you should use for each hole. It consists of 18 club tags and a glove-mountable unit, complete with an LED display that tells you your distance to the green and analyses your swing data. Think of it as a personal electronic caddy, doing everything apart from carrying your bag and absorbing your post-shot rage.

7) SkyCaddie SkyPro (£135/$150)

Stick this device on your club’s shaft, pair it with the SkyPro Swing Trainer app (£free, Android and iOS) and prepare to binge on swing data. You’ll get speed, plane, and even the shaft angle at address. You can compare your swings or even compare your ball striking with pro golfers. It works on the greens as well, meaning you can get some not-at-all infuriating data on why you’re missing those crucial putts.

8) Arccos 360 (£249/$250)

The Arccos 360 is a tag-based, shot-tracking system, doing everything automatically and reporting back to the smartphone app in real-time. Stick the tags in the end of your clubs and get out on the course. As you go, you can check your distances and shot types and make adjustments as you plan your round. Once you’ve finished you get tour-level analytics on your game, showing everything from average driving distance to greens in regulation and average putts per round.

9) SkyCaddie SW2 (£130/$110)

With GPS tracking to measure the distance from tee to green, plus automatic course and hole detection, the entry level SkyCaddie has enough features to help you chip away at your handicap. It also pairs with the SkyCaddie mobile app (iOS and Android) to give you expanded views of the course on your smartphone’s screen, plus it acts as a basic fitness tracker to help you justify that trip to the 19th hole.

10) Garmin TruSwing (£109/$120)

The TruSwing is a sensor that attaches to the shaft of your club and immediately sends swing data either to your phone or one of Garmin’s GPS golf watches. You get shed loads of data, including some pretty detailed readouts on face angle to target, shaft lean at impact and loft. Like the Zepp Golf 2, you can see a 3D representation of your swing in the app too.

11) Trackman 4 (from $18,995)

This training aid might cost more than a family saloon but it’s the choice of pro golfers worldwide and trumps laser rangefinders by using radar systems. It tracks everything from club face speed to plane and distance, showing your shot instantly on a screen or iPad. Ever wondered how Sky Sports creates those fancy ball flight graphics on its live golf coverage? All the data comes from Trackman’s radar tech.