Arccos or alternatives to golf shot tracking - need some advice please & thank you

[edwelly]

Hello everyone. I am currently looking to invest in a golf shot-tracking platform. I am an Apple user and I have an iPhone and Ultra watch. My goals are:

• 1) being able to track my shots without a lot of steps (in a perfect world I would use my watch to track the shot/iron
• 2) being able to understand distances and approximate to the hole on approach shots
• 3) being able to get a holistic view of the areas I suck the most in

 

I already have a Bushell Wingman View, and a range finder for GPS isn't super important to me. 

 

If there are other threads already on this, I apologize for not doing a better job of searching. 

 

Thank you for your advice
-Erik

[MattM97]

Also have ShotScope and Garmin Approach, I believe those are a 1 and done when it comes to purchase where Arccos is an upfront cost (unless you have a club to get free sensors) plus a yearly subscription. 

 

I used to use Arccos, I liked the idea of it but like others after a while where you suck ends up being the same over time unless you make drastic changes. Also for me and a few other guys sometimes you're more worried about gathering data/shots vs actually playing golf.

 

The downside of Arccos that annoyed me was having a few rounds where next to no shots were recorded and/or had to add several shots and remember what I hit, where and all that which Arccos should be doing. 

 

After I ditched it pretty much used the eye test for my game while tracking some basic stats that I can enter when I enter scores (Golf Canada) and just use that. 

[NCDuffer]

Shotscope.

[TheFatArmadillo]

I’m happy using Arccos with the Apple Watch Ultra.  I typically need to adjust a putts after a hole but other than that I would guess it captures 99% of the others shots.

 

With that said, before I used my watch for tracking I found it to be cumbersome and a pain to make sure it detected everything.

[edwelly]

3 hours ago, NCDuffer said:

Shotscope.

 

With Shotscope - can I sync it with my watch? I really do not want to have my phone in my pocket which is why I was looking at the Arccos model. 

[NCDuffer]

Shotscope has a watch with GPS so no need for a phone and no subscription.  They also have a belt clip style.  I use their V3 watch.  They have a phone version as well.  They’re not selling a watch app, but the hardware.  You sync  the watch data to your phone after the round, can view the data on your phone or laptop.  Most apps that used my Apple Watch GPS and tracked shots really ate the battery. https://shotscope.com/us/

[ad_l1b]

Arccos is really good with Apple Watch, also they improve it all the time. I find it removes the ego out of the game, and helps you focus on the things that are hurting you most.

[Minarets]

If, like several are saying about Arccos after time seems repetitive after so manny rounds giving you same feedback, is the first year still not free? 
 

so why not buy sensors for a year, collect years worth of data for the sensor cost and be done? No? Then have all you need date wise to improve? 
 

I have an Apple Watch Ultra and am thinking of Arccos but the sub is kinda getting to me as if the mixed reviews of missed shots.  I use my phone now all the time while playing (use 18Birdies) to look at Hazzards and such.  But the caddie aspect seems like it would be worth it too? Knowing the wind and elements in to your shot as opposed to saying , “feels like a 1 clubs wind” 

 

 

[ChrisATL]

On 1/31/2024 at 12:11 PM, MattM97 said:

Also have ShotScope and Garmin Approach, I believe those are a 1 and done when it comes to purchase where Arccos is an upfront cost (unless you have a club to get free sensors) plus a yearly subscription. 

 

I used to use Arccos, I liked the idea of it but like others after a while where you suck ends up being the same over time unless you make drastic changes. Also for me and a few other guys sometimes you're more worried about gathering data/shots vs actually playing golf.

 

The downside of Arccos that annoyed me was having a few rounds where next to no shots were recorded and/or had to add several shots and remember what I hit, where and all that which Arccos should be doing. 

 

After I ditched it pretty much used the eye test for my game while tracking some basic stats that I can enter when I enter scores (Golf Canada) and just use that. 

This was my biggest gripe with Arccos - I love the idea / concept, but the execution was mixed at best.  Plus, without the Link, you had to carry your phone in front pocket, which is not great.  

[Minarets]

I wish I knew the success /failure rate of everyone that complains about Arccos? 
 

like people that used phone in left pocket vs link vs Apple Watch.  
 

it seems like based of strictly eyeballing it that the degree of failure is directly correlated to the way you tracked shots.  I’m not saying link or Apple Watch don’t miss them but seems like the phone thing misses more than the other two. Now what’s better? Link or Apple Watch Ultra?   

[ad_l1b]

7 hours ago, Minarets said:

I wish I knew the success /failure rate of everyone that complains about Arccos? 
 

like people that used phone in left pocket vs link vs Apple Watch.  
 

it seems like based of strictly eyeballing it that the degree of failure is directly correlated to the way you tracked shots.  I’m not saying link or Apple Watch don’t miss them but seems like the phone thing misses more than the other two. Now what’s better? Link or Apple Watch Ultra?   

So I love the phone component of the Arccos ESPECIALLY if I am playing a new course or one I haven't played in a long time. The AI caddy uses your data to suggest strategies at the tee box. This alone has saved my bacon a bunch of times and is a VERY cool feature. Also if I'm in the s*** and i need to figure out a yardage over some trees or other junk that i cant hit with a rangefinder? BOOM whip out the phone tap on the fairway get a distance get wind slope etc. grab a club and go nuts. The phone is your friend for sure. That said the watch does really well too just gives you a little less info. I've used Arccos for a few years now and I would say as my game has evolved it has never ceased to be useful. I have gone from a 20+ down to around a 10. I rarely have problems with my phone, the watch seems to work as well or better. I have never used the link (see above with the phone). The only time I have had issues is when the batteries on the sensors get low, or really delicate chip shots. It will also miss putts or sometimes it hates you and the AI will try to hand you extra putts which is annoying but I always check it before i get to the next hole. It works and the data is great, there have been plenty of times walking off the golf course i am convinced that a certain part of my game is the source of my failures only to find on examination that something else entirely is drilling holes in the bottom of my boat. 

[edwelly]

Hello everyone. So I ended up getting the Arccos sensors (just the sensors). I bought my irons last year, and I got 14 sensors free. Had them in less than 3 days. I played 18 holes this Saturday in ~4 hrs, and I had about 15% battery left (Apple Watch Ultra). I found it worked really, really well. I turned on the haptic setting on the watch, and that let me know when I registered a swing. The putting was the only thing that could be a bit better. 

 

Overall, I was very pleased with how well this worked for me and my watch. I would recommend this to anyone after my results this past weekend. One thing I am going to try is using the watch in low-battery mode and see if that works better. 

 

Thank you to everyone who offered advice on this. 

 

-Erik

[edwelly]

14 hours ago, ad_l1b said:

So I love the phone component of the Arccos ESPECIALLY if I am playing a new course or one I haven't played in a long time. The AI caddy uses your data to suggest strategies at the tee box. This alone has saved my bacon a bunch of times and is a VERY cool feature. Also if I'm in the s*** and i need to figure out a yardage over some trees or other junk that i cant hit with a rangefinder? BOOM whip out the phone tap on the fairway get a distance get wind slope etc. grab a club and go nuts. The phone is your friend for sure. That said the watch does really well too just gives you a little less info. I've used Arccos for a few years now and I would say as my game has evolved it has never ceased to be useful. I have gone from a 20+ down to around a 10. I rarely have problems with my phone, the watch seems to work as well or better. I have never used the link (see above with the phone). The only time I have had issues is when the batteries on the sensors get low, or really delicate chip shots. It will also miss putts or sometimes it hates you and the AI will try to hand you extra putts which is annoying but I always check it before i get to the next hole. It works and the data is great, there have been plenty of times walking off the golf course i am convinced that a certain part of my game is the source of my failures only to find on examination that something else entirely is drilling holes in the bottom of my boat. 

 

This is what I found as well. It was also nice how well it kept track of my score and would post to the USGA. I made sure each hole was correct, and that was easy to do from the watch. 

 

-Erik

[Minarets]

2 hours ago, edwelly said:

Hello everyone. So I ended up getting the Arccos sensors (just the sensors). I bought my irons last year, and I got 14 sensors free. Had them in less than 3 days. I played 18 holes this Saturday in ~4 hrs, and I had about 15% battery left (Apple Watch Ultra). I found it worked really, really well. I turned on the haptic setting on the watch, and that let me know when I registered a swing. The putting was the only thing that could be a bit better. 

 

Overall, I was very pleased with how well this worked for me and my watch. I would recommend this to anyone after my results this past weekend. One thing I am going to try is using the watch in low-battery mode and see if that works better. 

 

Thank you to everyone who offered advice on this. 

 

-Erik

So you had a full battery on an ultra a one round tool you to 15%. Yikes 

[edwelly]

43 minutes ago, Minarets said:

So you had a full battery on an ultra a one round tool you to 15%. Yikes 

I "think" I did. Sometimes, the battery does not charge past 80%, and I did not check it that day. But I would rather have a 15%  watch than a phone in my pocket. 

[Minarets]

8 minutes ago, edwelly said:

I "think" I did. Sometimes, the battery does not charge past 80%, and I did not check it that day. But I would rather have a 15%  watch than a phone in my pocket. 

Thanks for that information though. As an Apple Watch Ultra user, you may have talked me into getting these. I can deal with fixing a few putts. As long as I don’t have to manually track each shot. And that’s where shot sCope has me a little hesitant.

[edwelly]

2 minutes ago, Minarets said:

Thanks for that information though. As an Apple Watch Ultra user, you may have talked me into getting these. I can deal with fixing a few putts. As long as I don’t have to manually track each shot. And that’s where shot sCope has me a little hesitant.

So I turned on the haptic feedback, and I could feel the vibration in my watch when it registered a shot. I also tuned on the low-power mode yesterday (I played a few holes, and it only dropped my batter ~8% - which is hopeful). I doubt I will know more in soon - but maybe in a few weeks I will have another 18 and do a better job of verifying the battery usage then. 

 

NOTE - for me, the sensors and watch were what I was hoping to get from the device. I do not regret going to this platform. 

 

-Erik

[Minarets]

I can’t make up my mind. I’m still debating between shot scope and Arccos. 

[NCDuffer]

I’ve tried many Apple Watch apps, those for tracking and those just for yardages.  I know others like it, but for me I’ve always had a tough time getting through a round if using the watch GPS.  Now if I used the phone GPS the watch was fine.  The best I’ve found for battery was Golf Pad (I used their tags too), but I haven’t used it in a while as I’m on a V3 now.  I couldn’t get past ARCOS’s subscription and battery being in their tags.  The other thing for me was app updates.  Some updates would cause issues, and though most apps were good about rolling out a fix, it didn’t help you during the round where you discovered the issue.  That set me on the path to either Garmin or Shotscope.  I’ve been very pleased with the V3 tracking.

[Minarets]

I already have and wear an Apple Watch Ultra so I don’t want to buy a shot scope watch and swap out. 
 

that kinda has me looking at H4 because the Connex and having to take my phone out of pocket to scan every time seems cumbersome to me. 
 

what I do not know is does shot scope have a GPS app where you look at and see course layout and distances to targets, like Arccos? Or naw?

Edited February 10 by Minarets

[NCDuffer]

Yes, Shotscope has an app.  A big reason why I’m using a V3 is I just have to turn it on.  Golf is hard enough for me so why did I needed need something else to think about.  Tagging the phone is a distraction.  I did that for a few years with Golf Pad.  The phone can stay in your pocket, but for me tagging simply interrupted golf.  And app updates seemed to affect tagging more than anything else, but the H4 should eliminate that.    I think you’re on to ARCOS if using Apple Watch.  It’s so convenient to simply look at your wrist for distances,  I find I rarely use my rangefinder except on Par threes or maybe a hazard/bunker distance.  On courses I’m not familiar, I do use the phone app.

Edited February 11 by NCDuffer
Added phone app

[mc2]

Shotscope all the way.

 

You don't need to use a phone or smart watch (no distractions), just a simple cheap GPS watch like the V3 does more than enough. No yearly subscription.

 

Both Arccos and Shotscope will require you to remember you long game shots (where you hit from, what club, where it landed approx) because they will miss SOME shots, and you will need to walk out and write down each putt length, then edit your rounds on computer/phone afterward to tidy everything up.

 

its not simple, but if you put in the effort to write down your putt lengths and edit your rounds, in a couple of months you will have VERY good stats to work from.

 

 

[jrdubbb]

On 2/5/2024 at 1:19 PM, edwelly said:

So I turned on the haptic feedback, and I could feel the vibration in my watch when it registered a shot. I also tuned on the low-power mode yesterday (I played a few holes, and it only dropped my batter ~8% - which is hopeful). I doubt I will know more in soon - but maybe in a few weeks I will have another 18 and do a better job of verifying the battery usage then. 

 

NOTE - for me, the sensors and watch were what I was hoping to get from the device. I do not regret going to this platform. 

 

-Erik

I have used an older apple watch series 5 and a new apple watch ultra 2 with arccos. I do not recommend aroccos if you do not have an ultra. The shot tracking and gps would kill my old apple watch if it was fully charged before the round. I have been able to wear my apple watch ultra to bed the night before (to track sleep) and then play 18 holes the next day in a scramble tournament (5 hour round) and still have enough battery to get through the end of the day. Arccos has helped a lot with my game to improve and my stats change drastically from year to year. I have also seen patterns with my SGA in driving being better in the summer and my SGA short being worse in the summer compared to the spring and fall. It is worth it! The only thing I have had issues with recently is my sensors don't like the superstroke s-tech cord grips. I think the rubber is a little soft, these grips are a month old and I have had two sensors rip out. 

[Minarets]

1 hour ago, jrdubbb said:

I have used an older apple watch series 5 and a new apple watch ultra 2 with arccos. I do not recommend aroccos if you do not have an ultra. The shot tracking and gps would kill my old apple watch if it was fully charged before the round. I have been able to wear my apple watch ultra to bed the night before (to track sleep) and then play 18 holes the next day in a scramble tournament (5 hour round) and still have enough battery to get through the end of the day. Arccos has helped a lot with my game to improve and my stats change drastically from year to year. I have also seen patterns with my SGA in driving being better in the summer and my SGA short being worse in the summer compared to the spring and fall. It is worth it! The only thing I have had issues with recently is my sensors don't like the superstroke s-tech cord grips. I think the rubber is a little soft, these grips are a month old and I have had two sensors rip out. 

Love to hear from a fellow Apple Watch Ultra user.  Thanks 

[edwelly]

I played 9 this past weekend and it was packed. We walked and were out there for almost 2.5 hours (it is a short course). Anyway, Accros used about 36% of my battery so I am happy with this. I am playing 18 this weekend and am excited to track this. 

 

-Erik

[edwelly]

I played 18 the other day and had about 36% left after starting with a full charge. Had no issues picking up shots. There were a couple of extra putts I had to remove, but outside of that, it went very well. 

 

-Erik

[TonyRo]

I have used arccos with the original Link, the Shotscope v3 watch, and a few apps that don't use sensors and GREATLY preferred arccos. In my experience, and I could be wrong here as it's just mine, ALL the shot-tracking technologies will miss the occasional shot, screw up pin locations, putt distances, etc. I haven't tried an app or sensors that are just flawless, where you literally just hit start and play your round and everything is great at the end. No matter which you choose, you will have to review your shots after the hole, mess with pin locations, change putt distances, etc. A few thoughts:

 

1. I love the Shotscope sensors themselves. They are black, low profile, and they just look nicer on your clubs. They're numbered already and so you don't have to mess with setting specific sensors to specific clubs. The arccos sensors are, comparatively, huge and green and I hate them. I bought the smoke sensors just because they're grey. Yes, I'm that stupid guy.

 

2. I could never get putting to work right on arccos automatically. I manually set the pin, tried everything, but generally it missed putts, screwed up the distances, etc. You will have to manually enter gimmes anyway, and sometimes short quick putts don't register. Perhaps the sensor doesn't work as well on top of a long putter, who knows. BUT, I pace off all my putts anyway, so I just don't use the sensor period and I just manually enter all of my putts in arccos after the hole. It takes 15 seconds because the app is easy to use and works great. Full disclosure - I actually have not used the putting sensor since getting the original Link though, so that deserves some testing. 

 

3. The Link made a huge difference in shot tracking, so even though you WILL have to fuss around every now and then to get a complete and correct scorecard in arccos, the Link greatly reduced the hassle. I'd hope the new one works even better. 

 

4. I liked the Shotscope Watch but absolutely hated the app. The arccos app is very easy to use, the presentation of the data is clear and easy to understand, and the virtual caddie is cool and helpful on course. No complaints at all there. And really, that is the crux of it for me, because if you're going to have to mess around with any option, the app needs to be hassle-free. 

[Minarets]

Thanks for that. I keep going back and forth on what I want. I too wanted the smoke sensors as I hate the green ones but they were out and I got the green ones for free, so here we are.  So far can’t get them to pair but will try what customer support told me to try and we will see when I get back from the beach.  The app and stats seem better by Arccos which is why I started there.   Worth the $155/year if I can get the shots to track enough.   I have an Apple Watch Ultra so I have some hope. If not, I’ll try the x5 from shot scope. 

[TonyRo]

I had some problems with sensors at first, but my garage is poorly lit and that's apparently important. Flipping the club back over like you're putting it in your bag for 20-30 seconds and then trying again worked on the one sensor I was having trouble with.

[gpatgolf]

I don’t think this has been mentioned yet, but I use a Garmin watch as my golf gps/tracker, and this year I bought a complete set of CT-10 sensors to track club yardage and give me some insight into my game.  Basically, once you’ve paired the sensors with the individual clubs, you just play your game, with your gps watch on obviously, and the system keeps track of what club you used and the yardage.  If you’ve downloaded the Garmin golf apps, it actually “records” your round so you can go back post-round and view your round as you played it.  Plus it also tracks statistics for you.  It’s one and done on costs, no yearly fees, and basically once you have a Garmin device, sensors, and app you are all set.  I recommend you investigate if you are looking to track.