I’m pretty bad with a set of golf clubs. I couldn’t even win a round of mini golf if my ball was magnetic and there was a strong magnet at the bottom of the cup pulling at it (like a cheating pinball machine.) Despite the fact that I’m fairly erratic on the links, I always know where my ball ends up.
Still, while I jump into the water hazard to fish my golf balls out Happy Gilmore style, I’m always interested in a few of my own personal stats – Namely, how far I hit the ball with certain clubs, or how often I’ll actually hit a fairway or green in regulation. As a pretty analytical person in general, I keep surprisingly poor personal records for that sort of thing. Thankfully, the Arccos Automatic GPS and Golf Stat Tracker has me covered, and it couldn’t be easier.
The Arccos is a pretty simple out of the box tool to use. It’s essentially a series of 14 sensors that screw into the top of your golf club grip. You download the app to your iPhone and simply sync up the sensors once. This should only take a few seconds and you’re ready to go. Each sensor weighs around 12 grams (including the battery) so it’s negligible in the grand scheme of things. Each sensor has a battery (a standard CR2032 cell 3V,) and the battery life is approximately 50 rounds of golf. You’ll be prompted by the sensors when batteries are running low as well.
The way the Arccos works is simple sounding, yet so comprehensive in what it does. With each swing, the sensors measure your swing quality, distance and many other stats in real-time. Are you curious about how good your short game is on average? Arccos measures that. Would you like to know how often you’re hitting greens in regulation? Yes, Arccos can measure that as well.
The crux of this assistance is through GPS. This is how the Arccos measures your distances, and even lays out details about the course, including distances to greens and fairways from where you are. Once you’ve had your fill on the course, fire up the app for a more detailed look at your round, including a shot by shot blow of how you performed each hole, and how many putts you had on each green. This realtime analysis also stores over time and helps you figure out what your shortsightings might be in general and build a database of trends to help you understand what to keep doing (or not to do.)
Cont
inuing from there, you can even sign into your account on Arccos’ website and view an online dashboard of your stats tracked in realtime. I’d say just about anything you could possibly think of checking up on is tracked by the device (along with the things you probably don’t want tracked too!) This is the type of device for any golfer really, from the budding novice looking to cut down their handicap, to the retired course veteran trying to shore up certain aspects of their game.
One thing I will say in closing, however, is that compatibility is an issue. The Arccos right now only works with iPhones, namely 4s and up. I wouldn’t blame this one on exclusivity so much as I would the difficulty some Bluetooth developers have had with Android’s API compatibility. It’s one of the reasons that many Bluetooth Home Automation devices are only iPhone compatible. So essentially, if you own an Android phone, you’re going to have to wait and see if it becomes compatible one day.
The Arccos Automatic GPS and Golf Stat Tracker is now available at Best Buy stores and online at BestBuy.ca
