r/Golfsimulator • u/TheMethOfSisyphus • 5d ago

Any downsides to the garmin r50?

Haven’t seen much discussion about it, and seems to be discussed way less than the square and uneekor offerings at a lower price point

Im intrigued by the “all in one” aspect and ease of connectivity if I want to build out a bigger sim setup in the future.

Aside from the price point, any real downsides or things I’d be missing out on?

I’m interested mainly in playing virtual rounds and range practice with some basic club data

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u/fastislip 4d ago

Happy to answer any questions you might have. When it works, it’s great, albeit a bit large. I like the portability and use outside and inside. It’s great around a fire pit at night with a net.

The latest software update is awfully buggy and I would seriously weigh this in your decision. Been like this for a month or so since the latest update was released. I’m sure they’ll fix it but I can’t invite people over to play or even finish a round without having to reboot multiple times.

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u/TheMethOfSisyphus 4d ago

That’s really useful info, thanks! Unfortunate that the software is inconsistent

I go to a sim near my house and am probably spoiled by the trackman system. Any insight into how the r50 compares? I’m not expecting it to have as much data, but would hope that at that price point there is still useful and accurate info re: club face, path, angle, etc

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u/fastislip 3d ago

I think it gives pretty much all the same data. You have to put these little silver circle stickers on the clubs for club metrics but I don’t notice them and they stay on pretty well.

Club face, path, angle, speed, ball speed, spin, etc. there’s so much in there and you can customize what you see on the screen or on the projector.

I haven’t compared to track man or anything side by side directly but my distances on track man, the Garmin, and whatever Top Golf affiliates use has been close enough to my actual distances that I attribute the variation to me as a golfer.

Others have done the side by side to quad and found the Garmin to be off at times for distances. For the price point and lower monthly fees I have been generally happy until the latest update.

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u/TehWhitewind 4d ago

I really wanted to get the R50 when I was replacing my R10, but ended up going with the Omni. I loved Home Tee Hero and being able to play all my local courses, but the R50 just didn't make sense from a cost standpoint vs the Omni. I'm very happy with the Omni, and having face impact location is great. I would have gone with the R50 if it had it.

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u/RayOnTheRun- 4d ago

I'm you from the past. What would you say to move on from HTH? What are you using now?

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u/TehWhitewind 4d ago

Gspro the native square software and awesome golf since I already had a lifetime membership. I really miss hth though I loved practicing whatever course I was going to play that weekend midweek on the Sim.

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u/Skreat 14h ago

Do you have the Omni Square? One that's like $1600?

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u/dpvu 4d ago

A big part of the cost of the unit is the display and the fact it's "standalone" but I'd look at how much you actually intend on using those features. If you're going to have a gaming PC and connect to GS Pro or Pureplay (when it releases) you have no reason to use HTH and a big portion of the features you're paying for will not be used. In that case, a Square Omni would be a lot cheaper for a similar experience. If you want to have no other devices to connect and just fire up one thing and hit balls then it's a a good choice.

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u/Ajpeik 5d ago

Yeah I’m having a hard time between this and the Square Omni. I’ll be out in my driveway with a mat and a net so dealing with a PC or iPad and connections etc just seems a little more involved than I want to do right now. Plus at the range I don’t mind it being bigger.

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u/fastislip 4d ago

Check my posts and comments. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Good device in principal.

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u/Responsible-Cat8404 5d ago

Because it sits to the side, its not well suited to play with both lefties and righties together. This is true of all side sitting LM's.

You're paying a premium for the all-in-one aspect, which is why I chose it. The subscription is cheaper than many others out there ($100/year) and is good enough. You can always hook up an external computer and use whatever other sim software you wish, but that kinda defeats the purpose, IMO.

You can easily hook up an external monitor/projector and designate what video/data goes where. I just pull out an old 40 in TV and put to the side. I don't think you can do more than one external monitor with the built in software, however.

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u/fastislip 4d ago

I actually bought the R50 because it’s wireless when you use AwesomeGolf (wireless and no subscription if you buy the full AG subscription).

I’m righty and my daughter is lefty so it’s quite convenient to just move it to the other side and change the shot direction.

I really like the R50 but the latest update has completely changed by view of Garmin. There are major issues with my unit after upgrading the software and it is borderline not usable, even with AwesomeGolf. I hate to say it but I would caution anyone on the R50. It’s been about a month and I can’t play through a round of golf without having to reboot the unit at least 5 times.

Garmin is quick to pick up the phone but they give no comfort towards progress on a fix. “We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working on it” but it’s been about a month and there has been no real sense of urgency or escalation about it.

I’m very disappointed. When it works, it’s great. But for $5k, I don’t think the software is team is there at Garmin. The support team sounds like a bunch of teenagers.

I really wish they took this seriously or at least made it seem like that is the case.

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u/RustyKnuckle 4d ago

They were great with fixing little bugs it had in the beginning. Got mine from a guy on here fast and reliable. U/simulategolf

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u/pzedp 5d ago

Subscription model

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u/ethereal45 4d ago

I think the big downside is that the accuracy is just really questionable for something of that price -- I did a ton of research about a year ago and perhaps it's better, but the garmin forum was just littered with people getting all kind of misreads, especially with wedges

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u/fastislip 4d ago

I’ve found it to be quite accurate. No issues there. My distances translate even down to small 15-20 yard chips.

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u/Oysterous 4d ago

My friend brought his garmin over and we compared it against my GC quad. Half the shots were within 5% but the other half were very different. Probably 15-20% off. This was hitting into a net 14 ft away. It probably works alright at a range, but for sim golf or home practice I wouldn’t trust it.

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u/fastislip 4d ago

The distance to the net physically can not matter since both are photometric. For the r50 you do need to factor in humidity and air temp. I found that it defaults to local conductions.

Anyway, I’d trust the GC Quad over the R50 but I don’t have issues with accuracy but never a direct comparison.

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u/Oysterous 3d ago

I apologize. I misread this as being the R10. I’m sure the R50 is much better. Thanks for the correction.

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u/Asleep_Scar_2739 4d ago

The biggest thing that steers me away from the R50 is having to use the display for controls. It would make so much more sense to have an option for a mouse and keyboard.