Voice Caddie T9 Review: An Excellent GPS Golf Watch
It’s been a few years since I’ve reviewed a Voice Caddie product, but I keep hearing rumblings that a lot of their newest stuff is really good.
I had a very good experience with the Swing Caddie SC200 Launch Monitor, so when I was able to get my hands on the new Voice Caddie T9 golf watch, I was excited to test it out.
When I think of a GPS golf watch my head typically runs straight to Garmin. Sure there are some good products from Bushnell, and even TecTecTec – but Garmin is kind of the king of GPS products not just in golf, but in the entirety of the outdoor sports world.
I’ve had a great experience with the Garmin S42 golf watch, which comes in at $50 less than the Voice Caddie – so it was going to take a pretty spectacular product to win my recommendation in this price range.
The result?
Keep reading, I think you’re going to like what I have to say.
First Impressions of the Voice Caddie T9 Golf Watch
Before I even got the T9 out of the box, I was excited to try it out. It has a handful of features I had never personally seen in a golf watch – so I was excited to see if it lived up to my high expectations.
Voice Caddie has done a very good job of the branding this watch, so before I even dug in, I had a general sense that it was high-end and well designed.
Opening it up, the packaging is nothing overly special.
First look opening the box.
Not that it needs to be with a golf watch, but the packaging of my Garmin products definitely made opening the box feel a bit more like an occasion.
The watch itself is a nice size, and I’d guess is comes in around 46mm if you were treating it like a traditional watch (I couldn’t find this exact specification).
What’s in the box.
The rubber band it comes with is….fine. Nothing special here, but on a golf course where you’re getting sweaty and moving frequently, it does the job.=
It also comes with an extra band for different-sized wrists, so you should have no trouble getting it to fit. If it doesn’t work for your style, there are additional watch bands available to buy.
There were two specific things that jumped out at me when I first picked it up.
The first is the battery charger.
If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I’m not a huge fan of devices with a proprietary charger.
The proprietary charger for the T9.
I hate having one more thing to travel with and potentially lose, and the Voice Caddie T9 does indeed have its own charger rather than going with the ubiquitous USB-C connection.
The good news is that the charger works very well. The watch magnetizes into place with a satisfying snap, and doesn’t feel cheap.
The second thing I noticed is that there’s only one button on the device.
With most previous GPS golf watches I’ve used there were two or even 3 buttons on the right-hand side. I’ve always found these to be very useful for quick navigation around the watch.
The single button on the right hand side of the Voice Caddie T9.
With only one button the Voice Caddie T9 really leans into the touch screen, so don’t expect to use this watch without learning how to navigate the screen by touch.
Using the Voice Caddie T9: How Does It Work?
The Garmin Approach S42 is a great golf watch, but you really need to step up to its older brother the Garmin S62 in order to get some of the features that make it a truly killer watch you might wear off the course.
The T9 however, comes in with some very unexpected features that are impressive for a device at this price point (or any price for that matter).
Voice Caddie T9 Screen Quality
Before we go into those, let’s talk display.
The color display on the T9 is pretty good, and feels similar in quality to the S42.
The primary display on the T9 when you’re not golfing.
There’s a caveat with both of these displays though: they aren’t an Apple Watch.
If you’re used to using an Apple Watch on a regular basis, there isn’t a dedicated golf watch on the market (that I’ve seen) which comes close to that display.
So inevitably you might find yourself slightly underwhelmed at first when the text and images aren’t quite as sharp, or when the display doesn’t get quite as bright.
Take away that comparison, however? The display works well, and I’ve had no issues seeing the watch even in bright sunlight.
Using the T9 Off the Course
There’s a good chance some of you might be considering this watch not just for the golf course, but for an everyday wear situation
When you aren’t golfing there’s really just 3 swipes for the watch:
The primary screen shows the time, swipe left and you have a pedometer, distance walked, and calories burned.
These are baseline “smart watch” features, and nice to see them built-in.
Swipe to the right and you hit the settings menu.
You’re able to connect to your phone via Bluetooth as well and get text notifications from your phone. I found these features to not be quite as robust as the Garmin watches.
With both the S42 and S62 you really could use the watch as a daily driver (although the S62 is far better suited for it).
Where the T9 really shines when it comes to golf features. If I were buying this I’d plan to use it primarily on the golf course, and get something else for day-to-day wear.
Golfing with the Voice Caddie T9
There are a ton of unique features packed into this watch. Because of this, it’ll likely take you 2 or 3 rounds to really get comfortable with using it and to understand how to quickly get where you need to go.
This is one of the drawbacks to not having more analog buttons. It isn’t always quite as clear how to get to a certain feature as it is with other watches. Specifically finding the scorecard easily continues to be a little cumbersome for me.
But as with most devices on the course, it’s simply a matter of getting a few rounds under your belt.
One of the first surprises I had with the T9 was just how smart it was.
I started my first round with the watch at Ghost Creek, and when I was probably 100 feet away from the teebox, it said “please head to the tee.”
We started on the 10th hole that day, and it immediately recognized we were on the 10th hole – despite the fact the first tee box wasn’t that far away.
With nearly every other scorekeeping or GPS device I’ve used, you always would need to tell it if you were starting from a different hole other than 1, so this was impressive.
The watch is also smart enough to know when you’ve taken a shot. So after teeing off, when I was in the fairway I could look down and see that I was hitting my second shot.
When you finish a hole, the watch vibrates to remind you to verify your score.
You can easily adjust for strokes, putts, and penalties, then confirm.
It works very well, and so far it has yet to get confused a single time on which hole I’m on.
The vibration notification is very strong. It caught me off guard at first, but it became a good reminder to make sure I entered my score.
Because of this, I’ve found this to be one of the easiest watches I’ve used to keep score, which can sometimes be a bit cumbersome due to their limited display size.
Around the bezel there are also numbers for “shot” and “putt” so you can see where you are within the hole at any given time.
The T9 has a ton of cool features that truly make it unique in this space. It has a reasonable price point and is among the most enjoyable golf watches I've tested.
What GPS Info Does the Voice Caddie Give You While Playing?
The Voice Caddie T9 makes it really easy to play golf and track your progress, but that’s not the main reason you’re thinking of buying a GPS watch.
No, you want something that’s going to live up to it’s name and be a digital “caddie.”
And this is where the T9 really excels.
While you’re golfing there are numerous screens you can access via swiping, but the watch will also adjust based on where you are within the hole.
On the teebox the watch will give you an overview of the entire hole.
It has a 200 yard line across the fairway to give you an easy way to designate that distance in relation to hazards. At any time you can tap the screen to get exact distances to hazards or other spots on the hole.
The hole overview which you’ll see on each tee.
It also displays how far your previous shot was. It automatically detects when you tee off, and then you can look down to see your drive distance.
The T9 will then zoom in on the hole as you walk down the fairway.
For your approach shot it will switch to a heatmap of the green, which also has arrows indicating where the breaks are. Obviously, it will display approach distances as well.
The heat maps and green breaks is certainly one of the killer features of this watch.
Then when you’re on the green you can position the pin and it will give you both the distance as well as how much undulation there is.
On the green view.
Reading this back, it sounds like a lot.
And it is.
But I came away so impressed with how well it worked.
Is the Voice Caddie T9 Easy to Use
Learning how to swipe to get to where you want to go on the T9 takes a few holes to get used to.
As I mentioned, it will automatically change screens as you progress through a hole. But you can also swipe left or right to get to those screens manually as well.
A quick swipe left will also bring up a data screen which has a ton of info, including:
- Hole number and par
- Distance to front, back, and center
- Score
- Shot distance
- And a zoom button to just focus on the current distances
The yardage screen.
That last one is a nice feature that is on each screen. You can easily zoom in on just about anything to make it easier to pinpoint yardages or to adjust the pin location on the green.
One area I did struggle with was figuring out how to easily get back to the scorecard. Not that I needed to do it often, but the times I did, I found myself swiping and pushing aimlessly trying to find it.
This is just a learning curve thing, but it wasn’t as intuitive as it is on other watches.
How Well Do the Heatmaps Work?
The green heatmaps are the feature I was most interested in trying out.
It’s essentially a digital version of a Green Book that can cost upwards of $50 per course. So to have this information mapped and at your fingertips for every round you play? That’s pretty exciting.
How well does it work?
Overall, very good.
It does exactly what it says it will. It gives you accurate heatmaps, so you can see where the most severe breaks are, and as you move around the green, it will turn with you so the orientation is always correct based on your position.
The tech is super cool.
But from a practical standpoint?
It’s a bit of a mixed bag. This is the part of the watch where having more rounds with it, will really pay off.
I’ve played two rounds with the T9, and it was fun to use this feature, but more often than not, it didn’t really give me any info I couldn’t see just from looking at the green.
I think the approach view where it gives you arrows showing the breaks, was the most useful. It allowed me to be more precise with my approach shots, and try to position myself in a place where I’d have the easiest putts (try being the operative word here.)
But using it to try and get a leg up on a subtle break to a putt, is a bit of a stretch.
A Few Other Things to Note About the T9
One thing you may have a question about is accuracy.
As I’ve found with most GPS devices these days, all of the distances were very accurate, and the green heat maps also seemed very well mapped and reliable.
No needs to go into much more detail here, as this shouldn’t be a concern
Battery Life on the Voice Caddie T9
The battery life is solid on the T9, but nothing that’s going to overly wow you.
It has a 10-day battery life when you’re using it in non-golf mode.
I had it on a full charge, played 18 holes 5 days ago, and it’s still going strong.
When in “golf mode” it’s only rated for 27 holes, however.
Based on my experience so far it wouldn’t surprise me if you could squeeze out a few more than that, but if you’re frequently doing 36 holes days – this is worth noting.
Tempo Mode
Tempo mode was one of the most unexpected, and frankly welcome, features of the Voice Caddie T9.
Any golf pro will tell you that a consistent tempo is one of the most important aspects of your golf swing.
But without a tool to help you measure it, I’ve found it can be difficult to know if you really are improving your tempo, or if it’s just all in your head.
Fortunately, the T9 has you covered.
In Tempo Mode it will tell you the ratio between your backswing and downswing. Ideally, you should be in a 2:1 to 3:1 ratio, and the watch will tell you exactly where you fall with that.
There’s a similar feature built in to the SC200+ launch monitor, where you can swing without hitting balls and it will give you this info.
But to me, it seems even easier (and potentially more accurate) to do it on the watch.
This is one of the primary features of the Blast Motion device, which I think is one of the best practice tools out there. So if you like this feature, but want to it to extend into your putting as well, that might be one to consider.
The My Voice Caddie App
I’ve honestly really enjoyed using the Voice Caddie T9. As far as a straight-up golf watch at a reasonable price, this probably gets my recommendation for the best watch currently available.
But one major thing that hasn’t worked for me? The app.
I legit have not been able to get it to work at all.
I create an account, it tells me the login info isn’t correct.
Then I choose forgot password.
I reset my password. I use this information to login to my account on the website. This is mostly for purchasing and support needs.
I go back to the app and use same login information, it doesn’t work.
I’m sure I’ve screwed something up here, and from what I can tell the app has some cool features, but up until this point, I simply have not been able to get the app to work.
That said, once I am able to, I’ll update this review.
Final Thoughts on the Voice Caddie T9
App issues aside, I’m incredibly impressed with this watch.
I find it very enjoyable to use, and the extra features like heatmaps and tempo were both fun and useful.
Voice Caddie doesn’t have the eco-system that Garmin has, nor does it have quite the same level of smartphone integration.
The Garmin Golf app is rock solid, and if you have multiple products like an Approach R10 or an Approach Z82 rangefinder, it makes sense to stick within that ecosystem and get a Garmin watch – so that you can have all your data in one place.
But, if you aren’t in the Garmin eco-system? Then the Voice Caddie T9 is one of the best golf watches I’ve ever used.
If you’re looking for a golf watch primarily for use on the course, in the sub-$350 price range, this is my favorite watch on the market.
The T9 has a ton of cool features that truly make it unique in this space. It has a reasonable price point and is among the most enjoyable golf watches I've tested.
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Good Things
- Comfortable to wear
- A legitimately "smart" GPS watch
- Tempo and heatmap features are unique and work well
Bad Things
- Proprietary charger
- Not a great "all the time" watch
Sean- Great review. I have a Garmin s20, and I genuinely enjoy it, but I’m going to give the T9 a try because of the extra features. Worst case, I go back to my Garmin.
Hi Sean –
I tried the Garmin S70 as my first ever golf watch. I didn’t use the features outside of GPS, so I returned it. But I did love the golf aspect. Would you say this is a good less expensive option? How would you compare it to the S62? Thanks!
I’m also interested in using an Apple Watch, but I’ve read that the GPS is actually coming from your phone and if you’re a distance from the phone the yardage you get will not be accurate. Is this true?