Arccos Air: Small, Mighty And … Sensorless

Quick. What do you keep in your right front pocket when you play golf? Or, if you’re a lefty, your left front pocket.

Tees, of course. A divot tool? Likely.  

If you’re a smoker, maybe a Zippo?

Now, instead of using that Zippo to spark up a lung dart, what if it could track your shots?

And accumulate your data?

And give you game analytics?

While telling you what to practice?

That’d be enough to get any golfer to quit smoking, wouldn’t it?

That, friends, is the new Arccos Air. It’s a pint-sized, AI-powered shot-tracking tool that gets rid of two of the three most annoying things about using Arccos: sensors and your phone.

Arccos Air: Kicking the sensor habit

You know those little AI-fueled devices you can buy that record and transcribe meetings without you having to take notes and that are about the size of a credit card?

The new Arccos Air is pretty much the same thing … only different.

It’s roughly the size of a cigarette lighter or maybe an AirPods case and weighs about as much as your house key. You slide Arccos Air into your pocket (or you can clip it to your belt) and go play golf. AI does the rest. Arccos Air uses gyroscope and accelerometer technology to analyze swing motion and detect impact. Artificial intelligence, trained on more than four trillion data points taken from 1.5 billion Arccos-collected golf shots, then separates your practice swings from the real shot.

A built-in GPS identifies your exact location on the course. The unit collects and stores all your data until after the round when you can sync it to the Arccos app on your phone via Bluetooth.

There’s no need for manual input and – we can’t stress this enough – no need for any additional sensors.

No sensors but …

Arccos is the official game-tracking partner of the PGA Tour and it partners with virtually every major OEM. Along with Shot Scope, it’s the shot-tracking OG and offers the most robust data analytics in golf.

There’s one problem, though.

The sensors are a pain in the ass.

And those sensors, in terms of initial cost and eventual replacement, are one of the biggest barriers to using Arccos, at least according to Arccos itself.

“Now you don’t have to manage sensors to think about technology. You just play,” says Arccos CEO Sal Syed. “When the round is over, you know exactly where you gained strokes, where you lost strokes and what you need to work on next.”

The new Arccos Air ties directly into your Arccos app which will provide you with all your game analytics. The one thing Arccos Air can’t do (and this is where the sensors would have been handy): it can’t tell you what club you hit on each shot. If you want that data, you’ll have to add it during post-round editing. If you already have Arccos Smart Sensors, the unit will still work just fine and the sensors will collect specific club information.

As for the data, Arccos has maybe the most robust analysis package in the game. The company says its members (it calls all its subscribers “members”) lower their handicaps by an average of 25 percent during their first year of use. Additionally, by analyzing their data and following practice recommendations, they hit their approach shots an average of 14.9 feet closer to the pin and greatly improve their chances of getting a hole-in-one.

Though it be but little, it is fierce

For such a tiny thing, Arccos Air is kind of a big deal. Shot-tracking has always been about how much energy you need to expend during a round to collect the data. If you remember the early days of Arccos, you had to keep your freaking phone in your pocket for it to work. Shot Scope changed all that with its simple sensors and collection technology in the GPS watch wristband.

Now, there’s not shortage of watches or apps that will collect your data for you. It just depends on how much you have to do during your round to fill it all in. That’s where Shot Scope and Arccos have separated themselves. By leveraging AI, Arccos Air takes on-course user input totally out of the equation.

Remember earlier when we said Arccos Air gets rid of sensors and your phone, two of the three most annoying things about using Arccos? That third thing is still there. It’s still subscription-based.

Arccos Air requires you to subscribe to their tracking system. The first year is free when you buy an Arccos Air unit. After that, it’s an annual fee of $199.99. For some, that’s problematic, especially when you consider Shot Scope charges nothing to use its product once you buy it.

On the other hand, for a serious golfer, the Arccos subscription comes to $16.67 per month. Depending on why you play golf and what you’re trying to achieve, that could be considered a bargain.

Is Arccos Air right for you? If you already use Arccos with sensors, Shot Scope or any other shot-tracking system, there’s no reason to switch. However, if you’re new to shot tracking, don’t care for sensors and are okay with post-round editing, Arccos Air might be right up your alley.

As they say, it all depends.

Arcoss Air: Price and availability

The new Arccos Air is available starting today at retailers and online. It goes for $349.99 and, as mentioned, includes a one-year subscription to the Arccos game tracking system.

For more information, visit www.arccosgolf.com.