FIRST LOOK: Shot Scope V2 – GPS Watch with Shot Tracking

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 1^st. After October 1^st 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.