It was only a matter of time before a renowned golf GPS brand debuted a watch that would rival and surpass the aesthetics, quality and performance of an Apple Watch. But that's just what Garmin has done with its new flagship Approach S72 golf smartwatch. This is a premium, feature-rich on-course companion that also provides advanced health and wellness features for everyday wear. Designed to be worn both on and off the fairways, it includes plenty of top-tier fitness features to help you improve your overall health and reach peak form. Plus, some of this enhanced data connects everyday fitness to your golf performance, so you can see how your heart rate and sleep affect your golf game.

At $800, this isn't an impulse buy, but rather a serious piece of hardware for players who split their time between tracking golf stats, getting distances, and managing fitness off the course. It relies on a lightweight titanium bezel, a scratch-resistant sapphire lens, vibrant color screen, and a quick-drying fabric band – materials that hold up across 18 holes of summer heat without feeling cumbersome on your wrist.

Step onto the first tee, and the watch comes alive with quick access to 43,000+ preloaded courses worldwide. Rather than simply delivering yardages to the front, middle and back of the green, it overlays full-color aerial hole imagery to give a clearer sense of landing zones and hazard placements. The onboard Virtual Caddie accounts for real-time wind data, elevation changes, and historic shot distances to suggest club selection, while an integrated green reading feature displays heat map contour lines and slope direction to help you navigate putting lines before stepping up to the ball.

For practice sessions, the watch acts more like a wearable launch monitor extension. Onboard sensors record wrist rotation, hand speed, and backswing length, allowing you to analyze mechanics during driving range sessions or review full-round putting trends over time.

Perhaps its most compelling technical feature is how it connects personal recovery metrics directly to golf output. Instead of isolating health stats from sport performance, it lets you overlay post-round Whoop-like biometric data, such as elevated heart rate or poor recovery trends, against specific scoring stretches. Supported by Garmin's standard suite of Sleep Coach, HRV monitoring, and Body Battery features, it offers an objective look at how factors like fatigue or stress directly influence shot consistency down the stretch.

Away from the course, it transitions into a fully functional daily wearable. Battery life lasts up to 16 days in standard smartwatch mode. Built-in speakers and microphones allow wrist-based calls and voice commands, while integrated Spotify storage, contactless payments, offline maps, and a built-in LED flashlight round out its utility for everyday wear.

Although I haven't used mine on the course yet, I can tell you that it looks and feels really high-end. And it's offered in two sizes and band colors. If you're looking to refine your game through data and course management, a purpose-built tool like this will serve you better than a standard smartwatch. It also makes for an amazing holiday gift for the golfer in your life.