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
My question is, do we really need to have it on our putter as we can edit it after the fact?
I have tried to super glue it to my putter in hopes of salvaging the putter tag. Fingers Crossed!
If you want to just enter your putts manually – you don’t need the tag. You should have some "extra" tags as well (x1, x2, x3) – you could just place one of them on it and use it.
You don’t need a putter tag at all if you use the manual putting setting.
I want the most accuracy I can get for putting metics so I’ve used manual mode for putting from the get go. You simply hit the + sign at each putt location then mark the pin before exiting the green.
Wow what a difference!
The tag confirmation is awesome and it upload my round in half the time.
Maybe being new firmware, it seemed to take longer than usual once the GPS signals were found for the watch to approximate the same distances I get on the cart GPS. Usually I have seen a yard or, at the most 2-yard difference. At first the difference was over 20 yards but that gradually narrowed as it became time to actually tee off. From that point on the two were as close as they were previously. It was quite cloudy which may also have contributed.
QUESTION: Especially for those new to using Shot Scope, do you find yourself chasing stats more now, more, not concerned, but "cognizant" maybe of hitting fairways and greens? I never did that with Game Golf. I just tagged and went and had no real awareness of my # of FIRs and GIRs until I edited the round. If this idea of chasing stats is common at first, for those who came from V2, do you eventually "get over it’?
I noticed the GPS distance to a bit off a few times yesterday, compared to my range finder. I trusted the range finder more in those cases, and it turned out to be the right decision. I had it on L1+L5; I think I’ll go back to L1 next go round.
I ran into the same issue when I switched to L1+L5. Switched it back to L1 and everything is fine.
It had me for a 92 when I shot 69.
Weird. Do you carry clubs outside of the bag whole you’re walking between shots? Just curious on how it can pick up that many extra impacts. Are the shots randomly spread through the hole? Or is it like you’re hitting multiple shots from the same location?
Arccos is much better at this. It had me with a 23 a few weeks ago.
I rode a cart so I carried clubs to the green when necessary. I will have to pay more attention to when it picks up strokes.
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Home Depot has a precision Torx driver with a T4 bit for $6.
Yeah, another user confirmed the size T4 for me and then I picked up a driver. One of my other screws was loose but not loose enough to hurt – I don’t think. They are tight now.
I also heard from support that they now had spare screws and he was to send me some. I have not gotten them yet but still hopeful.
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I am wondering about this also. If I chip on with an iron or wedge and the V3 thinks I’m on the green, do I need to record a putt ? I use manual putt mode.
I think if you recorded a Putt it might overwrite any auto detected wedge/chip. But not sure.
The last thing I will mention is that, I was worried about wearing the watch on my arm as I don’t wear a watch normally, or any jewelry for that matter, but I don’t even notice the ShotScope watch during my round.
Have you put the latest firmware on, it works great swing the club and it flashes up with the club you are using so you know it has picked up the tag
Still love the new watch, another great round today, the last tag indicator was a fantastic addition. The person that came up with that addition deserves a beer.
Just a small update. The V3 arrived Friday afternoon, not the Wednesday my app was telling me. That said an extra 2 day delay is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. The important note here is I paid my Canadian price for the device ($249.99) but did not have any extra duties/fees/taxes to pay on top of the price. When you live in Canada and taxes/fees/duties are the norm, it feels like stealing when this little gift is applied.
I have a round booked for Sunday morning, so I’m looking forward to getting this on the course. When I unboxed it, the watch was 93% charged. I had waited until I received the device before I registered with the Shot Scope app. Registering in the app, and setup of the watch was very easy and intuitive through the app. When it came to adding my clubs to the MyBag section, I loved the option to combine my 4-PW after just updating 1 iron in my bag. So instead of individually adding the irons, that small feature saved me a nice bit of time and tedium. All in all, my first experience with the Shot Scope product was a good one and we are off to a great start! I will followup Sunday’s round with my first impressions.
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Even with the original firmware, mine never missed an approach, a drive, nor even a short chip from off the green. The only shots missed for me seem to be tap-ins. Even though a take an unusually aggressive practice swing before tapping in, sometimes they are just recorded as 2′-putts so I guess I can’t say they are "missed" in a true sense, just recorded differently. BTW, I have found just L1 to be more accurate where I am than L1+L5.
*I am a former Game Golf original user and have used Arccos for 2 seasons now. I also wear a Garmin S20 GPS watch and have a rangefinder to get accurate flag yardages. I am used to having technology in-play on the course and wearing a watch does not impede me in the least.
*The course is a 15 minute drive away, and have read with interest other people’s experience of the watch not finding the course for a bit of time. So on my way to the course, about 5 minutes away I engaged the watch. Well, within 3 minutes it found the course even before I pulled into the parking lot. I will adjust going forward but this is a positive to me.
*My first round coincided with the new Firmware update, so seeing the club on the watch was a great experience for me today. I pulled 3W on the first tee, tagged the end of the club to the watch band and it found the right club. This happened EVERY time I tagged the club end to the watch band. Seeing the club selected really took any doubt away for me today and allowed me to just focus on the shot. What a great idea in showing the club on the watch!
*My playing partner was using a Garmin S1 GPS watch and I compared yardages throughout the day with him. Nothing stood out as being way off to me, and when I used the rangefinder it held up with accurate results (Flag yardage middle = consistent etc.).
*Using Arccos the past 2 seasons, i did miss seeing instant results of my shots on the course. What yardages I hit etc. I was however, freed up to focus on the golf rather than a phone in my pocket. I will probably have more to say on this once I have a handful of rounds under my belt.
*The Pin collect feature is such an ideal idea to help putting stats. With Arccos, although you can locate the flag on the green, their putting stats leave alot to be desired. I’m looking forward to collecting additional data with this.
*I kept the watch in L1 mode and had more than 3/4 left on my battery indicator. Based on other people’s posts, I think I will leave it in L1 for the foreseeable future.
*I shot an 83 today, but the watch had me for a 77. However, i had 6 penalties within my round and I did not use the penalty feature of the watch. In all honesty, i didn’t know how and didn’t want to fiddle with it on the course. I’ll be reading up on this for my next round. That said, it captured all shots except these today. I had 6 ‘2 foot’ putts and I will have to ensure i tap in properly going forward.
Questions for those that have had the watch for a bit of time:
*I chunked my 2nd shot on my 3rd hole today, about 40 yards in total. When i used the same club again into the green for my 3rd shot (Only had 70 yards), when i reviewed my data after the round the 3rd shot was not recorded. Is this usual? I made sure it was the same club and tagged the butt-end of the club to the watch strap.
*In reviewing my round, i noticed a red exclamation mark beside the shot. When i hovered the mouse over it, it said ‘check the club and location of this shot’. Anyone know what this means?
You mentioned "tagging" the club to the watch band. This is not necessary unlike Game Golf. Just the proximity of the tag to the watch enables the watch to identify the club and, in fact, this latest firmware update increases that sensitivity.
The only time I got a red exclamation mark was when I holed an exceptionally long putt (over 50′) and I had to confirm that due to it appearing on some global leaderboard. You would just do what is suggested and go into that shot in the edit mode to confirm the club and where the shot took place.
Thank you sir. It’s good to know tagging isn’t necessary. I was overly careful with the reports of others who have many missed shots. Bringing the tag and touching the watch band really ensured the shot would be recorded. I do love the visual of seeing the club selected so it is good to know I don’t have to be so "Game-Golf" diligent. lol
Same here. Nice touch.
This issue becomes as you have had the system for a while, as you add Irons, the system can give you different color tags for irons in the same set.
Decide what color your next set is going to be and make sure that all of the irons are the color.
Keep adding the same iron until you get the color tag you want and delete the duplicates:
This way you get a bag set up that looks like this:
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I wish the system would let you simply delete a club without deleting the data, something that you can do with Arccos. Unless there is something I am missing, the only way to delete a club, once put into the system, is to delete the round in which that club was used. However, that deletes the data in the data base as well.
It looks to me that Game Golf was the only system really set up to facilitate accumulating a large database of club you’ve used and compared over a period of time. Arccos makes that pretty much impractical, Shot Scope enables you to do it but is far from convenient and some of the other phone-only apps don’t really address keeping data on previous clubs separate at all.
Overall, I personally like Using Arccos better. I think it is more intuitive to use. More importantly, though, the Arccos system is more accurate, although I know that others have experienced problems with it, I almost always finish a round with the shots recorded accurately. ShotScope is missing multiple shots for me on every round. Theoretically, I would prefer the way that putts are recorded with ShotScope better, but, again, it simply is mis-recording the distances, and fairly regularly. In my last round, ShotScope missed some wedge shots. It also registered second putts as being much longer than they were. There were three or for tap ins that were registered as anywhere from 5 to 11 feet. If the putting really registered accurately, it would be better than Arccos on putts. In addition, I like that ShotScope registers a putt from off the green as a short game stroke, rather than a putt. With Arccos, every stroke with a putter is recognized as a putt and so, if you are just off the green and use putter, you are credited with a GIR. The ShotScope system is definitely better at tracking actual putts and GIRs.
I have a set of clubs that is currently in the first position that include some Mizuno irons. Thus, I am not using the Arccos (and Cobra Connect) with this set. I will keep using the ShotScope on this set of clubs, but overall, I would pick Arccos if I were choosing one set to use going forward.
See my post just after yours. The system recognizes strokes off of the green with putter as short game strokes, not putts.
This is from the support page on PinCollect:
This is a very important and valuable point in using the system accurately. I really like how it records whether the shot with putter was a putt or a stroke from off the green.
I believe the answer is yes.
If I could remember to press the pin button while still on the green, it would help a lot, too!