Golf has been a very popular sport for many years, where the direct involvement of technology rarely manifested itself (apart from the design and materials used for clubs or the appearance of better golf carts, just to give a few examples). However, we've seen a very large number of products targeting golfers appear on the market as of late, one of the most interesting and useful being Garmin's Approach G3.

So, what we're talking about here is a handheld GPS navigator featuring a 2.6-inch display that comes preloaded with a database of more than 12,000 course maps across the US and allows users to either Play on the courses or Preview them.

While playing, golfers will see detailed course maps with precise distance information from their current location to fairways, hazards and greens. As they move about the course, the waterproof Approach G3 uses its high-sensitivity GPS receiver to continuously update their position and distances to each target. Plus, users can easily keep the scores for the entire foursome playing the game using the touchscreen digital scorecard, which can be viewed later by connecting the Approach to a computer via USB.

In Preview mode, golfers will be able to check out for themselves in real time the layout of a certain golf course, a feature that can really come in handy when watching major tournaments on TV, for example.

The device is also quite easy to carry around, weighing just 5.25 ounces. The Approach G3 gets up to 15 hours of battery life from two AA batteries, which means that you'll probably be forced to always have some spares available at hand.

“The easy-to-use Approach G3 proves you can have a less expensive device with a more expansive database of preloaded courses,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Thanks to detailed color maps, an intuitive interface and precise measurements to key features, Approach G3 lets golfers focus on fun and fundamentals with added confidence in their game.”

The Approach G3 sells for somewhere in the vicinity of 349.99 USD, which is not exactly a very small sum, but it's pretty fair, all things considered.


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