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
Anyone know how to adjust it? I went into the settings and the only thing there is for time is 12 or 24 hrs. No DST setting.
Yeah, I don’t think there is anyway of changing it. I’m sure they are getting emails about it.
Mine was off yesterday as well. But, when I paired it with my phone, it must have synced it’s clock with my phone and changed to the correct time.
Yep, mine did update – I was partially correct – There is no way on the watch to change it.
I was poking around in the settings trying to find somewhere to change it and just gave up on it thinking I am only using it for the GPS and shot tracking, the time didn’t matter. Just happened to notice the change once it paired.
For the most part, almost every shot was spot on. There were a few instances where it had me on the wrong tee box. I noticed in the after round editing portion, that they didn’t have the blue tees available as an option on this course. The times where it had me on the wrong box, it placed me on the whites. Was easy enough to just drag the starting position of the shot to the correct box.
Something I really like is that the watch will display the club you have in your hand once it can pick it up from the tag. So, if you’re not sure if it’s being 100% accurate, you just really need to take a look down and confirm that your club is on the display. I didn’t really pay attention to that until the 3rd hole. I hit my hybrid as a layup on a par 5 after a less than stellar tee shot. When I had my wedge in hand, I looked down at the watch to confirm yardage and saw that the D tag was still the last one shown. It changed to the wedge after I gripped the club. So, I knew that it would be missing that hybrid shot. So, I just made a point of looking at the tag when I look at the yardage too. Very simple to do and if it means avoiding missing shots, it’s well worth the slightly extra effort.
On hole 15, I hit my tee shot OB. Out of frustration, and admittedly not sure how to handle it with the watch since I never saw OB in the options, I just hit my next tee shot. I found it really irritating to try and edit on my phone post round. Now that I logged into my account on a PC and edited it again, I was able to at least make it semi feasible. Since I teed off from the same place, it almost looks like it assumes I hit a mulligan or something. So, I edited in two penalty shots so that it showed me laying 3 in the fairway. Not sure if there’s a better way to accomplish that or not. Maybe if I would have just tagged a generic penalty shot after my first attempt, it would have sorted itself out.
But, that kind of leads me into what I would say my biggest critique is. The app is cumbersome for editing. I feel like the options are limited, or the interface just is more difficult than it needs to be. It took me around 20 minutes to go through the round and try to figure out how to get everything set. It was my first time trying to use the app for that, so it is likely going to be easier going forward. However, the web portal is super simple to edit with. Don’t have to change from green view to hole view. Just simply able to drag things were they need to be. Also, the stats available on the mobile app seem to be lacking compared to the web portal. Hopefully, they build out the app a little more as I know the data is out there and pretty accurate.
There was one phantom shot registered. But, thinking back, I have an idea how that happened. One of the randoms I was playing with wanted to hit my 3 wood on a par 5. I said sure, handed him the club and he hit. I was probably 10 feet away from him when it happened. But, either him hitting, or me handling the 3 wood must have been enough to log a shot in the system. Was simple to click on and delete that one.
I have been using a laser rangefinder primarily for distance measuring. I have toyed around with the idea of a GPS watch as a secondary device when I don’t need to, or can’t get an accurate shot on the flag. As I mentioned above, this thing is really slick as just a standalone GPS. The fact that it collects all of your round data with very little effort on the golfers part is icing on the cake.
This will be the one and only round I get on the V3 this year as the courses are shutting down now for the year. I have to carve out some time to get in and analyze some stats now. At first glance, they seem pretty good. I think maybe they could make that portion a little cleaner or possibly add some more information to the dash board. But, I haven’t really dove in and looked through everything yet. So far, color me very very impressed with the system.
Editing from a computer is definitely easier than on the app.
That has been requested of them and I believe they stated that is something they are working on along with Shots Gained.
With the data that they have collected, the possibilities are almost limitless. I feel like the presentation is a little confusing at first. I think it would be cool to have the ability to format your own personal dashboard. I still have some digging to do in there though. May just need to get a little more used to it.
Somewhat surprising to read that! From what I’ve read here and elsewhere most people who compare Shot Scope to Arccos lean the other way, preferring Arccos’ data analysis, particularly Shots Gained, to what Shot Scope provides. Me, I’m OK with what Shot Scope provides though I do have to dig a little bit to get some of the analysis I am looking for.
The putting data seems worse on Arccos which affects both SG putting and short game to distort those numbers. There is a lot more detail available on Shot Scope if you want to dive into it. I believe SS are working on a software update to add SG , which is the only advantage I currently see in Arccos.
I also cannot make sense of the driving data. One of my clients had a +5 SG Driving round with 7/14 fairways and 5 shots with Driver under 200 yards. 4 of these were mishits and only 1 landed in the fairway. Also had a sub-200 yard 3 wood off the tee. He played these 6 holes +6 and shot a +2 74. It would be hard to gain 5 strokes off the tee to offset those numbers when this represents 6/14 driving shots.
He hit 2 drives 290 and another 2 220 that resulted in birdies, but most of the SG on those 4 holes should have been approach.
Arccos putting data are a joke.
https://www.thehackersparadise.com/shot-scope-v3-course-hub-social-community/
I had a little issue getting the watch to update but it eventually did. After playing today the pin locations were basically where I remembered them being on the course. I am using the manual putting mode and really the only editing I had to do was mark provisional shots on par 5’s and move a couple of putts from the fringe to on the green or vice versa as they were that close to the edge. As usual for me, no extra shots, no shots missed.
One thing I do when marking the pin position after a made putt is to make a conscious effort to stand at the hole for 1-2 seconds to give the watch a chance to detect where I am standing. Good catch on the mapping, that has happened to me before as well.
While I know nothing – I’d might look for a Black Friday Sale….
That’s why I asked today LOL!
I think you will settle in pretty quickly. The latest updates have been really good and allow for a whole lot of fun and ease of use.
Got this to my email today.
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I think they have done a lot with their updates since initial launch. I have only been able to use mine once unfortunately. But, it was pretty straightforward. Only had a small amount of editing to do. Only one missed shot. One instance where I didn’t know how to assess myself an OB penalty. But, other than that, it was a breeze. I really enjoyed the GPS watch too. Only pulled my laser when I was really curious on distance on a few greens.
Problem is the email is not about shot scope products lol
No way! Lol. I didn’t look that closely.
Same experience here. I switched over this summer when Game Golf finally went under.
No major issues. No matter which shot tracking device you use there will always be some minor post round editing to be had. I use the manual putting option so it does well there.
My only gripe is their online data dashboard. I sent them an email to see if they would be adding the ability to select rounds, or date ranges, etc, instead of just ‘all’ rounds, ‘last rd, last 5, last 10 etc. Also I wish they would label the clubs used (with a name you type in) vs color coding them. With Game Golf I added every club I ever tested so I had well over 50 clubs logged and it never missed a beat and was easy to toggle which clubs you wanted to see data on. With Shot Scope I won’t add any new clubs unless they make the bag as it clutters up the dashboard too much. I hate having to remember Club A is black, Club B is yellow and Club C is Blue, etc.
They claimed several enhancements like these and others were in the works and would likely roll out next year. Fingers crossed.
I thought wearing a watch would bug me on the course but I don’t even notice it and even when using my rangefinder often find myself using the GPS as well.
Also the more recent addition of showing last club distance is pretty cool. I use that alot if I hit one decent and want to check how long it went.
The battery life has been pretty darn solid and handles way more than one round so even if there is some degradation, it shouldn’t impact your ability to make it through a round. Modern batteries hold up pretty good and by the time it’s at the end of life, I’m sure the V4 (or whatever the future awesomeness will be) will be out.
I’m only only round 30 with my V3 but I’ve seen no loss.
For me about an hour of use takes about 10% off a full charge. So a 4 hr round and I have about 60% charge left. Same when I first bought it. Just to be safe I always charge it before my next round.
also I never leave it on in between rounds.I always shut it off. I guess if one wanted to cycle the battery they could leave the watch on to let it drain then charge it.
The watch worked great during the round on the second 9. I selected the correct course when I started and no issues with GPS distances. It only recorded 7 shots, but I assure you I took more shots than that. Basically it recorded everything on hole #1 (my 10 hole) and nothing else until the final putt on the last. There’s just no way to edit those entire 9 holes correctly at this point, so that round is trashed.
Hoping this is an anomaly and the shot tracking continues to work as well as it has throughout the year. Frustrating though because I had some good shots on the back.
(my man @Molten with the fantastic write-up)
I used the V2 for a couple of years (around 180 rds/year) and although I felt the battery life was shorter at the end of that time it was still more than sufficient for a full round/day. I never tried two rounds/charge so have no input.
The V3 that I now have has a much longer battery life and it would be no problem playing two rounds/charge.
I always charged mine after every round and have not had any battery issues. (knock on wood).
I had a little issue updating mine. I ended up logging out, logging back in and restarted my phone – Once I did that, it updated just fine.
Posted this in another SS V3 thread – Not sure what it means other that I have a "Decent" short game, I need to work on my putting and I have an awful Iron game (Which I knew).
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My winter greens are under the snow someplace but, this past year 1 club had a temporary green and while editing I just did the pin collect and added the 2 putts in.
since getting the watch this summer. Guess the only good takeaway is I’m consistently bad in each area and not in one lol
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Let me know if you want to trade stats.
I’ll take your short game. You must get up
And down over 50% no ? I’m at 34% which I though was pretty decent.