TST Explores the ShotScope H4 (Stats Tracking Device) and Pro LX Rangefinder

[Shindig]

I am really impressed with the promptness of ShotScope's customer service.  I sent in a request last night -- two tee boxes were marked as 'rough' at the course I played.  I sent in the request around 9 pm pacific.  The response was sent about three hours later.  

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, Shindig said:

I am really impressed with the promptness of ShotScope's customer service.  I sent in a request last night -- two tee boxes were marked as 'rough' at the course I played.  I sent in the request around 9 pm pacific.  The response was sent about three hours later.  

They are in Europe. So that helps a bit. 🙂

[Shindig]

Just now, iacas said:

They are in Europe. So that helps a bit. 🙂

Oh.  Good point, they got the alert early in the morning for them.

Just the same, I think a three hour turnaround is good service.  I'm not sure how much work it was to mark two tee boxes (probably not a lot), but they still got it done promptly.  

[jshots]

Anyone used Arccos that can compare to Shot Scope stats?? 

I just started with Arccos a month ago and it gives some good information, but I don't like that its nearly $160 a year. It also has no social aspect at all (leaderboards seem cool). It has strokes gained stats for driving, approach, short game, and putting, and also further breaks each of those categories down which is cool.

While auto shot tracking is nice - the Arccos sensors are massive, flush with my standard grips and occasionally I'll catch it with my hand and it will twist out of the club. Last week I noticed my 52 was missing after the round, I pulled up my shot history and found where I last hit my 52 and went back and found it but still annoying that it came out. The killer arccos feature for me at the moment is that it will overlay the path you walked across the green so that you can set where your first putt was and the flagstick more easily.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by jshots

[StuM]

Question on "Positional Shots" and impact on Club Tracking.

First, I have yet to receive my Shot Scope so this question is not from experience, just from reading so forgive me if I am confused on something.  My understanding is that all 2nd shots on Par 5s should be marked "Positional" unless I am intending to hit the green to keep the "Approach to Green" stats accurate and that "Positional Shots" are exclude the shot from "Club Stats".  My concern is I seldom every hit for the green in 2 on a Par 5, I just do not have that kind of distance.  At the same time, I frequently use my 3H for those 2nd shots and they are full swings with no anticipation I will reach the green.  At the same time, I seldom do a full swing with my 3H on a Par 4 because it would usually be too long.  Thus, about the only time I would hit a full swing with my 3H and have it tracked would be an occasional tee shot on a long Par 3.  My  concern is that I would not be getting enough shots on that club to provide realistic distance stats to help be better learn my true distances with that club.

[Shindig]

31 minutes ago, StuM said:

Question on "Positional Shots" and impact on Club Tracking.

First, I have yet to receive my Shot Scope so this question is not from experience, just from reading so forgive me if I am confused on something.  My understanding is that all 2nd shots on Par 5s should be marked "Positional" unless I am intending to hit the green to keep the "Approach to Green" stats accurate and that "Positional Shots" are exclude the shot from "Club Stats".  My concern is I seldom every hit for the green in 2 on a Par 5, I just do not have that kind of distance.  At the same time, I frequently use my 3H for those 2nd shots and they are full swings with no anticipation I will reach the green.  At the same time, I seldom do a full swing with my 3H on a Par 4 because it would usually be too long.  Thus, about the only time I would hit a full swing with my 3H and have it tracked would be an occasional tee shot on a long Par 3.  My  concern is that I would not be getting enough shots on that club to provide realistic distance stats to help be better learn my true distances with that club.

Marking a shot as positional is a way to indicate that you aren't intending to go for a green with it.  It isn't needed for tee shots on par-4s or par-5s (I don't know what their system does for attempts to drive a green on one of those).  

Look at it this way:  I hit my 4-wood or a hybrid for my second shot on almost every par-5.  If I didn't mark these as positional, my "approach the green" information would show that wow, I sometimes miss a green 100 yards short with these clubs!  That's what ShotScope is trying to avoid.   By contrast, I do hit those clubs into longer par-4s, often with intent of getting to or near the green, and I don't mark those as positional. 

[StuM]

10 minutes ago, Shindig said:

Marking a shot as positional is a way to indicate that you aren't intending to go for a green with it.  It isn't needed for tee shots on par-4s or par-5s (I don't know what their system does for attempts to drive a green on one of those).  

Look at it this way:  I hit my 4-wood or a hybrid for my second shot on almost every par-5.  If I didn't mark these as positional, my "approach the green" information would show that wow, I sometimes miss a green 100 yards short with these clubs!  That's what ShotScope is trying to avoid.   By contrast, I do hit those clubs into longer par-4s, often with intent of getting to or near the green, and I don't mark those as positional. 

I get what you are saying, but my concern is that for my game, I would have too few 3H shots tracked for average distance to be meaningful.  On my league course, I could see my self going several rounds and never using that club with a full swing on a Par 4.  The reason I would like to have its shots tracked is to get a reasonable understanding of my true distance with it to better know when to use it.  I know I could just not mark it positional but I do want my approach stats to be reasonably accurate as well.  

It would be nice if we could mark a shot as "Full Swing" or "Not Full Swing" to determine if that should be included in Club Stats and then marking a shot as "Positional" would only exclude that from the Approach stats.  Maybe that is getting too detailed (I have been accused of that)

It is possible that once I begin using it and get several rounds in the system this may become irrelevant.  

[iacas]

1 hour ago, StuM said:

Question on "Positional Shots" and impact on Club Tracking.

First, I have yet to receive my Shot Scope so this question is not from experience, just from reading so forgive me if I am confused on something.  My understanding is that all 2nd shots on Par 5s should be marked "Positional" unless I am intending to hit the green to keep the "Approach to Green" stats accurate and that "Positional Shots" are exclude the shot from "Club Stats".  My concern is I seldom every hit for the green in 2 on a Par 5, I just do not have that kind of distance.  At the same time, I frequently use my 3H for those 2nd shots and they are full swings with no anticipation I will reach the green.  At the same time, I seldom do a full swing with my 3H on a Par 4 because it would usually be too long.  Thus, about the only time I would hit a full swing with my 3H and have it tracked would be an occasional tee shot on a long Par 3.  My  concern is that I would not be getting enough shots on that club to provide realistic distance stats to help be better learn my true distances with that club.

Do you really need a stats tracker to tell you your distances?

29 minutes ago, StuM said:

I get what you are saying, but my concern is that for my game, I would have too few 3H shots tracked for average distance to be meaningful.  On my league course, I could see my self going several rounds and never using that club with a full swing on a Par 4.  The reason I would like to have its shots tracked is to get a reasonable understanding of my true distance with it to better know when to use it.  I know I could just not mark it positional but I do want my approach stats to be reasonably accurate as well.  

It would be nice if we could mark a shot as "Full Swing" or "Not Full Swing" to determine if that should be included in Club Stats and then marking a shot as "Positional" would only exclude that from the Approach stats.  Maybe that is getting too detailed (I have been accused of that)

It is possible that once I begin using it and get several rounds in the system this may become irrelevant.  

Just use it for stats. Forget the distances stuff. I know how far my 3/4 wedge goes. I rarely hit full 8I also. Or anything inside 170. So… I don’t look at that for tracking that stuff.

[billchao]

29 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you really need a stats tracker to tell you your distances?

@StuM I was thinking the same thing.

I'll expand the point further and ask, do you really want a stats tracker to be your primary source of information for your distances? My distances that I use to play golf are flat carry distances. That's the information I need to make a decision on club and shot selection. A stats tracker is going to give you distances that include results due to wind, elevation, turf conditions, etc. It's better than having no information about your distances at all, but every experienced golfer has a decent idea of what their distances are. For example, you know your 3H is too long for a par 4 approach but not long enough to reach a par 5 in two 

[StuM]

46 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you really need a stats tracker to tell you your distances?

Yes & no.  I have a general idea but often my beliefs get proven wrong and I like the idea of an objective number.

 

7 minutes ago, billchao said:

A stats tracker is going to give you distances that include results due to wind, elevation, turf conditions, etc.

Had not considered that.

maybe I am trying to blame my inconsistency in distance on not knowing my club’s distance vs. needing to get a more consistent swing.

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, StuM said:

Yes & no.  I have a general idea but often my beliefs get proven wrong and I like the idea of an objective number.

Plot your Shot Zones sometime. Measure the distances.

Done.

[RFKFREAK]

3 hours ago, Shindig said:

Marking a shot as positional is a way to indicate that you aren't intending to go for a green with it.  It isn't needed for tee shots on par-4s or par-5s (I don't know what their system does for attempts to drive a green on one of those).  

Look at it this way:  I hit my 4-wood or a hybrid for my second shot on almost every par-5.  If I didn't mark these as positional, my "approach the green" information would show that wow, I sometimes miss a green 100 yards short with these clubs!  That's what ShotScope is trying to avoid.   By contrast, I do hit those clubs into longer par-4s, often with intent of getting to or near the green, and I don't mark those as positional. 

Wait, are you saying the system doesn't automatically makes the second shot on a par 5 a provisional and we need to change that if we're not going for the green in two?

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

Wait, are you saying the system doesn't automatically makes the second shot on a par 5 a provisional and we need to change that if we're not going for the green in two?

It's like you're not following along here. 🙂

And you didn't mean "provisional." But, yeah, the system doesn't automatically assume this. It's positional.

So mark it as such. Or punch-outs, etc.

[RFKFREAK]

Just now, iacas said:

It's like you're not following along here. 🙂

And you didn't mean "provisional." But, yeah, the system doesn't automatically assume this. It's positional.

So mark it as such. Or punch-outs, etc.

Must have missed it.

Yeah, must be thinking of my opening tee shot the next time i play 😭😂

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

Must have missed it.

Two or three times now, yeah. 😉

[RFKFREAK]

Just now, iacas said:

Two or three times now, yeah. 😉

Whew, thank goodness it wasn't more 😁

[billchao]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

And you didn't mean "provisional." But, yeah, the system doesn't automatically assume this. It's positional.

I’ll be honest here, I’ve had to delete “provisional” more than once in the text editor when typing up responses.

1 hour ago, RFKFREAK said:

Whew, thank goodness it wasn't more 😁

Only because we stopped counting 😜

[StuM]

50 minutes ago, billchao said:

Only because we stopped counting 😜

Like you stop counting strokes after Par? 😜