In what is arguably the worst kept secret in golf, the V3 edition of Shot Scope is being launched and the company listened to every aspect of consumer feedback to bring a fantastic device to market.
Rewinding a bit before diving into the technology and our early feedback, Shot Scop3 V2 was extremely well liked, although some users found it to be a bit bulky on the wrist. Those that used the previous version generally liked the data, accuracy and overall user interface quite a bit.
Hitting golf stores now, the V3 takes that GPS and Performance Tracking watch, and like the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, makes it tiny in comparison. To use a comparison, this is right around the same size and shape of an Apple Watch, and weighs next to nothing. In fact, during my first round, I actually forgot I was wearing it and this is coming from a golfer that never wears a watch during play.
So what is new? A lot. A whole lot actually. The V3 added dual GPS Accuracy, which is designed to give it industry leading accuracy on the course. But what about the changes you can see? The V2 had kind of a bland screen, so it has been upgraded with full color, which is fantastic when needing a quick glance to get hazard info. The unit is actually preloaded now with 35,000 courses, rather than needing to sync the device. Want style? The V3 drops in multiple watch band colors to coordinate if you would like. Finally, battery life, actually more on that shortly.
The story behind V3 is what Shot Scope calls AI Swing and Performance Tracking Technology. That is a mouthful, but what it means is that the more you play using the device, the more data it collects and will be able to offer some incredible statistics aimed at making you better. This is all done in the background, so it is nothing you have to fidget with during the round. In fact, the only thing you need to do is tell the device how many putts you had after completing each hole by a simple click of one of the four buttons (if you five putt, you have bigger issues), and then move on to the next hole. No phone in the pocket, no screens to mess with, nothing at all, just play your game and Shot Scope works in the background.
We get asked a lot about battery life and the V2 definitely had no issues getting in a full round of golf. The V3 offers 10+ hours, and in our testing it might be even more. Testing it on the course I was on the green on the 14th hole of the 3rd round over the course of 4 days before it went caput.
When you get the device, there are a couple of things you need to do to get going right away. Obviously the simple part is charging it up with the supplied cord and then making sure you download the mobile app that matches your cell phone. Quick note, we have only tried the iOS app, but it worked extremely well. Like a traditional watch (and yes, this can be worn as one with what they call Everyday Watch Mode), you wear it on your left wrist for RH golfers or right wrist for LH golfers, then screw in the club tags in the grip end of your clubs. This step sounds tedious, but it is super easy. When you get to the course click play and choose the mode you would like (GPS, GPS and Data or Data). The first time we used it the load time took several minutes at the course, so give yourself a few while at the range or putting green. Then you are ready to play.
On the course, all you have to do is use Pin Collect, which is their quick version mentioned earlier about pressing the button associated with how many putts you had on a given hole. The rest is done for you, unless you are like me and hit a couple of hazards. I was genuinely surprised to see how well the watch handled the penalties. You click the button in the top left for menu and then press which penalty you had. That is it.
There are competitions with other Shot Scope users that can be had during the round, but since we were using the device before it was released, we have not tried it out as of yet.
For the golfer that is unsure if they want the statistics or data, let me share with you a quick story because like you, I never wanted to know. Didn’t care and assumed I knew. I was tasked with jotting down the clubs that I use the most and least in my bag and then play 5 rounds of golf wearing the V3. Turns out, I was way off base and Shot Scope not only told me about what clubs were used, but also how well I used them (not anything like I had thought).
After using this for a number of rounds, I am not sure I want to go without it. Not only did we find the GPS extremely accurate and match up to the GPS on the golf carts we used, but the post round data through the free mobile app is extremely enjoyable and done so without a monthly subscription fee, unlike a few other data tracking devices that charge a fee.
Shot Scope is also launching a standard GPS Watch to go along with the V3 and they call it the G3. It does everything the V3 does, minus the data tracking. Still loaded with 35,000 courses, still has Dual GPS and a color screen. Still no subscription.
The Details
In Stores: Now
Cost: V3 Launch Price $179 and MAP is $219
Cost: G3 Launch Price $159 and MAP is $179
Mines was even worst. My clasp broke, so I’m waiting on a replacement. Does anyone know if and which is a more stable replacement band
As for the actual performance, no missed shots at all. I was worried seeing some of the reports on here, but I experienced no issues. I did have to edit some of the putts, but not by a lot and the course I played at has some large trees that overhang some of the greens. I was wondering how well it would work in that case, but again the putts were not off by much.
I had my rangefinder with me so I used that from the fairway and tee boxes on par 3’s and there was little difference between the two when it came to yardages. I was happy to see that and I think going forward it will be nice not to have to feel the need to pull the rangefinder (although it doesn’t take that long anyway) on approach shots. It was late afternoon/early evening and the screen was clear and easy to read.
Battery usage was about 27% (the nine lasted an hour and 34 minutes) which I thought was really good. I have nothing to compare that too, but I was quite pleased. Overall I’m very happy with it and am really looking forward to being able to start compiling some data. I actually enjoyed going back through my round after the fact and probably played around with it for another hour after the round.
I didn’t have short chips or putts missed. I did take a practice swing or two, but nothing aggressive. Sometimes I did bang the club head on the ground before hitting, just to confirm the watch was awake.
I had a couple phantom shots when I was taking practice swings near someone else’s shot, so maybe it picked up the sound of their shot and registered a shot from that distance. Easy enough to edit out afterwards
My Buckle broke (Maybe the same thing)- I stole a Buckle from an old V2 unit that I had.
and I’ve had issues with the buckle laying flat and the FOB staying in the holes in the band.
The clasp is definitely a problem. It won’t stand up over time.
I saw where if you forgot your password you can click and it will send you an email to reset it. I tried that a little while ago and have not received an email yet. Checked my spam folder too. Nothing.
I have both the V2 and V3. The V2 works fine. Have never had an issue with it.
I have some course mapping issues to address with them. 3 of the 8 fairways I actually hit got recorded as missed fairways, and some tee boxes show up as ‘rough’ in the dashboard (granted, yesterday, some of them actually played like rough ). The tee shot on one hole was also showing 7-8 yards shorter than what Game Golf and Google Earth measures.
I had to clean up a few shots, but my total was only 1 off the actual score, as opposed to 40 and 50 shots off like I got in 2 rounds with Arccos.
I thought I had putting set to ‘manual’, but it didn’t operate quite the way I was expecting. I entered the number of putts and marked the pin location — that sounds like the other method, right? It seems like some of the settings I set don’t take hold in the watch, but I need more time to be sure.
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On occasion sure. Most of the time though only if the numbers feel "off" (they aren’t).
I need to figure out how it is going to keep score and track clubs. I have been playing around with settings. Pretty straight forward to use. We’ll see how I like it.
Make sure you use the ? (upper right button) to confirm and save your selection.
Hand in glove compatibility. Use the laser when precision is needed. Use the watch when it isn’t. The watch gives better hazard information in my opinion because it’s hard to shoot the front edge of a bunker, for example. But the real value of the V3 isn’t just the yardages, but the post round breakdowns.
You can create another set of tees temporarily, call them whatever color you want, to change the par from 4 to 5. Check the link for item 5 in the following (https://support.shotscope.com/hc/en…8-How-do-I-sign-off-a-round-on-the-dashboard-) We did that as we swap two holes to shake things up. We move back to the back tees on a par 4 and it now plays as a par 5. We move up to the forward tees on a par 5 to play it as a long par 4. The scores on those holes are accurately recorded as pars, birdies, etc. as to how we play them. However, I was told that the watch will show the original par and not the par I created as the change is local and not a global change. Just make sure when you edit your round you select the correct set of tees.
I am, but after thinking more about it, I think it is user error/inexperience at play here. I think it is working as intended. I had "Btn Lock" disabled and never once had to press the lower left button to access hazard info, etc. yesterday.
I’ll try the different putting mode next time out to see the differences.
Huh
I played 18 yesterday in 2 hrs and 8 minutes and when I plugged in the watch it had 74% batt life left.
mine is in L1 mode
I’ve used that L1+L5 setting from time to time but have never had les than 64% battery capacity left when I plug it in to charge. Do note, however, that 3 hour rounds give or take a few minutes, are typical for us and I don’t turn set the watch to "play" until about 5-10 minutes before tee time, well after any stretching or practice swings warming up.
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They’re not included in the distance stats.
I had distances show up when I added a penalty shot after the round, not sure if it’s different from in round
Like MikeF says, you have to move the shot on the map slightly. To define the outlines of the tee boxes, fairways and greens there is a process called Geo fencing which creates boundaries. Based on how recent the Google map is (which is what I believe Shot Scope uses) those boundaries may have changed slightly over time. In my case, they blew up our 8th green last year and the new green is a little different in size and shape so some shots near the edges have to be edited to show they either are on or off the green. It is minor and with the issues at hand I don’t want to bother Shot Scope with seeing if there is a more recent map they could use to define that green.
Granted, this was a poor tee shot that ended up a lot shorter than usual on this hole, but this is considered a ‘missed’ fairway (roughly shown in black) right now:
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I think remapping is the only way to help here, right?
If this is a course you play regularly I’d say first wait and see if it happens again. I see a lot of trees in that shot that could possibly affect GPS accuracy. I had a case where on of my approaches to our first hole showed the result waaaay left of the green when in fact it was on the green but only a foot or two on. It was an anomaly and hasn’t happened again……yet. There are no trees or anything that might interfere with the GPS in my case, but quoted GPS accuracy is always stated with 95% reliability. L5 is supposed to help with that when completely implemented.
I saw that too, not impressed with the price though, 3 tags for £19.99. I’m sticking to my cut off tag and taped to the top of the putter method
I moved it about 40 yds down the fairway, and it listed Shot 2 as from a tee box. :confused2:
It was rough all around it, where it should be fairway. There’s no tee within a hundred yards.
I need to ask them to flip the nines anyway. I’ll ask about this and a couple other things.
One of the best things of the system, especially for a club ho’. Wait until to have a couple of years under the system. It’s fun to go back to see what worked and what didn’t.
BTW: To the people new to the system, don’t delete clubs. Even if you trade them in. Always keep the data.
Are those AVG, P-AVG or Longest?
That data that you can pull from this is amazing. I’m really enjoying that part of it. It’s already got me thinking about certain clubs in my bag and whether or not they are doing the job I’m paying them to do.
A couple years ago Game Golf changed their interface to allow you to select date ranges or individual rounds. Made it really nice if you were trying to compare clubs over certain time periods. For example say you logged 20 rds and Rds 5, 7 and 12 were played in the rain. You could just select those rds vs the other 17 to see how your performance compared to crappy vs decent weather.
A while back I posted that my watch batt died and it did not record the last 4 holes. After manually entering in the hole info it did not appear to add my driver info into the performance metrics. I reached out to Shot Scope and we determined this was an error on my part. When I entered in those 4 hole it defaulted to the first driver I had in my bag selection. Once I re-edited the round I selected the proper driver and now those drives are in my data.
Best weekend on the v3 so far!
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