Data Shows More Garmin Users Are Golfing Than Ever Before

Garmin users recorded nearly 30% more rounds in 2021 than in the previous year.

It’s no secret that people hit the golf courses en masse in 2020. With COVID-19 shutting down so much of the world, many turned to golf as a safe, socially distant way to get out of the house or office — if only for a few hours. Newbies bought their first sets of clubs, and seasoned vets were obsessively working on getting even the smallest kink out of their swings. At that point, though, it was hard to tell who would stick with it, and who would move on to other hobbies when the world opened back up.

Garmin users stuck with it. According to data from the Garmin Connect™ app, you all reported golfing more than ever before in 2021. By studying the golf activities you’ve tracked over the last few years, we can see that you’re really hitting your stride. Keep reading to see the results of the latest deep dive into data from the Garmin Golf™ app, an interactive tool used by golf lovers worldwide to track, analyze and share their activities on the links.

2021 saw more Garmin golfers than ever before.

According to the Garmin Golf app, 30% more users golfed in 2021 than they did in 2020 — and 52% more than in 2019. That may not just be related to COVID-19, though. In the past two years, Garmin has released several products that are revolutionizing golf as we know it, including:

• Approach® R10: A portable launch monitor that tracks more than a dozen metrics, including club head speed, ball speed, spin and more — all while letting you virtually play more than 42,000 courses with Home Tee Hero.
• Approach® S42: A GPS golf smartwatch that puts information from more than 42,000 CourseView maps worldwide on your wrist — and looks great on and off the course.
• Approach® S12: A dedicated golf watch that keeps it simple, providing distance to the front, middle and back of the green, layups and hazards. Oh, and it boasts a battery life of up to 30 hours in GPS mode.
• Approach® S62: A golf smartwatch with enhanced heart rate technology that gauges the intensity of all your fitness activities to better track how your body is performing.
• Approach® G12: A thin, clip-on GPS device that gives you the yardage for preloaded courses at a glance, with an optional Big Numbers Mode and pairs with optional CT10 club tracking sensors.
• fēnix® 7: A rugged multisport GPS watch that combines the best of the Garmin fitness and outdoor features — including the ability to log golf activities — to help you get better at whatever, seven days a week.
• epix™: The first Garmin AMOLED smartwatch preloaded with more than 42,000 golf courses.

And those golfers logged more scorecards than ever before.

So, yeah. People were golfing, but how much were they golfing? In 2021 Garmin golf app users recorded nearly millions ofscorecards — 28% more than in 2021, and 66% more than in 2019. If practice makes perfect, at least a few of you must be ready to take on the pros. We’d like to think that our refreshed lineup of Approach GPS golf products with more than 42,000 preloaded courses, including the Approach S42 smartwatch, the Approach S12 watch and the Approach G12 GPS device,  helped duffers step into the tee box with confidence.

Where does your score fit in?

Let’s face it — we all want to know if we’re doing better or worse than the majority of people hitting the course. So, here’s the breakdown. Fewer than 2% of Garmin users broke par last year, and the median score fell somewhere between 17 and 21 over par. If you’re doing better than that, give yourself a pat on the back. If you’re doing worse, might we recommend the Garmin Approach R10 to help you perfect that swing? It lets you practice wherever you are — at the driving range or in the comfort of your living room — so there are zero excuses for not getting more from your game. 

Show us what you’ve got.

Did you look at that median score chart and realize you might be ready to go pro? We’ll believe it when see it. Keep tracking your golf activities on your compatible Garmin device and in the Garmin Golf companion app. And if you really want to elevate your game, a Garmin Golf™ membership provides exclusive access to intuitive Green Contour data, allowing you to see the slope and elevation of the greens with both heat maps and topographical line options directly from your phone or compatible device. Be sure to tag us at @GarminGolf if you’ve got something you think we really need to see. Now what are you waiting for? That putting game isn’t going to improve itself while you sit here reading.