For many golfers, portable speakers have become a staple golf gadget. It’s a lot more fun having your favorite music playing, after all, whether you’re teeing, putting, or trying to get the ball out of a sand trap. Unlike your standard Bluetooth speaker, though, the Bushnell Wingman HD combines its music playback capability with GPS features, making it an even more indispensable companion on the golf course.
That’s right, this Bluetooth speaker comes with golf-specific features you’ll normally find on GPS sports watches or GPS handheld units, allowing you to combine two commonly-used golf course accessories into one. From distance measurements and hazard warnings to different views of each hole, this thing brings a useful collection of features to help you with your game.
The Bushnell Wingman HD takes on a form factor similar to many cylinder-shaped Bluetooth speakers. Except, it’s not perfectly cylindrical, instead being completely flatted on one side. That flat section houses a 3.5-inch full color touchscreen display that you can use like a handheld GPS unit for various golf-related features. A built-in GPS allows the device to automatically determine what course you’re playing in and calculate your real-time distance from each hole. It can also display different hazards, so you know which areas to avoid, while coming with a shot distance calculator, so you can get a better feel for what kind of shot you need to take.
Those who have used Bushnell’s handheld GPS devices should be familiar with Greenview and Holeview layouts, both of which are available on this speaker’s touchscreen. When paired with the Bushnell Golf mobile app, you also get additional features like digital scorekeeping, so you can squeeze a lot of use out of this thing in the green. Simply put, it’s viable replacement for golf watches and rangefinders, all while delivering proper speaker functions on top of it.
The Bushnell Wingman HD houses a pair of 15-watt drivers with passive radiators that are arranged in a bi-directional layout. According to the outfit, this delivers deep and clear 360-degree audio, with full, balanced sound that can cut through wind and background noise. It has dynamic audio adjustment, which can automatically lower or raise the speaker’s volume, depending on how loud the immediate surrounding is, so it will crank the sound up a bit when you’re driving in a noisy golf cart, then lower it once you’re stopped near the ball.
Do you like hearing motivational quotes in between shots? You can have that here with custom audio features that let you set up all sorts of soundbites. Heck, maybe put in a chorus of applause that you trigger after every good shot. There’s a party mode, too (they call it Concert Links), that lets you sync up to 100 of these speakers for a much, much bigger sound. Other features include IPX7 waterproof rating (so you can safely use it even in the rain), unique EQ modes for different settings (driving range, golf simulator, backyard), and a mount designed specifically for magnetically attaching it to golf carts.
The Bushnell Wingman HD is slated to come out mid-October, priced at $199.99.
