Arccos Golf - Review after two rounds

[bzelbubba]

This review is based on two and a half rounds. Given that one of the purposes of Arccos is to deliver analytics over time, some of its value can't be given a fair review yet, but here at least is what I've seen so far. If you want to know something I didn't cover, shoot!

 

To see what the hardware and app look like you can check my unboxing thread:

http://www.golfwrx.c...ng-and-pairing/

 

Some random topics in no particular order.

 

Starting a round:

=================

Pull out your phone, open the app, and start the round. The manual recommended downloading the courses while you're on wifi at home. The app basically presents this to you so not hard to do. I did download it for the first two rounds I played, but forgot on the third. I was pleasantly surprised to find at the first tee box of that third round that the course downloaded instantly.

 

In-app GPS:

===========

Arccos' iPhone app includes GPS. I didn't use it much but have found when I pulled my phone out, the yardages were automatically showing. No need to click around to find them. How are the yardages? They seem to be basically on par with most phone GPS's, which obviously are not accurate down to the yard simply due to the nature of mobile phones which do not utilize a dedicated GPS chip but AGPS.

 

Hole advancement/looking at other holes:

================================

So far so good, I have never found it on the wrong hole, and I have clicked back to look at a hole just played, stuck the phone back in my pocket at I was on the right hole again.

 

Shot tracking:

==============

Along with the statistical data it will produce, this is obviously the most critical part of the Arccos product. All the stuff above you can get out of any phone golf app.

The good news is it didn't miss a tee shot, 2nd or 3rd shot, wedge play around the greens or out of the sand, etc. It is also quite clever with mulligans. If you hit a shot twice from the same place, it will only use the most recent one. This works quite well.

 

Obviously when you tee off, it knows from the sensor that you paired with your driver (or whatever you're teeing off with), that you've hit the ball. If you look at the app immediately after you've hit the ball, it will tell you something like "pending". Obviously the app doesn't know where you've hit the ball, and it stays in pending until you hit your next shot. After that next shot you could theoretically see how far you hit the first shot, if you cared to.

 

Likewise it can tell when you've hit your second or third shot, and with what club, and knows where it's landed by virtue of the next shot you play and so on, and it seems to do this very well.

 

There was one instance where I don't think it was right about where I hit my shot from. I had left my cart on the right side of the fairway with my partner and hit my shot from the left side of the fairway. When I checked the round that night (was interested in how far I had hit that shot, because I nailed it), it seemed to be from where the cart was. Did I bump the club on something at the cart? I don't know, but I assume it was the mulligan feature at work.

 

You can also add penalty strokes if you take another off the tee, or have to drop. This can be done during or after the round anytime.

 

Putt tracking:

==============

Where things start to work less than perfectly is the putting. Yep needs it's own section.

 

Edit: The below paragraphs were written after two rounds, and my impression was that Arccos failed to register short putts in some cases. Another user told me it's recommended to really stop and fully address such putts, and after a few more rounds I can say this does improve the issue to some degree.

 

When I was first considering pre-ordering Arccos, I was concerned about the putting. How could they have a sensor sensitive enough to detect your putts but not sensitive enough to trigger when you bump your putter around the green? Well I wrote them an email and they said "it's in our secret sauce". The secret as it turns out is they recommend you carry your putter around the green handle-side down. When the club is upside down, the sensor is off, and this goes for every club. Of course this is also the first somehwat "invasive" aspect of the Arccos. The selling point of Arccos over, say, Game Golf, is that it's not supposed to be invasive. No tagging clubs, no thing on your belt, etc. Well ok, I guess I can carry my putter upside down. For what it's worth, when I laid it down sideways (if I had a wedge off the green), it was fine, no extra putts recorded. If I had it rightside up before I was really ready to putt, no extra putts recorded.

 

This was good news, because to my surprise, the one downfall seems to be the putter sensor doesn't record ENOUGH putts.

 

For what it's worth this is more likely a result of the limitations of cell phone GPS accuracy rather than Arccos, but when you're going to spend a large amount of money on a product like this, do you care? The problem as far as I can guess (and this is JUST A GUESS), is that cell phone GPS (or A-GPS) as it's called, is not as accurate as the chip in your dedicated Garmin or Bushnell device. From my reading on the internet, this seems to be anywhere from 3 to 10 yards. Now did Arccos ever fail to distinguish between a putt I made from 30 feet and the follow up putt I made from 3 feet? No. So clearly the A-GPS seems to be more accurate than 10 yards!

 

But where it would fail to not record a putt seems to be from inside 8 or 10 feet. Not your FIRST putt from inside 8 or 10 feet, but your SECOND putt from inside that radius. In other words, if I had a 5 footer, and still have to tap-in afterwards, it seems to miss my tap-in. I feel like the Arccos folks know that, because somewhere in the manual I know they said to "fully address" such putts. But so far that hasn't seemed to make a difference. Likewise I have had instances where I had a 5 or 6 footer and ran it horribly 3 or 4 feet past the hole (how terrible am I?), and it did not record the 3 or 4 footer.

 

Now the app does have a rather easy feature to "add a gimme putt". Go in the app, click that button and it's got your putt. You can do this during or after the round at any time. But the point of Arccos for me was really a hands-free, attention-free system, and on putting it does add a little necessary attention.

On my round yesterday it failed to record six such putts. I shot a 93 and the app showed me an 87. In a way this is interesting because those were all the putts you'd say to yourself "I should have made that one!"

 

Analytics:

==========

Again, after only two and a half rounds I don't feel like there's a whole lot of value here, but it does seem like there will be a LOT of interesting data here over time...The data which was most interesting to me thus far:

*Obviously it tells you how GIR, FIR, etc, and how often you are right/left/short/long. Will even tell you how you perform on each of these with every club

*Average club distances (and you can discount specific shots like punches or mis-hits) and how many often you are using every club

*Automatically records your handicap (presumably it is taking into account slope/rating from the teebox you specified in your round), and gives you a separate handicap rating on various aspects of your game (driving, approach, chipping, sand, putting)

 

Battery Life:

=============

There are really two sets of batteries you are interested in here.

 

First the cell phone battery. Arccos has said it will use about 50% of your battery for the round. I have found it to be slightly less than that. FWIW this is a iPhone 5c.

Second, each sensor has a battery. Supposedly these are the little watch batteries that you can get in the supermarket or local drug store and you can change them out yourself. Arccos says you will get about 50 rounds out of these. The app will tell you the battery life remaining on each sensor, and supposedly gives you a warning when it's time to change one.

[that0neguy]

It tells you distance from pin on approaches and GIR, correct? How does it know the pin location?

[bzelbubba]

Ha just answered in the other thread, but for completeness here:

Great question, hadn't even thought of it. You're right it doesn't know where the hole is specifically. Looking at their Dashboard at the couple of rounds I've played. On smaller greens it basically shows it right in the middle. On larger ones it seems it can generalize a bit based on GPS and your putting. I played yesterday so I remember where some of the pins were...

Honestly I didn't even think to try to start moving the pins around during my round and not sure there is a way to do it. I'll check it out on my next round.

[that0neguy]

[quote name='bzelbubba' timestamp='1413825992' post='10320143']
Ha just answered in the other thread, but for completeness here:

Great question, hadn't even thought of it. You're right it doesn't know where the hole is specifically. Looking at their Dashboard at the couple of rounds I've played. On smaller greens it basically shows it right in the middle. On larger ones it seems it can generalize a bit based on GPS and your putting. I played yesterday so I remember where some of the pins were...

Honestly I didn't even think to try to start moving the pins around during my round and not sure there is a way to do it. I'll check it out on my next round.
[/quote]

Thanks, let me know!

Also, just wanted to share, I sent an e-mail to the customer service and got a response from their VP immediately. I'm very impressed with their customer service. He even added a little interpersonal communication about the company I worked for (from my e-mail), which I removed.

[b]Al Vikmanis[/b] replied:

To answer your question: In the case of a 2+ putt, the app uses the location of your final putt as the pin. In the case of a 1-putt, we make an educated guess based on a whole ton of empirical data and the location and lie of the shot you hit into the green. For example, you’re likely a whole lot closer to the pin if you chipped from just off the green vs. if you hit in from 200 yards away in the rough.
On any individual hole this can have a high variance (maybe you stuck one from 200 yards to a couple feet, or maybe you hit a terrible chip shot and dropped a 20 foot bomb), but over enough holes it reverts to the mean and the statistics make a lot of sense.
We’ll also be adding more sophistication to this system in the future. For example, capturing information from multiple users playing the same course on the same day to have more data on where the pins are. But that likely won’t be implemented until next season.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.
-Al

[bzelbubba]

[quote name='that0neguy' timestamp='1413826719' post='10320225']
[quote name='bzelbubba' timestamp='1413825992' post='10320143']
Ha just answered in the other thread, but for completeness here:

Great question, hadn't even thought of it. You're right it doesn't know where the hole is specifically. Looking at their Dashboard at the couple of rounds I've played. On smaller greens it basically shows it right in the middle. On larger ones it seems it can generalize a bit based on GPS and your putting. I played yesterday so I remember where some of the pins were...

Honestly I didn't even think to try to start moving the pins around during my round and not sure there is a way to do it. I'll check it out on my next round.
[/quote]

Thanks, let me know!

Also, just wanted to share, I sent an e-mail to the customer service and got a response from their VP immediately. I'm very impressed with their customer service. He even added a little interpersonal communication about the company I worked for (from my e-mail), which I removed.

[b]Al Vikmanis[/b] replied:

To answer your question: In the case of a 2+ putt, the app uses the location of your final putt as the pin. In the case of a 1-putt, we make an educated guess based on a whole ton of empirical data and the location and lie of the shot you hit into the green. For example, you’re likely a whole lot closer to the pin if you chipped from just off the green vs. if you hit in from 200 yards away in the rough.
On any individual hole this can have a high variance (maybe you stuck one from 200 yards to a couple feet, or maybe you hit a terrible chip shot and dropped a 20 foot bomb), but over enough holes it reverts to the mean and the statistics make a lot of sense.
We’ll also be adding more sophistication to this system in the future. For example, capturing information from multiple users playing the same course on the same day to have more data on where the pins are. But that likely won’t be implemented until next season.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.
-Al
[/quote]

Nice!

[bzelbubba]

A user from reddit says it is really key with the short putts is to really stop and address the ball. I will have to try this more diligently to see if it works. Edited review.

[FAbb]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like some kinks to work out, which is to be expected for one of the first products of its kind. I started the other thread about Arccos, so I've been interested in it for quite some time. Not sure I'm in it enough to drop $400 on it though, especially when I can get game golf for less than $200 on Amazon.

[that0neguy]

[quote name='AbbVT24' timestamp='1413850496' post='10322359']
Thanks for the review. Sounds like some kinks to work out, which is to be expected for one of the first products of its kind. I started the other thread about Arccos, so I've been interested in it for quite some time. Not sure I'm in it enough to drop $400 on it though, especially when I can get game golf for less than $200 on Amazon.
[/quote]

I have game golf and I'm really struggling getting into a routine of charging it, and remembering to tag my clubs everytime I hit. I always forget and have to run back to the spot etc. I already play with my phone in my pocket, so I just think Arccos would be way more convenient. I think I'm going to sell my game golf and just wait for Arccos price to drop a bit.

[dcmidnight]

I hate the idea of buying a system that forces you to change your routine in order to use it IE - hey it works on putts but you have to carry your putter upside down? Eh.

How sturdy do these tags seem? I looked at the Game Golf tags and they are pretty flat so I dont think they'd take much abuse in the bag. But these definitely stick out more, do they seem sturdy enough to stand up to a lot of banging/jostling in the bag?

[FAbb]

Silly as this sounds, I agree with DC that having to carry my putter around differently just so it doesn't record putts is a big turn-off.

Stat-wise, I would be interested to see if you can get some screen shots up of different analysis pages that are available. I don't ever expect the putting stats to be worth much, as the accuracy of the GPS in a phone just isn't all that great. The long game stuff is intriguing though. Particularly, any kind of information it might provide on typical misses/scatter patterns/etc.

[bzelbubba]

[quote name='dcmidnight' timestamp='1414073159' post='10338021']
How sturdy do these tags seem?
[/quote]

They seem very sturdy, no moving parts, etc. But I can't attest to their long-term durability of course...No one's had them longer than a few weeks...

[gutlas5]

it seems to be a good product apart from the putting. and the twice the price of game golf.....

[ParHunter]

[quote name='gutlas5' timestamp='1414217682' post='10347889']
it seems to be a good product apart from the putting. and the twice the price of game golf.....
[/quote]
I understand why it is more expensive (motion sensor plus Bluetooth in every club vs 14 NFC chips plus one GPS receiver) but I don't think they will be able to sustain the $400 price tag. I would expect it to drop to $300 soon. Most people would chose the $200 device where they have to tag over a $400 device where they don't have to do anything. They might make a different decision once they've played lots of rounds with GameGolf and forget to tag or got distracted with it. But when they stand in the shop and have to decide $400 vs $200 I bet I know what device they would chose.

[bzelbubba]

FWIW, the putting does work more accurately if you stop and fully address gimmes and other short putts. Still missed a couple but it's not as bad as I originally felt. Will edit review...

[midtalon]

I received an email from Arccos addressed your "Arccos caddy" asking me if I was having difficulty registering short putts (Arccos evidently noticed I had gone in after my round and updated 10 additional putts that hadn't registered). My "Arccos caddy" instructed me to take a moment over the short ones and not to simply backhand it in to ensure reception.
I've only had the Arccos three days and am very impressed with the customer service. One of the sensors out of the box had a bad battery, I phoned the hotline and today received a plethora of replacement batteries along with a Callaway Hex sleeve. Very nice!