Garmin golf watch update adds green contour feature

Garmin has launched an update for some of its golf watches to help users with their putting.

The company has launched Green Contours, which helps users see the shapes and slopes of greens.

The feature is set to launch for Garmin Golf subscribers, that are paying for the premium tier of the app.

Users can see the shape and contours of the green through the Garmin Golf app, but the feature is also coming to the Approach S60 and Approach S62 golf watches.

When looking at the green, the watch will show the high and low sections of the green or slope percentages and directional arrows.

It’s also colour-coded to show the severity of the slope, which can be useful when planning your approach shot.

The selection is pretty limited – and only 8,600 of the 40,000 courses supported by Garmin have supplied green contour information. They’re all in the US, but there’s a handy locator tool to see if your local course has the info.

The Garmin Approach S62 and older S60 are Garmin’s most advanced golf watches.

Closer to the Garmin Fenix range, the S62 is more smartwatch – offering a colour display and access to Connect IQ apps.

Garmin and other golf watch makers are under pressure to add more value from their devices, as smartwatches offer basic features for free.

You can easily get distance measuring via free smartwatch apps, and the devices themselves clearly offer more when you’re not playing golf.

There’s almost zero chance of any of the leading apps adding data like green contours, which unlike simple course maps, can’t be ascertained by satellite photography. It will take a while for Garmin to get the same coverage as its standard yardages.

While you’re here check out our round up of the best Apple Watch golf apps.