GPS watches may seem kinda ho-hum and run-of-the-mill as we careen toward the third decade of the new millennium, but don’t for one minute forget how freaking amazing that technology really is.
You’re wearing something on your wrist that not only knows where you are on the planet; it also knows the name and layout of the golf course you’re playing. It knows what hole you’re on and it knows, give or take a yard or two, how far away you are from all the stuff they put in the way. It also knows how far away you are from the middle, front and back of the that little flat piece where they put the flag.
If you remember when TV’s had knobs, and you had to get up to change the channel, having a flipping watch that tells you how far you have to hit your next shot should not be taken for granted.
Well, the Scottish Company Shot Scope is upping the ante, combining a GPS watch with its unique, no-tagging shot tracking and stat keeping technology with today’s release of the Shot Scope V2.
Tagging is So 2014…
Shot Scope, an 18-person company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland (just a wee bit down the pike from St. Andrews), made a name for itself this past year with its first generation shot tracking system. Shot Scope’s V1 combined a wrist band and club sensors that would track all your shots and turn them into usable stats for you via their app or on your personal dashboard on their website.
Yeah, so far no biggie, right? Game Golf and Arccos had already been there and done that. Shot Scope’s tech breakthrough, however, is what it calls ClubSense™, which allows the Shot Scope wristband to know when you’re hitting a shot without having to “tag” your shot or keep your phone in your pocket. If you’ve used any other shot tracking system, you’ve no doubt forgotten to tag your club before taking the shot or left your phone in the cart. Shot Scope figured out how to do away with all that while still having a high degree of reliability.
You get your stats, and all you have to do is play golf. However, if you’re a GPS watch user you had to make a decision: wear the Shot Scope wrist band for automatic shot tracking, or wear the GPS watch.
Shot Scope V2 has solved that problem.
Meet V2
On the surface, the Shot Scope V2 looks like your basic GPS watch. It tells you the hole you’re on and the distance to the front, middle and back of the green (hazard distances will be added later this year). But once you install the little screw-in sensors in your grips, Shot Scope’s ClubSense™ takes over and automatically collects your shot data. It knows the difference between a practice swing and a real swing, and puts it all into an app that’s pretty intuitive, as far as apps go.
The V2 has three playing modes: GPS, PRO, and GPS+Track. The GPS mode is what you’d think it would be – simple GPS functionality with no shot tracking. In the PRO mode, Shot Scope V2 gives you shot tracking only, turning the GPS function off (essentially making it Shot Scope V1), while GPS+Track gives you both GPS and shot tracking.
We’ve not seen the V2 in person yet, but we have used V1 extensively. The shot-tracking portion has proven to be automatic and very reliable. This is where the tech gets interesting – you don’t have to do anything extra to log your shots – no tagging and no phone-in-the-pocket – just play golf.
With systems that require tagging, if you forget to do it a couple of times you wind up either scrambling to recreate the shot near where you took it, or you simply bag the data gathering for that round. It usually winds up being way more work to gather info than some folks are willing to do. And despite its many advanced capabilities, Arccos still requires you to keep your phone in your front pocket while playing.
The Shot Scope wristband is good for eight hours on a full charge and has 4GB of memory so it can store data from hundreds of rounds. You can upload your data via Bluetooth or USB. Shot Scope uses SMART GPS, which it says is the highest grade commercial GPS chip available, for optimum accuracy. Over 40,000 courses worldwide are mapped for Shot Scope as well, and there’s no subscription fee.
Price and Availability
Shot Scope V2 is available for pre-order starting today at shotscope.com, with an introductory price of $210 that’s good until October 1st. After October 1st the full retail will be $250.
Shot Scope says you can reserve a unit at the pre—order price simply by paying a deposit, and then paying off the balance when the units are ready to ship, which should be in October.
Pete Crowe
2 years agoI have just bought this and after just two (very poor) rounds of golf I am so impressed. I use a laser range finder so the GPS was never hugely important but as it serves as the connection to the tags in your clubs without the need to carry a phone or tap the tag onto your belt prior to each shot, it’s just there quietly keeping a record of your round, it makes it very easy to just play golf. The only thing you need to remember to do is press one of 4 buttons on the watch to tell it how many putts you took on the green. That then moves you to the next hole and away you go again.
The data that it shows post round is fantastic, with stats along the lines of what the pros see regarding yardages and fairways hit, greens in regulation, sand saves etc. etc. It even has a make percentage for different lengths of putt!
I can’t wait to build up a decent amount of data as I’m certain that this little device will help me reduce my handicap (11 at the moment) down to single figures.
I can’t recommend it enough guys!
Tom
3 years agoThis was a very good product overview and commentary based on the published information. Will there be a substantive product review? Was hoping for a critical product evaluation. Based on previous reviews I am expecting My Golf Spy to give us some solid reasons to buy / not buy.
Henry
3 years agoMight be a stupid question but thought I’d ask because this could be a beneficial feature. By having shot tracking and gps, would this gadget help me find my ball? The rough is always long on weekdays and a lot of times, I can’t find my ball when I’m only a few yards off the fairway.
MSchad
3 years agoIt doesn’t track the ball, it tracks the position of where your last stroke was from.
ScottM
3 years agoHey guys, keep up good work!!
I have had skycaddie for years. Battery is getting iffy so reviewing options. Been testing an app this summer and although it is fine in many regards, think I do want a dedicated device. My key criteria are what I would consider basic playing info.
* green yardages
* yardages to any point (user controlled)
* full hole layout
* large enough and bright enough screen to see and use (so not a watch)
What would you say are the best options available today? (I’m even flexible to wait a little while if you know of a promising product that is coming down the pike)
Thanks in advance for any input you can give me.
P.S. – Newer Skycaddie units seem to have a lot mixed reviews and they aren’t top rated in any lists I have seen so although I have had good experience it makes me nervous.
Gman
3 years agoHow many grip sensors does it come with?
Joe Loukota
3 years agoAt least 14…the guys in Support have been EXTREMELY helpful & responsive – I have 2 putters I swap in/out, and if you just contact them they will provide additional tags
Jon
2 years ago20 – more than enough for any golfer
Darren Tan
3 years agoI tried to Preorder but the currency seems locked in to pounds instead of USD. At 185 pounds, it translate into USD 250. How do we change the currency to USD?
Darren Tan
3 years agoJust got an update from them. Only people in the States will get to be billed in USD.
Raymond CHASTEL
3 years agoAll these devices are pure nuisance to the golf play .Instead of regulating the clubs and the balls the ROYAL AND ANCIENT and the USPGA should forbid the use of these supposed game enhancing gimmicks .I have yet to observe a golfer improve his handicap and quality of play with them !
The worst are those who tote the laser finders ,they slow down the play to no purpose
Raymond CHASTEL,83 years od age ,handicap 7 ,I play since 1948 ,there were no such gimmicks at that time
Just go on the golf and play
paul naas
3 years agoGet off of my lawn!
Paul
2 years agoYou slow down the game, you old curmudgeon, lol
Scotty
3 years agoThe Microsoft Band worked on a similar principle with the Taylormade MyRoundPro I think… It missed the putts though. It was a great product, got very annoyed when Microsoft announced they were discontinuing production.
sam
3 years agoNaaaa, I’m happy with my, “I’m Caddy” voice GPS. Had it for 4yrs. Clip on, one touch. No need to look at any screen. Gives me distance to the middle, I figure out the rest. Never more than 1-2yds out when compared to others GPS’ in the group.
Kenny B
3 years agoI really like the idea of not having my phone with me to track stats. I haven’t worn a watch in years, but I suppose with a couple of rounds it might not be too noticeable. Seems like a big improvement over the V1; it just didn’t make sense to wear a watch for tracking and have another device for yardages.
Russ
3 years agoMy biggest problem that I have had with the GameGolf system is the breaking of their tabs. I am not a club slammer but 1 must have had more than 10 tabs break this season. In several cases, they have broken apart after a swing. GameGolf claims that I am the only person with this problem. To their credit, they did ship me a new set free (some which have already broken). I’ll be looking for a new system next season.
Jared
3 years agoThat’s a bummer as I have had mine since their inception, almost 3 years and have only had an issue with the belt clip that they promptly replaced for free. Zero issue with tabs.
Tim Carmitchel
3 years agoI use the new golf pad link love that
Doug Fisher
3 years agoI am partially colour blind. Some devices are hard for me to read easily. I use garmin, my friend uses golf buddy. Golf buddy is much easier for me to read. What colour are the numbers and what colour is the background?
Thank you.
Jess Robinson
3 years agoI miss the days when there were no cell phones on golf courses. I realize that I’m •realizing• being part of the older generation (35 years old ……chronologically) but I’m the kind of guy who empties his pockets as soon as I walk into my house. I put my ring on my carabiner with my keys (one being a universal ez-go) and put everything else away.
The idea of keeping this iPhone 7 Plus (that my wife picked out, I despise time spent in cell phone stores that much) in my pocket while *practicing* is laughable. On the course? Never.
Same thing with a watch.
I think all of this stuff is cool, I definitely see the market for it, but working at a facility with two courses, I can’t tell you how much slow play I’ve witnessed due to technology.
Unless there’s a strokes gained metric that could be assigned to the information collected, I think much of this tracking is done for vanity.
I’d appreciate (maybe some do?) these devices alerting players to their pace of play.
If we (my generation, those in their 20’s) don’t hold ourselves accountable for “while we’re young” I think we will look back in 10yrs and laugh at this technology but still be dealing with some assholes tagging shots or putting a holographic topographic map on the greens to read the putts.
strokerAce
3 years agoThis is as close to “tracking nirvana” as they’ve gotten if you ask me. the “just play golf” part is where it’s at. I went from not having anything and using red/white/blue markers (i.e. guessing) to an older laser rangefinder to a TomTom2 watch. I never did wear a watch before but have gotten used to it.
They are so close with this. I think if then can reduce the size of the watch even a little bit it would be perfect. It seems as though it is just a tad big. Perhaps that’s just the picture?
It certainly is a great time to be a golfer with all of the technology. Not sure it’s such a good time to be a caddie (haha!)….
BTW – I’m one of those users who consistently forgets to ‘tag’ their shot…
Pete S
3 years agoTotally agree. Never worn a watch on the course. I’ve just used my SkyDroid app for the past several years. This may get me to transition to the GPS watch with stat tracking. I’m a nerd!
DOCTIMW hdcp 6
3 years agoI have been using Arccos for a couple of years now (gen 1) and I have been impressed with the simplicity and accuracy of data it provides. Love the fact that I don’t have to tag like other systems. Phone is in a normal cradle with belt clip that I slide towards my back so no interference with my swing and i forget it is even there. Looked into 2 generation but the front pocket issue was the deal-breaker for me. Will look into this product but it must do everything Arccos does as I have come to rely on and learn from all the data given.
Hunter
3 years agoThis looks great but…I really wish it gave detailed %s of where your misses are with each club. Ex. It would be awesome to know that statistically I miss long right with my 9 iron and short left with me 4 iron.
Heather D
3 years agoDoesn’t Sky Golf already have tracking systems?
Joe
3 years agoI am a current SG5 & SkyGolf360 user. I can track #s of shots and fairway/green hit/misses but not distances unless I ‘mark’ every shot. They aren’t plotted & it requires constant manual-entry. To track shots requires an additional ‘tagging system’ – see others’ comments about tagging – or going to a phone-based system (most drain a phone battery before the end of a round). Not to mention the yearly fee for ‘membership’.
This appears to be the ‘best’ (IMO) attempt to combine the features of the better GPS systems, the data available with tagging, convenience of a watch, and minimal input from the user……which is why I pre-ordered last night 🙂
Greg
3 years agoHow does it track putts? It knows a practice putt swing versus a real swing? I guess after you stay still and then start walking again it knows you have hit the ball?
Dale Choma
3 years agoI have a game golf live, its useful. but it can be such a hassle if you forget to tag or the tag doesnt register right away. Countless times going back to my phone to see if each shot has been counted. This unit sounds great! I will for sure take advantage of the early introductory price and look forward to giving it a try.
Robert
3 years agoI like the way this looks, but if I just want to use their tracking system I still have to use the watch. Hopefully you can just wear the band for tracking. Wearing a bulky watch is more uncomfortable to me than having a phone in my back pocket. Oh, and with Arccos, you don’t need to have the phone in your front pocket. I used the first version with a phone in my back pocket every round.
Johnny Cowboy
3 years agostrap the watch to your push cart
Kenny B
3 years agoIf you want the stats, it has to be on your lead arm wrist.
Jim Jones
3 years agoI’ve purchased and used the Arccos, Game Golf and PIQ Mobiletee systems. While I love the extra data, I’ve quit using all three for exactly the reasons you detail in this article, PLUS ONE MORE: My smartphone battery will not last through the entire 18 hole round, so I’ve had to add an external battery (more hassle & weight in my pocket) to make them work. I don’t like wearing anything on my wrist while I play, but I might have to thy this.
Mark
3 years agoHmmm, Garmin X40 but with added club sensors? I don’t used the club tracking system of the X40 explicitly but it tracks my shots anyway without me having to do anything. Not using the shot tracking part of the watch only means it doesn’t know exactly what club I used but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out during post round review. Seems simpler than the Shot Scope. For me there is zero intrusion during rounds.
Potash
3 years agoUsed the Gamegolf system for a few years now….perhaps it’s time to move on ??
Carolina Golfer 2
3 years agoIt’s really cool to see how rapidly the technology in all these devices is advancing. This one looks to combine the best of all them so far.
Pete S
3 years agoSounds like a cool product. May have to check this out.
Sharkhark
3 years agoThis is why I’ve ignored other systems and kept using my golf buddy world gps until you could get to a point of reliability without needing tagging.
Plus keep my phone in my front pocket? My sweaty pocket while I swing? I can barely accept my divot tool much less a cell phone.
This if working well will be my next golf purchase.
It sounds amazing. And so inexpensive if it works.