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We Asked Garmin About the New Approach S72 | GTW · PlayBetter's Golf Tech Weekly

• PlayBetter: Garmin just released a brand new flagship golf watch, the Approach S72. What does it do? How does it improve on the S70 it replaces? And is it worth $800? That's what we're exploring today. This is Golf Tech Weekly, presented by PlayBetter. Welcome back. I'm Mark Shevorjan alongside Daniel Fitzpatrick. And joining us today, Garmin's manager of consumer product marketing, Clark Fry. Clark, thanks for jumping on. Thanks for having me. Great to be here. Awesome. Well, we're going deep on the S72 today. what's new, what it does on the course, what it does off the course, what it now does at the driving range, even, how it stacks up against The S 70 and even against some of Garmin's other non-golf specific watches, and of course, whether it's worth the money. we'll also look back at a little bit about Garmin's history and evolution and how we got to this point. but first, Clark, give us give us maybe just a little bit of a teaser. We'll go into all the details here in just a few minutes, but hit us with your favorite feature about the S 72. Well, I'm probably gonna throw you a curveball, because we're talking about a golf watch that does a lot of things for your attracts your health and fitness. But I think my favorite feature, one that we have not had on a golf watch this point is the handy flashlight on the approach as it's here. Nice. but that's that's a Garmin favorite feature. We've had it on a few other watches in the past. it sounded at first when we first brought it out, there's a lot of people who thought it was a gimmick. And When we brought it to our first watch, it quickly became a fan favorite and something that I have used personally in my life pretty much on a daily basis. So I'm sure we'll talk a lot of a lot of golf features and a lot of other features, but the flashlight cannot be forgotten because it was the first time we brought it to a golf watch. Excellent. Excellent point. Well, Daniel and I are are fairly familiar with your golf watches up to this point or your watches in general. Daniel, you and I are are both Garmin watch wearers and and big fans of the brand. Gotta imagine you were pretty fired up when when Garmin dropped the news of the S seventy two on us earlier this week. Yeah. Yeah, exciting time. even a little more fired up now, too, because literally my favorite feature of my Phoenix watch is the flashlight. it I I've told Mark this before. Like I I literally laughed when I first got the watch. I'm like, I'll never use that flashlight. I think I I literally use it every day. It's it's insane how convenient it is to just have a flash right there. So interesting enough that that was that was your favorite addition to the new S 72. So yeah, really excited to dive deep and kind of learn the history of of the new watch and kind of where all these new features kind of were developed from. So I really appreciate you joining us today, Clark. Really? Yeah. reminder to everyone if you're enjoying the show to please like, comment, subscribe if you haven't already, and to use code GTW over at playbackter.com for the best pricing on qualifying products. Clark, let's back up just a little bit and talk about Garmin's involvement in in golf, specifically golf watches. as I understand, that would start with the S1, which would have been what, 14,000 courses, a a black and white screen, really something that when we compare it to the S72, I think gives us a pretty pretty good indication of just how far. Technology has eve evolved, how innovative Garmin has been. And that's dating back to what, 2010? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. exactly. So kind of kind of give us just maybe a quick walkthrough of that evolution since 2010 to now in October of 2026. some of the high points along the way and where we arrive now. Yeah. I mean, Garmin's been on the forefront of GPS golf devices. As you mentioned, the S1 came out in Two thousand ten. It actually was predated by GPS handheld the year before. and then we've been continually iterating on golf watches ever since. And it started out. as you mentioned, we had more limited courses. We've expanded that to forty-three thousand courses and the growing list still as courses are continually being built around the world. we keep those updated as we go. and then Garmin has is not only We we started more predominantly on just golf based watches. And as we have expanded in our other categories to bring health and fitness features and all these other innovative features, the golf watches have benefited from that. And you especially see that in our flagship line, where it's yes, it's a golf watch, but it is a very capable fitness watch, a very capable watch to track your health and fitness, and many other things. So I think that's been the biggest evolution over time is just trying to give people a much much more value than just on the golf course, something they can wear every day. It looks great. I mean, it really looks great with a 72. Yeah. and then along the way, we've been coming out with other products, which I'm sure we'll talk about more. in the in the rangefinder, the launch monitor, club tracking capabilities that we've started to build out that ecosystem. A lot these things work together now. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely have a a really slick. connected ecosystem going and and we will dive into how all of this plays together. But I like your point about how, you know, golf watchers in general, Garmin always at the forefront. Initially these were devices that a golfer put on their wrist when they were getting ready to play a round of golf and then took off at the end of the round. Certainly not something that they're wearing to dinner, most likely. And that's changed entirely. Daniel and I wear ours around the clock. I mean, we're tracking our sleep with with it. I I I know from speaking with him. and I think that's kind of the common case. Just curious quickly, Daniel, to hear from you and as you're visiting with customers, are we right about that? Is is this now more of a around the clock accompanying your entire lifestyle, not just specific to golf type of investment that customers are making? yeah, ab absolutely. I mean, even as simple as just you know, that those that like to take a morning walk and they can track some basic health data and stuff like that with it. So yeah, you're you're you're hitting the nail right on the head. I mean, we've it it seems like in today's world that health tracking and monitoring is more important than ever. And yeah, it's it's certainly become something where these golf watches to have that versatility, it it's what puts Garmin above a lot of its competitors, honestly. Yeah. Clark, help us with kind of the naming of these products. you know, we just in the just in the Gulf Specific flagship, we had the the S62 replaced by the S70. Now we're at the S72. help help somebody understand why isn't this the S80? Or how how do you decide on on that that naming strategy? Well, I wish I could give you that there is this like perfectly scientific approach we take to it. honestly, a lot of times we're just trying to look at How big of a jump do we feel this is from the previous one? And I think there are a ton of upgrades here. We also are cognizant of like how much room do we have until the end of how much further can we go? So I think that that's sometimes what drives the conversation. It's it's I probably wouldn't read into it too much as far as like why we went from S60 to S62 and then S70. I think S70 was one where we made a big jump in the display technology and the color got much. massively improved and we felt like that was a totally different experience. Yeah. I still think there's a lot of big like hardware changes we made from S seventy to S seventy two. You could probably argue this is an SA this could have been called S A D, but I think part of that is just making sure we leave room. So, you know, hopefully we'll continue innovating and and bringing more innovations to the market. So yeah, and then then and past that we have, as you know, like we have the S forty four and S fifty. Yep. further down the line, which are more entry level and mid-level wa golf watches. And we just like to we those beginning number really kind of designates what level of golf watch versus golf and smartwatch as we get further up the the number chart. Yeah. And so speaking of the the current golf line, it was it was kind of nice and tidy with the S forty four, the S50, the S70, and all of these things kind of replace one another. So you know you the S forty four kind of served as the replacement to the the S twelve, the the S fifty maybe was the replacement of the S forty two, the S seventy was the replacement of the S sixty two. are it as the S seventy two clearly meant to replace the S seventy, not to say that somebody can't still enjoy an S seventy, but are we now to look at the line in the from the perspective of kind of good better best as the S forty four, the S fifty and the S seventy two? Couldn't have said better. Yep. All right. Yeah, exactly. The S72 would be the replacement for the S70 at the as the premium flagship watch. obviously S70 is still a great value. And and yeah. Yeah. Well, let's get into then what makes it different from the S70. why don't you walk us through kind of some of the high point features and and tell us a bit more about the product? Yeah, I think the biggest difference that you'll notice right away is it's the build of the watch. So it now has a titanium bezel. On S72, where we previously had the ceramic inlay on the S70. and then the the band is much different as well. So it has a comfort fit fabric band, which a lot of golfers really like. We've gotten a lot of feedback from other watches that the fabric bands do a really good job of you can get them the perfect amount of like snug to your wrist. Whereas silicone, you have little I guess notches that you can tighten it to, which gets you pretty close, but you can't get it exactly where you like. And and I know golfers a lot of times are really finicky about what they're wearing. SMT two is super light. It has like a a durable build, so it's gonna last a long time. And then again, you can keep it really snug. So I think one thing we hear a lot is people are concerned about the golf watch interfering with their swing and being able to feel it. And I think this as much as any golf watch we have produced. is very lightweight and does not interfere with that. So I think that's I think it's the most notable change. It looks really nice. It looks premium. It's something you can wear to a wedding and you can wear on the golf course and you can wear it in the gym. So yeah. That's probably where I would start. Yeah. Yeah. That that comfort fit band, you guys rolled that out on the S50, right? and and that was popular. You guys correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think too it's it maybe gives a a a little bit better or more modern classic classy aesthetic touch. just as you mentioned. You could wear this thing to a wedding in that comfort fit band maybe just looks a little bit more in place on on somebody that's that's style conscious. Is that that kind of fair to say? I think so, yeah. It's super comfortable. I mean even when you're like working out in the gym, it's just it's just nice to have that nice you can tighten it up when you want and then you can loosen it up really easily when you don't. So yeah. And this is the this does feature the the quick change band. so so if somebody did want to prefer the silicone band, they'd have that option to to switch to that if they wanted. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a quick fit mechanism, it's unique to Garmin. Makes it super easy to s to swap in and out. Yeah. All right. Well let's talk about some more of the features. how about the golf specific ones to start with? things the S seventy two does that the S seventy does not. Yeah. This is there is a long list of new features. I think our engineering teams outdid themselves on this one. So I will try to rattle them all off from memory here. I think one of the ones that I I believe will probably get a lot of attention because it's totally unique and something we haven't done before is swing metrics. so it gives you we can get in more detail on that. but you are starting to get some data around what your really your lead arm is doing during the swing. some the rotation that's happening, the plane that it's on. you get that during the round and you get it during the driving range activity, which the driving range activity is also new. Something I really appreciate as someone who probably goes through range more than I have time to play anymore. It's nice to be able to track that and just kind of look over time at you know, how often I'm gonna go in the range. I can see some metrics now while I'm doing that. we also have aerial imagery, which is new. so we've had that in the Garmin Golf membership on the on the phone. And we also brought it onto the G82 that came out earlier this year. But now this is the first time where you can get aerial imagery if you have an active Garmin Golf membership on your wrist. green reading is new. So we're trying to we we we introduced green contours a few years ago. we're taking that kind of the next step there, where now we are actually giving you the percentage break left and right and downhill. So giving you some insights. people familiar with the the aim point system, this is essentially doing, you know, when you're straddling the line, you're trying to feel that break. we're kind of giving you the first step there where we're trying to give you. The the left to right downhill, uphill break there. You still have to hit the putt at the end of the day, but we're giving you all the data you can use there. again, that does require the Garmin Golf membership as well, because you need those green contours in other in order to figure out that data. we also have it it sounds it's kind of like the flashlight. It's it's maybe not a feature that you think you're gonna it sounds kind of gimmicky, but we have like whole navigation now. So if you're on a course you've never played before, it will direct you to the next. T box, which I've had that I've already used that many times where it's like, I never been out here. I can't like it's a little bit of a different layout. Or even if you're on the course and some courses aren't marked very well, it can get you while you're on the course. It can get you back to the clubhouse, whatever you need. Yeah. you can change holes as you go. So it's a feature that I think we kind of dismissed as like a lower priority feature, but it's actually been one I've used a lot, even in my It's pretty cool. Yep. Harken back to your hometown. I think of that at Culbert Hills that could come in handy, couldn't it, Clark? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Anytime you get tall grass and and a spread out course, it's useful. Right. Daniel, we of course talk a lot in this space about launch monitors, including Garmin, and all the the all the powerful tools that are available to golfers to inform them about what's going on. With the golf ball, what's going on with their golf swing. But this is truly revolutionary. What we're now getting with the S 72 to actually get feedback about what your lead wrist, the back of your lead hand is doing at impact. You're a player, Daniel. You talk to players all day long. what kind of benefit do you see there for for a golfer? Yeah, I mean, I I think, you know, which seems to be a growing theme in golf and golf technology is it's just another It's another piece of data that allows us golfers to better our game when we're out working on our own. You know, we golf is a weird sport to where you don't really have anybody but you yourself in the golf course to kind of play through the round. So, you know, yeah, we we have golf instructors, but they're not with us every time we practice. So to get that critical data that, you know, is honestly very similar to launch monitor data. It's data you can't usually see with the naked eye. It can certainly help people, you know, get better at golf and Certainly intriguing to see kind of what my data looks like with with this with this new technology. Yeah, I think it's interesting too, just kind of going back to the the connected ecosystem that Garmin's building out here. if you do have that Garmin Golf membership, or even if you don't, if you just you know you just have the Garmin Golf app, you have kind of a central hub to store all of this data and to analyze it all. So you you might be an R ten and R fifty user, You might additionally be an S72 user, potentially you're using a Z10 rangefinder. All of this, you might be using the CT1 club sensors. All of your data now can live under one roof. And I would imagine, Clark, as things evolve, the the and the tools to analyze that data and to to really kind of use that information to help us ultimately play better. are are just going to get more and more sophisticated as you collect more of this information, right? A hundred percent. Yeah. And a lot of those things you were talking about there is, you know, we're giving you data. And now that you have that stored in the golf app, you can go back through you know when you play around when you hit good shots and bad. Most golfers at the end of the round can think through that. You can go back in the golf app and say, like, you know, I really I didn't hit a great shot there and shot there on the on the second shot in hole number five. Let me go back, see what those swing metrics were. You can kind of confirm or or deny your maybe assumptions on whether your wrist was where you were over rotating. Where was your hand speed during that swing? And you can start to learn trends and confirm, you know, what you might what you might think you know, but now you actually know because you have some data to prove it. So Yeah. And so just confirming that that would mean then that you need to wear the the the watch or it's designed to be worn on your lead wrist. Yes? Correct. Yes. Yes, right. Yep. And I also want to confirm that to get those swing metrics. You do not need a Garmin Golf membership, correct? No, no. I mentioned a couple of features there early on that are there are some new features that require the membership, but this is I want to be clear. Like there is there's only a few features that require the membership. This is a great watch. You get a ton of value on the golf course and beyond without without additional membership there. And we should it might be obvious, but of course there's all of the things that made the S 70 innovative to begin with, are of course carried over. So things like the virtual caddy. All of your stat tracking, all of those kinds of things that whole maps, that obviously all lives in the S seventy two or is or is just enhanced, of course. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. and then kind of bridging the gap between on course and off course, I think really interestingly. Tell us about this now, how we can see how our heart rate is actually potentially affecting our golf performance. Yeah. So obviously we've had a heart rate sensor on a few generations of watches now. So we've been working hard to make sure we can start to bring that power and and start to give golfers some insight into, you know, what does their what does their heart rate look like during a round? so you can you can actually see while you're on the course, like in actual golf activity now, what your heart rate is. So it's something you can start to pay attention to. I know there's there's a few courses I walk around here that have a lot of hills. And a lot of times I can feel out of breath, but I can actually now kind of see before I hit my shot is my heart rate 140 right now. I just walked up this giant hill. Maybe, maybe give it a second, calm like you're not trying to slow down the course. Maybe, but if you're if your buddy looks like they're ready, it might be a a a good moment to just take a second, watch let your heart rate come down. And then if it if you don't have that opportunity to take that, you can start to see after the round, you'll see that heart rate on a chart in the scorecard where you can actually see you know, different points throughout the round where your heart rate was higher or lower and start to see if there's an impact in your score. Like did you actually score worse when your heart rate was higher? Yeah. So you can again it's just something to it's it's information. It it may not matter on a shot by shot basis. Maybe you had a really high rate and you hit a good shot one time, but you can see trends over time and whether it's actually impacting you over for a longer period of time. Really interesting, especially because we've never seen this before Daniel, your reaction to that? Do you see it do you see that as potentially of any of any value? Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, they even show this data at PJ Tour events, you know, when players are taking some of the biggest shots of the tournament, they show their heart rates on on TV to kind of show how how much adrenaline they kinda have go. I I think it's awesome. It again, it's it's stuff I'd like to see. to just kind of see, you know, if you do take the time to go through a process and a routine and and elevat you know, kind of level out your heart rate. Maybe it it more than likely it's gonna lead to better scores, but it would be really, really cool to see that with your scorecard and with your other statistics to kind of pull it all together and and see how it's affecting you. Yeah, I could I could definitely see this like in a competitive environment. Yes. Starting to see like you play in a real competitive tournament, is your heart rate different than when you're just going out with your buddies? And is that do you can you see an effect in your scores when you're starting to compare that? I think there's a lot of value. Or just fun things. You may hit a hole in one and you have some data to show how high. It is pretty amazing when you think of just how all encompassing this this technology is and how one device on your wrist can truly inform pretty much your entire day. Like we can we can start with our morning and see how we slept and see potentially how our sleep quality is going to impact our golf performance. now we can see how our heart rate potentially is impacting our performance. And furthermore, if we want to, we can use that same exact device, that same watch to help us through some breathing exercises to potentially bring that heart rate down, get us, get us a little bit more calm, maybe more ready to hit that high pressure shot. kind of wild. I mean it really is kind of wild. I mean everything but hitting the shot for us. I'm still waiting for that feature. But maybe the yeah maybe the S80. talk about the the new driving range activity, Clark. Yeah. So previously, if you went to the driving range, the main tool that we we gave to you was tempo training. And that is still a part of the driving range activity. It's something I've used before, where it's just really essentially a metronome that you can control the speed of to just help you with your backswing and and follow through timing. but we've added a little swing metrics that we talked about before. So wrist rotation, hand speed, and the plane. And and so then you get that information while you're out. on the driving range taken shot. So it's and then overall it it also will save as an activity so you can see it afterwards and you can start to see like, you know, at different times of the year, was I going to the range more often, more less, was it affecting my scores? it's just it's data that you're storing without with very, very little effort. You just start an activity while you get to the range and when you're done, you end it. So it's not necessarily you can you can look at metrics as you're going throughout it, but if you also just want to save the activity, it it can be very much out of the way while you go to the range and you can just Yeah, cool too to to be able to kind of get credit for our golf activity or exercise as part of the the our overall kind of body battery or fitness. Can you talk about how that is now? as I understand it, those things used to be kind of segregated or siloed and and now all of your activity, including your golf, would be connected into the the fitness metrics. Is that right? Yeah, so we there's a couple options there. Actually we when you play a golf round, it's actually disabled from going directly into Garmin Connect, which is our fitness and health platform, but you can enable it to send over there if you would like. So it's kind of an optional thing. Some and part of the reason for that is that, you know, many people take a cart while they play. that can affect like number of steps and and mileage that you went for the day. So some people don't want that data flowing over there. some people do. If you walk frequently, maybe something you want to make sure you're getting credit for all of that. So yeah, we make sure that golfers have the option there. And we know some care about some care about the fitness side, some some don't. So Yeah. Yeah. you've also got more things going on with putting analytics, speed bias, direction bias, make rate. yeah. Yes. So this is a similar Actually somewhat tied to what we were talking about earlier with the green reading feature. So if you are someone that is is consistently, you do need to as you get to the green, you need to make sure you're marking the pin location. So you can just walk up to the pin, it's very quick. You move the pin to where you are in the green. And then as you're putting, if you have auto shot on or you're using a club tracking sensors, now we have ac more much more accurate putting data. We know the break of things, we know how far away you are, we know how many putts you took on the green. So it's it's not necessarily something you're gonna use a lot during the round. The green readings be more functional, but after the round, you have much, much more accurate putting data, which has been something that a customer has been asking for a lot. So now you can start to see am I consistently missing to the left? Am I consistently coming up short? Am I hitting it way too hard from distance? Am I missing to the right? Like getting a lot more insight that you kinda it's really sometimes hard to feel that during a round. Like, are you missing left all the time? I a lot of people just aren't thinking about that. Right. Now you want data to To start to show you that over time. Yeah, again, I mean, Daniel, that these are the exact kind of things that we see all the time. a launch monitor really opening a a golfer's eyes to something that maybe if you were standing behind them on the range would be obvious. if you were looking, this guy always misses to the right. But for whatever reason, us golfers, we don't always see that for ourselves, you know? and so having these tools. and again they're optional. You know, you wanna you can use them as extensively as you want or use as few of them as you as you care to or go you know, real basic with it. But f when you do want to dive deeper or have those opportunities, some of this information is potentially very, very powerful. yeah, so I I I I Just applaud Garmin on continuing to push the envelope, continuing to think of innovative ways to make the experience better and to to really add real value and not just something that might be useless. speaking of, there's quite a lot just in terms of build quality and kind of around the clock features that play into the S72. One thing that jumps to mind to me is, you know, I'm somebody that's worn the S70. really pretty much every single day of every hour of every day for the last couple of years. And I w I have the forty seven millimeter option. and it's a large watch. One thing I appreciate about what I understand about the S seventy two, not yet having gotten that in hand, it's lighter than the 47 millimeter S seventy. Yes? Correct. Yeah. It's I mean both watches are are very light. So I don't if you're looking at the S seventy, it's still a light watch. It but I think part most of that that weight savings is because of the of the band that's on there. So that's a very, very light band. and then also we have the two sizes there. So we actually have two colors in the forty three or yeah, the smaller size and then two in the the larger forty seven millimeter size. So and I think that the colors themselves actually are are really exciting. I'm really happy with where those ended up and hopefully golfers like So yeah. And a different The actual it's it's now not the gorilla glass any longer. What do what do we got now on the Sapphire lens, yeah. So much more scratch resistant. really I think it if you look across the Garmin landscape of watches, I think SME two, while it's not an entry level price point, it's a great value. You're getting truly a ton of the almost all of the health and fit wellness and and fitness features that you're getting on some of our highest end watches. And then you get a sapphire land, a titanium bezel, like super rugged, durable design that's gonna stand up for a long time. You get great battery life with it. You're getting a really nice ammo display. So you're getting a lot of a lot of value and especially when you look at it across of our our entire landscape, the watches. Yeah. let's talk about some other kind of firsts for a Garmin Golf watch. the built in speaker and microphone. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yes, so that's there's a few different use cases there. I I think the most notable is is now you can take if you're paired to your smartphone, you can you can take calls directly from the watch. So making much continuing to improve that you know, smartwatch capability there. It may be something you use in the golf course, but again, like like we said before, this is an everyday everyday watch that you can use all the time. But there's many times where, you know, maybe I'm even like cooking dinner. And I don't want to like have my phone right next to me. I got my watch on my hand the whole time. I've set timers with it. Like that has honestly been one the most useful tools for is like I'm I'm grilling in the backyard. I got stuff all over yeah. I like I push a button and start a timer with my hand. Like it's it's much that's not something you want to do with your phone, you get stuff all over it. So I think sometimes just like the simple it's kinda like the flashlight again where there's little things that start to change your life and make it a little bit better every day. So Yeah. Yeah. Clark, the the Phoenix nine came out in August. is there anything golf wise on the S seventy two that you can't get on the Phoenix nine? Yeah, so at this time a lot of these features that are brand new to the S seventy two. so like the swing metrics are not available on the Phoenix nine, aerial imagery is not and green reading is not. Yeah, so a lot of those those flagship new features that launched the SV2 are not currently available on the Phoenix 9. Yeah, cool. Very cool. Daniel, what's standing out to you? you you're of course a Phoenix 8 where we've talked in other episodes about just kind of all of the the full lifestyle range that the Garmin product line offers. in and maybe Phoenix for you personally, having been the sweet spot. but as as the the Gulf specific watch line even improves some of the lifestyle and fitness metrics, maybe it opens it up to a wider a wider range of of target customers. Do you do you see that potentially? Yeah, totally. And you know, it might sound kinda funny, but like when it came out and it was the S seventy two, the first thing I thought of, it's even par. It kind of just it's perfect for everything. So, you know, I I think it hits every level of golfer realistically. Sure, it's it's ideal for serious golfers who want to look into that data. But just the golf specific features, it really feels like they they didn't leave anything out, you know, and honestly these features are truly unique to this watch. So it's it's really impressive that they were ap able to pack all of that into into one new watch release. So and also I I also we didn't really talk about this, but having having the different watch sizes, like I I think instantly of my wife or or women golfers, you know, that smaller size will be perfect for them too. so it's you know just all around, you know, really impressed with with all of this. I I I would love to be able to test this data and just kind of see, you know, what tendencies are and if what I'm thinking is what is actually happening, like we were talking about. So yeah. I did notice, Clark, that in the S seventy two, the the small size was 42 millimeters and that jumped up to 43 millimeters. Any any reason there, just customer feedback? Yeah, it's just making sure we can and part of that too is we're trying to keep it small. It does look really, really nice and still looks very thin. but battery life is always important in Garmin watches too. So we make sure that if you're getting a smaller size watch, you're still maintaining great battery life. So you're not having to worry about Can I get 36 holes in today? You want to make sure you still have confidence for that. So it does have quite a considerable amount more memory, which is which is a nice plus. curious how Garmin is looking at this. Who is the Phoenix nine four versus who is the S seventy two four? is it is it very clear line of demarcation? If you're a golfer, it's the S seventy two. If you're not, it's it's it's not, or how how does Garmin look at this? Yeah. I would say that if you are primarily a golfer and especially someone that i is I think once you become a serious golfer, the the weight of the watch becomes very important to you. So I've noticed when I wear a Phoenix that sometimes I can feel the weight of that watch. And I really don't feel that with an S seventy two. so I think the weight does make a big difference for serious golfers. Phoenix is loved by many who really a a wide range of activities. If you're and consider yourself an athlete, if you're if you're a runner, trail runner, someone who goes hiking frequently, the durability of that watch is is unmatched. So the the battery life is unmatched. you can you can trust on that, trust that as you're going on like very, very long hikes or very, very long runs that you're gonna have really accurate GPS. You're gonna have the the topo maps and it's not going to get scratched on a rock as you're going. I would say SMV two, like we mentioned, it has a sapphire lens and a like a titanium bezel now. So truly, and it also has topo maps, like we were talking about for so if you go hiking or you're running and you need maps, it has those capabilities. I would just say, it kind of just comes down to a personal preference then. And and if you are someone that does those other things and likes to golf, then S seventy two might be what you'd gravitate towards. if you're someone who just primarily is doing multi sport activities, F Phoenix might just be a better choice for you from the the build quality side. Sure. Sure. Daniel, what do you what do you anticipate golfers are going to be most interested in about the S 72? What are the things that people are going to be wanting to explore first when they get this on their wrist? Yeah, I think the biggest thing that jumps to me is the driving range features and honestly the new just the new golf data that you can get from it. I that's super interesting to me. I think that golfers themselves are gonna are gonna buy this device just to to test and try that data alone. Yeah. but also like we've talked about, I mean, the multi-sport capabilities and and just the general daily life capabilities of of the watch, like we've like we've discussed, you know, these these devices and it have gone from just being wear it at the course, take it off, charge it again to I wear it twenty-four hours a day until I need to charge it. That's the only time it's off my wrist is when I need to charge it. So yeah, it's it's great. real really impressed like we've talked and and I think that yeah, golfers are gonna buy it specifically for those those new data features. I think that's really intriguing. That's why I would buy it. Yeah. I guess one thing that we didn't touch on, Clark, if you care to add anything more about the overall ecosystem and and what Garmin is building out here. Lot of really, really cool things that have come out just in the last gosh year and a half alone, when I think about things like the Z ten and and the improvements that were made to Home T Hero and how the R ten and R fifty got even more value as of late. and just how this is all playing together. Can you just kind of give us some some broad stroke comments about the way the direction that things are moving at Garmin? Yeah, we want to make sure that people have the option to continue to improve. Their experience by utilizing other tools that are available to them as a golfer. So the approach Z10 is probably the easiest, like any of our approach Z10 and the Z30 that previously came out, both of those have a range relay feature. So now if you are someone that has a watch, so you are, or you already have the range finder and you add a watch, when you shoot the pin with the range finder, that pin location shows up on your watch. So you actually get the location of the pin on the green on your watch, which is very handy when you have blind shots. Instead of having to walk all the way to the green to see where the pin is, you can actually see where it is. And if you have if you have the membership, you can see the contours. So you can start to see that pin's in the front, and there's a false front right there in front, for example. So that's a lot of data that you wouldn't have otherwise. And I I guess I would just add some personal commentary to that. I was, I in my past life, I was a Rangefinder snob, I guess I would call myself. I similarly play a lot of competitive golf, and I never really thought a watch was was something I would need. because I felt like I just I needed the exact distance to the pin, and that's all I needed. As I've used watches more and more, I've realized that actually there's a ton of value in sometimes actually not focusing on the pin and and playing more course management. The watch gives you the ability to see very, very easily like how far it is to lay up in front of a bunker. You can you're using touch targeting. Features we've had for a long time on our golf watches. Right. and just and actually aiming for the center of the green is probably what I should be doing more often than not. But now you bring that like intercom compatibility with the rangefinders in, and now that really enhances that experience when you want sometimes you do need that exact distance. You kind of have the best of both worlds. Club Exactly. Exactly. I know I didn't get to the other the products there you're talking about, but yeah, the club tracking sensors are probably the other one that really integrates well with the watch where You don't need to do anything, especially if you have the CT10 sensors, you can just pair those to your watch once. You go out and play, and all that data shows up in the golf app after the round. So you can all those trends that we were talking about earlier, it's a seamless experience where you're not have to telling it what club you used at any point. You can do that with autoshot if you don't want the sensors on there. But man, it makes life easy if you have those. and then range finders, that just takes now you have all those on course metrics that you're getting. If you're someone who goes to the range or you have a sim in your house. You're getting all that you know, launch monitor data there as well. And you can start to see trends. And am I hitting it differently at in my sim? It feels like I'm playing a lot better at my house. The name on the course you can actually confirm. So Right. Yeah, I think you I think you nailed it when you talk about, I mean, a higher level player yourself, Daniel. A a lot of folks like that traditionally were mostly addicted to rangefinders. And I think we are starting to see more and more players of all levels f see the benefit of a of a golf watch or as you said, when you have something, a product as slick as the Z10 and that range relay feature, what makes it so great is that you truly do have the best of both worlds. You get all of those benefits of the golf watch, including speed by the way, much faster to to check your yardages that way. But then also when you do need the pinpoint information or in the case of a range relay, the distance from that from that bunker to that tucked pin, how far exactly is that? How much room do I have behind the pin and and what's my play here? these products working in concert really give a golfer the full picture. And then to piggyback on Daniel's point, to me, one of the huge breakthroughs here with the S72 is what you said at this at the top, Clark, the flashlight, the built-in speaker and microphone, the more scratch-resistant screen. all of these things continuing with the what Garmin's famous for, the battery life. that really make these products something that we really are going to wear around the clock. Daniel and I wear ours around the clock. Looking forward to getting the S seventy two on my wrist. Clark, wh what's on your wrist right now? Is that the S seventy two you got on? It is. Yes. Right on. It's a Citron. Well which is you know, I used to always wear a black wash, but I love this color. It's it looks great. Especially a lot like a lot of golf clothes that are, you know, brighter colors, it looks good. So Yeah. Well, very exciting. we will all Look forward to getting hands on with the S72. certainly more content coming from this channel regarding just how accurate are those swing metrics, how useful are some of these new features, and how does it compare to the S70 or to the other golf watches in Garmin's line? But very, very encouraging. I think there's a lot to be excited about here and really appreciate you joining us today, Clark. Thank you. Appreciate it. It was great talking with you both. Alright, reminder to everybody to please head over to playbetter dot com, use code GTW for the best pricing on qualifying products. if you haven't already, please give us a like, subscribe, and we'd love to hear what you think about the new Garmin Approach S seventy two. Drop drop us a comment, let us know your thoughts. And thank you again for watching. Please join us next week for another episode of Golf Tech Weekly.