V1 Game vs Shot Scope and Arrcos

[otto6457]

I've been looking at Arrcos and Shot Scope for shot tracking for awhile, and then V1 Game turns up on my radar as being just as good as either Shot Scope or Arrcos without the sensors on your clubs.  I've tried to find out more about how it goes about getting around the need for sensors without much success.  The videos on YouTube don't really tell me much about the "how", just that it is simple to use.  And apparently V1 Game will also use an Apple watch so that you can leave the phone in the bag.  I refuse to have my phone out for an entire round of golf as I despise the phone as it's too easy for people to call me on the golf course.

 

As for Shot Scope and Arrcos I can't make up my mind as both seem to suffer with missed shots pretty regularly and having to spend a lot of time correcting missed shots or incorrect shots at home after the round, has made me hesitant to drop the cash on either.

 

If anyone has any experience with V1 Game as a shot tracker I would love to hear your opinions.  Or even real world difference between Arrcos and Shot Scope as I really need to get more serious about tracking my game and trying to shore up my weaknesses.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by otto6457

[larrybud]

I have used GameGolf, which is now toast, and now use Shotscope. The tags really are no big deal. They are small RFID tags, honestly unnoticeable. I suppose if you have multiple sets of clubs this could be an issue, but I think that might be an issue with any of these trackers.

 

While Shotscope does miss tags once in a while, with ANY of these you will want/need to edit the round afterwards, if for no other reason than to make the putting more accurate.

 

GPS is only good to +/- 3 yards. Since I can remember every shot that I have hit, I can easily go back and fix any discrepancies on where each putt was from. At that point, I can fix any missed shots. I'm going to say it's only 2 or 3 each round (not counting the button you must press for the hole location at the end of each hole). 

 

To that point, when you hole a putt, you press a button on the watch to indicate where the hole is located. It also registers/confirms how many putts you had. The reason for doing that is for gimmies. Let's say you had a 20 footer and you knock it a foot away and pick up. The 1 foot putt would have no way to register. So you walk up to the hole, press the button which says "2" and now it knows the 2nd putt was a gimme and marks it appropriately.

 

I'm not familiar with the other devices, but with shotscope you also can (and should) flag any non-tee shot which they call "positional". For example, a 2nd shot on a par 5 in which you're not "going for" the green, or a punch out from the woods. That way those shots don't count in the "approach" stats.

 

I honestly don't find "fixing" the rounds afterward to be a big deal. You do it on your computer (not practical or accurate at all to do it through the app), and it takes me maybe 5 minutes. Plus I then can look over my round and think of all those shots which got away! lol

 

With ANY of these, the main difference is the website and the data it can provide back. After all, these are ALL the same hardware: Record where a shot was made and with which club.

 

Hard to evaluate without using any of them, but I would suggest watching videos on editing rounds, and videos on what data each provides.

 

I made a video last year about editing a round in Shotscope for a buddy. It's located here:

 

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by larrybud

[North Butte]

With any of the automatic trackers (Arccos, et. al.) the usefulness of the system is directly related to how carefully you go back and correct the location and lie of each and every shot and how accurately you're able to place the flag and first-putt location on each green. The GPS and the built-in maps of the system will not do this to an acceptable level of precision and reliability, no matter what the marketing material says, if you really want actionable insights and not just toy numbers to play with about your game.

 

If you are willing to check every shot and edit quite a few as needed, you can get really good data over time from Arccos specifically. Probably from ShotScope and some of the others (I've only really used Arccos enough to say). But there's work involved in correcting and checking data after the round.

 

V1 Game cuts to the chase and just makes you check each shot and hand-enter the club used. Although you can optionally tell it you don't want to track the clubs used if you're only interested in Strokes Gained-based stats. No messing with tags on the clubs. It simply records your trail around the golf course using GPS "bread crumbs". It will make a mark on the screen everywhere you stopped long enough for it to think you might have hit a shot. After the round it takes 10-20 minutes (at least 20 for me if tracking club numbers, more like 10-15 if no club tracking) go follow the breadcrumbs  and tap to tell which spots were actual shots, enter the number of putts and location of the flag, etc.

 

I personally slightly preferred the presentation of data by Arccos to that of V1 Game. But I would rather spend 20 minutes after the round basically hand-coding the shots  with V1 Game instead of faffing about with sensors, having a phone in my front pocket, etc. with Arccos then having to spent 10-15 minutes afterwards correcting all the recorded shot data. 

 

In the end, I abandoned all of it. After a few hundred rounds tracks over a decade-plus, I had about 99% of all the possible "insights" I could ever get about my game. And the hassle factor stays the same even as the marginal benefit of additional rounds of data diminishes. Given the current fees for Arccos I would not find it an acceptable pricing but even at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost I don't really thing V1 Game is any great bargain either. 

 

The bottom line is, if you want something that you turn on at the start of the round then look at afterwards and it automatically (with no work on your part) gives you accurate and valid insights into your game...

 

...nothing on the market is going to do that. Not even close. The ads for these things make it look like you're getting Tour-level ShotLink-based Strokes Gained analytics. Not hardly. The ShotLink data requires a small army of volunteers at every tournament using surveyors equipment to locate and record each shot. Not a consumer GPS chip and a set of half-baked maps with no information about trees or obstructions. 

[me05501]

20 hours ago, North Butte said:

With any of the automatic trackers (Arccos, et. al.) the usefulness of the system is directly related to how carefully you go back and correct the location and lie of each and every shot and how accurately you're able to place the flag and first-putt location on each green. The GPS and the built-in maps of the system will not do this to an acceptable level of precision and reliability, no matter what the marketing material says, if you really want actionable insights and not just toy numbers to play with about your game.

 

 

Lots of good stuff in this post. 

 

Using Garmin watches for a long time and having added their club sensors this year I feel like I've gathered a lot of accurate information about my game. IMO the ball position and lie data is surprisingly accurate. I've always heard that consumer GPS is limited to accuracy to within 3 feet, but the watch seems to always know if I'm in the rough or on the edge of the fairway (for example). 

 

It's absolutely true that analysis piece doesn't rise to the level of Shots Gained. The data is collected for me (and easily editable) but it would be on me to move that data into a system that would align with Decade or whatever. 

 

I tried ShotScope and really wanted to like it but it just wasn't for me. There were some annoying aspects of how the watch prompted for inputs while on the course and the desktop software was cumbersome and counter-intuitive for me. Other users don't mind these things so it's just a matter of personal preference. 

 

My strong preference is for the watch to work in the background as much as possible and not become a distraction. I try to balance this against my desire to have accurate data about my rounds. I'm willing to input my score after each hole which is easy enough. I'm not willing to input club data after every shot. I don't mind spending a couple of minutes after each round deleting extra shots and making sure everything is recorded accurately. I like spending a few minutes reflecting on my round before driving off and getting distracted by other stuff. 

[Carsten Svensgaard]

I have only used the ShotScope but I specifically chose the H4 rather than one of the watches to avoid some of the interactions issues I see reported on the watches. I also specifically do not want a smartwatch, O golf to get away from the information stream so bringing it on the course does not make sense... I should say that I use it for shot tracking primarily, I have a laser for ranges when in line of sight. I just keep the unit in my pocket and tag the club at the start of my routine and then just play golf for the rest of the time.

 

I mostly use it for long game, but tracking for putting is also workable

 

I am not in love with the software but it works...

Edited November 10, 2022 by Carsten Svensgaard

[Longdriver295]

56 minutes ago, Carsten Svensgaard said:

I have only used the ShotScope but I specifically chose the H4 rather than one of the watches to avoid some of the interactions issues I see reported on the watches. I also specifically do not want a smartwatch, O golf to get away from the information stream so bringing it on the course does not make sense... I should say that I use it for shot tracking primarily, I have a laser for ranges when in line of sight. I just keep the unit in my pocket and tag the club at the start of my routine and then just play golf for the rest of the time.

 

I mostly use it for long game, but tracking for putting is also workable

 

I am not in love with the software but it works...

I specifically bought a garmin R10 and a Net to do all the shot tracking and stuff at home so on the course i just focus on playing golf i use my range finder and 18 birdies app for score keeping. I tried Arccos and no way am i subscribing and paying 155 a year for that. Its crazy IMO