Noteworthy Golf Tech At The 2025 PGA Show Part 1
I’ve been a tech nut since I built my first computer from a kit back in the early 1980s. That Zenith/ Heathkit is still one of my favorite gadgets. It proffered a sense of magic that has never been duplicated. I also have an inexplicable sense of nostalga for a long-ago-sold Panasonic KX-P 1080 nine-pin dot matrix printer.
The 2025 PGA Show was bursting with new tech from companies large and small; established and new. Here are a few that caught my eye.
- Shot Scope Watches and Rangefinders
- Garmin Golf Smartwatches
- FlightScope Portable Launch Monitor
- VertaCat
Shot Scope Watches and Rangefinders
Based in Edinburgh, Shot Scope offers a wide variety of devices to help you find yardages and collect data on your game.
The V5 watch offers full hole maps and distances on more than 36,000 courses. The watch will give front, middle and back distances on the green, as well as front and carry distances for every hazard. Notably, there’s no subscription cost for the course data.
Even better: the watch comes with sixteen tracking “tags” that will automatically record every shot on the course to offer post-round analysis on their app.
What’s quite clever, I think, is that the watch’s band contains the sensor that automatically recognizes the tags. I can remember the “old days” of electronic shot tracking when one had to tap the tag to a device on the belt before every shot.
Shot Scope has several watch models with different levels of features.
The company also has a nice selection of laser rangefinders, ranging from the top end ProZR to the more budget-minded Pro L2. The Pro ZR has a “DuraShield” hardshell for all weather use, slope features, enhanced target lock, dual optics and free aerial GPS maps via the Shot Scope app. In some ways, it’s the best of both worlds.
Garmin Golf Smartwatches
In the world of smartwatches, the Apple watch is the one that likely comes to mind first for most people. For myself — and likely a lot of other golfers — though, it’s Garmin.
Garmin had several new golf smartwatch products, including the S50 which, at $399 MSRP is priced significantly lower than the S70 I own.
The S50 has an AMOLED display, 43,000 preloaded courses and with a Garmin Golf Membership, full color CourseView maps. It also has tons of health and wellness features in addition to the golf.
The new G20 Solar is a handheld GPS device that — with its solar charging — theoretically has unlimited battery life. It comes preloaded with 43,000 courses and gives distances to the front middle and back of the green, as well as to hazards. It also will pair with the Approach CT10 club tracking sensors.
Garmin also was showing off its CT10 sensors which automatically track your shots when paired with a compatible Garmin watch or device.
Finally, they’ve got an Approach S44 watch for the golfer who wants essential golf information without all the fitness add-ons. It gives distances to front, middle and back of the green, and to hazards. With a Garmin membership, you’ll also get course view screens.
FlightScope Portable Launch Monitor
Flightscope was showing off its line of Portable Launch Monitors and rangefinders such as the Mevo+ pictured above.
As with others of its ilk, the Mevo+ collects a vast array of data for perfecting your swing, and also offers simulated golf courses to play, including St. Andrews and Pebble Beach.
Flight Scope also had a rangefinder that uses launch monitor data to make personalized club selection recommendations based on distance, weather an environmental conditions.
It’s like having a caddy in your pocket.
VertaCat
Verta Cat makes golf carts for the differently-abled. Making golf more accessible is a worthy cause. Figuring out ways to break down barriers, whether they be physical, financial or social — does far more to “grow the game” than parading millionaire pros about like peacocks talking about how they are growing the game.
As it happens, I also ran across Dennis Walters at the PGA Show and had a nice, but brief chat about how much I enjoyed his shows at Washtenaw Golf Club’s annual charity classic.
Walters, who was paralyzed in an accident in his early twenties, has spent the last fifty years travelling the world and performing his trick shot show, which ultimately is more about inspiration. Walters, who is now in the World Golf Hall of Fame, challenges everyone at his shows to dream, to strive and to work to overcome.
I don’t want to imply that Walters in any way endorses VertaCat, but the coincidence of seeing both in a single day made me think.
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