AndrewThe Arccos Caddie Sensors
Simply put, the Arccos Caddie Smart Sensors are amazing. When I purchased them a few years ago I was rather skeptical, after a few rounds I was absolutely hooked. At the very basic level of these sensors they work as follows. You screw these little round sensors on the top of your grips. Once you sync them to the app on your phone you are ready to play. You select the course you are playing on your phone and keep your phone (or watch) on your person while you play. Each sensor is connected to a specific club so as you take shots the sensors and app track what club, at what distance (and direction based on gps) while also tracking your score. It works surprisingly well! If you have a smart watch such as the Apple Watch, you can have your shot range on your wrist as you play. Again, this is very nice and surprisingly accurate.
Features
Now I pulled this straight from their site to give you an idea of the features you get from the sensor kit. Arccos offers a number of additional products but I’ve only used the sensors and the app (affiliate link), so that will be my focus.
- Automatic shot tracking, hands-free fully automatic shot capture
- Smart Distance Club Averages, know how far to actually hit all your clubs
- A.I. Powered Rangefinder, first-ever GPS rangefinder that adjusts in real-time for wind (including gusts), slope, temperature, humidity and altitude giving you the Arccos Caddie Number, the most precise yardage in the game
- Caddie Advice (unlocked after 5 rounds), that leverages A.I., personalized to the players’ game to provide the optimal strategy
- Strokes Gained Analytics personalized insights using A.I. to highlight strengths and weaknesses and guide your practice & equipment choices
What is Arccos?
At this point I’m sure you see that they are a golf focused tech company. They have a number of products that help you as the golfer do a few different things and at the core of that would be shot tracking. With the shot tracking you can get into all sorts of fun data and details. That depending on your level of golfing, you can learn a lot from or just brag about your longest drives. I’ll get into this a bit more but for me I’ve taken some time to consume it’s “Caddie” feature and suggestive clubs, this in some cases has changed my shot selection and often for the better. I’ll get into that a bit more in the next section.
Overall, Arccos creates a number of “game changing” golf products. So I suggest you head over to their site to learn more if you are interested.
What I like about Arccos Caddie Smart Sensors
The part you’ve been waiting for, what do I like about the Arccos Caddie Smart Sensors? Simply put, I like A LOT about this system.
Let’s talk setup, setup is super simple. After opening the box you’ll notice the sensors all look the same with the exception of one, the putter. You take the sensor and screw it into your clubs grip at the top, scan it with the app and assign the club in the app… you’re done. I’ve had to do this a few times as I’ve changed clubs, new grips, added a club to my bag, etc. and it’s simple. So bravo to Arccos on the setup process.
Now that it’s setup my next favorite part of this is the shot tracking. I absolutely love that it does automatic shot tracking. I grab my 5 iron, take a swing from the fairway and it tracks that shot. Now depending on where my next shot is tracked from it will put data against my distance and accuracy associated to that 5 iron. The more you play the more this data becomes useful (in my opinion).
Next up on the things I like, battery life! I’ve had these now for three seasons and they are still going. No I don’t play every weekend but I get a good dozen rounds in each summer, not to mention time at the range. That brings up a point, if you have not started a round of golf on your phone or watch the sensors do not track. But battery life has been fantastic, and Arccos says you can expect 5 years out of them with a promised 2 years.
Finally and this one is darn near the top for my favorite feature, the app. The app is great, the companion app on the Apple Watch is also just great. Seeing my suggested club, distance, etc on my wrist as we play is just nice. I often have someone that I’m playing with that uses a good old range finder throughout the round and the accuracy on the app is within a yard. I’m not nearly good enough that 1 yard matters on my shots. So it turns in to one less thing I need with me.
What I don’t like about Arccos Caddie Smart Sensors
Now what I don’t like and this list isn’t all that long when it comes to these Arccos sensors and the companion app.
The first thing and this is a bit due to the type of grip I use on my putter, but all of the sensors are round. This makes sense as most club grips are rounded at the top, however a good number of putter grips are not. This causes the sensor to sit funny and can at times feel a bit odd in the hand as you are putting. Now is this a deal breaker, no it’s not, but you can see what I mean in the photos below.
Next up, when the app fails… it sure fails. This has only happened a few times for me so it may be user error, but I tend to see myself as an expert user when it comes to iPhone apps. But there have been a few times where shots are just missed, or entire wholes are missed. The frustrating part for me is I often don’t notice it until I am at the turn or the round is over and I’m looking at my phone. Now just because this happened doesn’t mean it’s a washed round, if you catch it early enough you can “edit” any shot or whole to fix it, but it’s tough and not nearly as accurate for your data as the true shots.
My final little issue and this one is also pretty tiny, some of my clubs I like to hold at the end of the club for my swing, having it sit just in the palm of my left hand. For the most part this is ok, but every so often if one of the sensors is a half turn or more loose I can feel my club shift in my hand and I don’t like that. What it’s caused me to do is right before I start a round I go and tighten down all of the sensors just to make sure I don’t get that odd feeling in my swing. Again, super tiny and easy to fix.
I’d say in all these are little things, some fixed by user error, others might come with a hardware change or a “live with it, it’s not a big deal” approach.
How much do they cost?
For the sensor system they come in at a solid $180(affiliate link). The app costs nothing additional and that should be the case given that you spend $180 for the sensors. Now there are a few other products you can purchase to go along with it. If you don’t have an Apple Watch or don’t want to keep your phone in your pocket for shot tracking (the sensor needs it nearby to send the data) you can purchase their Link(affiliate link). It’s a nice small clip that goes on your belt to do the data transfer but it will set you back $129.
Other options out there
There are other options out there that are essentially the same thing, sensors for your club. I can’t speak to them and if they are any good. There are a number of apps in the market for range and score keeping but the shot tracking is all manual. Prior to picking up these Arccos sensors I used Golfshot as my method of tracking rounds, it’s rather good but comes with a subscription cost for the full feature set, but again keep in mind it’s not automatic so you are constantly on your phone throughout your round….and nobody wants that.
Final thoughts on the Arccos Caddie Sensors
My final thoughts on the Arccos Caddie Sensors, well if you enjoy the game of golf and love some good old data to dig into at later dates…spend the money. I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy the data, the shot tracking, the app, and the companion watch app that is just super handy while playing.
I’m open to answer any questions I may not have addressed. Leave a comment or ping @techfromdad on twitter or instagram. I’d be happy to discuss these little golf sensors.
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