Anyone pulled the trigger on the Garmin R50 yet?

[IronMike72]

Been going back and forth on this thing for like 3 weeks now and I'm driving myself crazy lol.

For those who haven't seen it, Garmin finally made a proper launch monitor with the big 10" touchscreen built in, plays sim courses natively, no phone or app needed. $5K though. FIVE THOUSAND. I keep telling myself that's only slightly more than a Mevo+ Pro package plus a decent tablet mount setup.

My situation: I've got about 9ft of ceiling height in the garage which I think is enough, 12ft deep. Main question is putting. Anyone who has one, how's the putting actually feel? That's always been the weak spot on photometric units and I don't want to drop this much money and still be putting with a ruler like on my buddy's old SkyTrak.

Also curious if the built-in course play is actually good or if I'd end up buying GSPro anyway within a month. Because if that's the case, why am I paying Garmin premium lol.

Honestly the thing that pushed me toward looking at this was realizing I was about to nickel and dime myself to death. Almost bought a cheap GPS watch last month (there's a whole thread about budget ones here if you're in that boat):

https://usagolfers.com/threads/any-good-gps-watches-under-dollar200.34

But then I figured if I'm serious about the sim route, put the money toward one big purchase instead of 5 little ones. Don't know if that logic holds up. Talk me into it or out of it, either way.

[rk_designs]

The putting thing is the whole ballgame with these, and honestly nobody's cracked it with photometrics yet. Your buddy's SkyTrak ruler situation is basically still the norm. Even on units that claim proper putting, the roll ratio is a guess, so a 20 footer that reads dead center can still come up 4ft short or blow 6ft past. Most guys I know just set gimme range to 6-8ft and putt for the read, not the speed. If putting feel is your #1, a camera-based unit plus a putting mat with real holes gets you closer than any $5K screen does.

On GSPro: yeah, you'll probably buy it. The built in course library is fine for a month, then you want the user-made stuff and the leagues. So budget for that on top, because otherwise the math you did ("one big purchase instead of five little ones") quietly turns back into five little ones. Ask me how I know, I've bought the same category of thing four separate times and I'm still not done.

Also, unrelated but relevant to your logic: I'm in a state where I can't even legally put a few bucks on the PGA, so the sim is basically my only golf outlet outside of actual rounds. Which means the "one big thing" math actually does hold up for me, it's cheaper than a flight to a legal state every month lol. Just know your bank's gonna freak out at a $5K golf charge, mine flagged it as fraud and I had to split it across two cards. Have the fraud line number ready before you hit buy.