Intentionally I state that golf with measuring electronics should be calmer. There are situations in which this does not apply. These include, for example, a player in the group in front of you who is busy with something in his hand instead of playing and is delaying, or a situation where your electronics are not working as they should. In both cases, it can throw you off and affect the outcome. While you will not influence the cast of the group in front of you, problems with the functioning of the electronics can be at least partially prevented. One such thing to avoid is golf course maps becoming out of date. Garmin, one of the most sought-after brands among golfers, releases updates regularly three times a year and are free of charge. Will there be a new playground? Will it be modified? Will the order of the holes change? Similar and other changes will appear in updates.
But they do not get into the watch's memory automatically - you need to download them to it. It is not necessary to download every update, especially if nothing changes on your course or the courses in the vicinity, but it is not a bad idea to update at least once a year, preferably before the start of the season.
The Garmin Express program is used to update Garmin devices. It can be downloaded for free at www.garmin.com. After downloading, installing and running it, a window will appear on your computer in which the application allows you to add the necessary devices. But for the addition to take place, you must have the device connected to the computer.
You can manage more than one device in Garmin Express, and if you have more than one at home or among loved ones, you can update them all from one computer. Click on the icon of the connected device to see the updates available for it. If you want to simplify your work, you can tell the program to update everything available, but if you want to be in control of the update, just view the details and update only what you really need.
This is especially important for owners of versatile watches such as Garmin Fénix or Forerunner 945, which contain detailed topographical maps. Updating these maps can be time-consuming due to the amount of data in them, and it pays to run them when you have enough time. When you're in a hurry, I recommend viewing the details and updating only the golf maps of the European region (Coverage of Europe, Middle East & Africa).
File size and update time depends on connection speed and watch type. The Approach S42 golf watch works with a simpler golf course map, so it takes about five minutes to update. More advanced watches like the Fénix 6X have more comprehensive golf maps with a size of around 500 MB and their updating can take tens of minutes.
The current version of the European golf map is marked 6.10 and has brought modifications to more than 300 courses. On the page www.garmin.com/cs-CZ/golf-courses/ you will find out which golf courses the map contains and which are affected by the update. Of the Czech ones, these are the modified maps in version 6.10: Golf Hostivař, Golf Club Hukvaldy, Golf Club Bitozeves, in the previous version, for example: PGA National Czech Republic (Oaks Prague) or Golf Dolní Dobrouč.
So far, the updates do not include modifications to the course in Poděbrady, and if you are interested in this particular course, it is worth checking out the next release. The last version 6.10 was released on April 22, 2021. The next one can be expected in July. (G)
IVO STEINER