UNCRoss

For all of those Tar Heel fans out there (looking at you @unccross).  🙂 
https://labgolf.com/products/goin-to-carolina?utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240613_usopenputter_labrats&_kx=9LYt-Flidb8rB6-kVwU9uIj963UkZL00VBo5zQ0uCVw.WtQZpN

Introduction:
First of all I would like to give a huge thank you to the MGS staff and Shotscope for giving me the opportunity to test and review the new Shotscope V5 golf watch.
Who am I?:

Hello spies, my name is Jeff Ross. I live in Radford, VA along with my beautiful wife Jill and my 7-year-old son Liam. I am a bingo supply salesman in Virginia and West Virginia. I enjoy spending time traveling with my family, fishing, golf, working out and the outdoors. I'm a die hard UNC Tarheels fan, this where my screenname uncross derives from. I’ve lived in a golf course community for the last 3 years but unfortunately, I have never played the course, but plan on playing it soon, its a beautiful course.

I started playing golf when I was in college in the late 90’s. Although I played a lot, I never really improved very much. I just enjoyed playing with my buddies and never took the game too seriously. I gave up about a dozen years or so after getting married and moving back to Southwest Virginia. I started fishing more and more, and really got into bass fishing tournaments for several years. 

A few months ago, I decided to take my son on a round of golf with my dad for some quality grandpa time! Liam only made about 7 holes, but in those 7 holes I found the passion for the sport that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I decided to give golf another try. It is also awesome playing with my dad and spending so much more time with him that I probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to without being together on the course. 

I recently joined the county club back home and try to play at least once a week. 
Blue Ridge Country Club -

My golf game is definitely a work in progress.  I am currently around a 20 handicap and seem to struggle on most aspects of the game especially putting.

Testing Plans:
I have been using shotscope H4 for a few months now.  I plan to compare how the V5 performs verse the H4 in performance, gps, ease of use and shot tracking.  I will also compare the V5 to a few of the iPhone watch apps that I have tried briefly. 
I am excited about testing an actual  golf watch.  Compared to the H4, I am excited see the full hole maps and distances to doglegs and automatic club tagging. 
Unboxing Post
Final Write-up and Review- 
First Impressions- 9/10 
I was extremely excited to receive my Shotscope V5 watch. I had been using a Shotscope device for a while but had not tried one of their watches or any golf watch for that matter. The V5’s advertised key features include full hole maps, 5 color themes, built in score card, green view with pin placement, improved tracking, and font middle back gps distances. I was most excited about the full hole maps. 

The watch was impressive right out of the box. The watch has an exceptionally clean look, solid black watch, and band. The face of the watch was a bit smaller than I was expecting. The watch came with 16 of the newest version of the club tags. The new tags were quite a bit larger than the old tags from my other Shotscope device.  




Here are a couple example of screens with gps distances.

Size comparison with an Apple Watch.

The only initial dislike is the way the watch charges. I would much rather have some type of usb style charger. This was the reason I took 1 point off. 

 
Aesthetics (8 out of 10)-
The watch has a genuinely nice clean design. It has an exceptionally clean, sporty appearance. The watch is extremely lightweight, you barely notice that you have it on while playing. The watch looks good enough to be worn all the time as a regular watch. Along with the lightweight, the soft rubber band is also wonderfully comfortable. The size of the face of the watch is ok, it is a little smaller than I would like. I would prefer a bigger face, but it is large enough to function as it should. 

The watch is easy to custom1ize with 5 color themes. There are also different color bands available on the company’s website, but I prefer the black. The watch appears to be solidly constructed and well made. I have not had any issues with durability yet.
I subtracted 2 points for the size and brightness of the screen.  I would really like a little larger screen and a way to change the brightness when needed.
The Numbers ( 19 out of 20)-
 
I was already using the Shotscope app with another device, so setup was a breeze, The instructions were simple and easy to understand. After the firmware was updated, it only took a few minutes to set up the watch.  
The battery has been very impressive to me so far. It charges quickly, I have not timed it, I usually plug it up over night the night before I play but had forgotten one night and plugged it up in the car on the way to the course and it charged it enough to play the round. The battery life has probably been one of the monst impressive things so far about the watch. It lasts much longer than the battery on the H4 device that I had been using. One day I walked 27 holes and came home and plugged it in and it had over 50% battery life left. I would have no problem getting 2 rounds, maybe 3 out of the battery. 
The GPS ditances are very accurate. I have compared them with my club’s golf carts with GPS distances, a Bushnell range finder and a Bushnell digital device that displays GPS distances. Most of the time the V5 watch is within a couple yards of the other device.  
The watch has a lot of extremely useful features. The basic front, middle and back grren distances are the most used but I have found some of the others to also be very useful. One of my favorites that I use the most playing by myself is the last shot distance, it gives me a promising idea of where to start searching for my ball. 


 
As much as I love the battery life, I do dislike the proprietary charger. I removed a point for that, really wish it used a common charger. 

 
On-Course (17 out of 20)-
I was previously using the Shotscope H4 device for my yardages and shot tracking. The distances are identical on the 2 units, but some things are quite different. The V5 has automatic club tagging, so I removed the manual club tagging from my pre shot routine. Some of the other benefits of the V5 watch are the full hole maps, the green maps, and I like that the last shot distance stays on the screen until you go to another screen on the V5.


I have had a few issues out on the course with the V5 watch.  These are the reasons I am removing 3 points. The first issue is the automatic club tagging misses several more shots per round than my H4 did.  Some are user error some are not, I had it not pick up a drive last time out. I played in the rain with a rain jacket over it and it missed a bunch of shots that round.  Another issue I have on my home course is the watch connecting to the GPS and starting a round, there have been a couple rounds that I have had to start my round and go back and edit the first hole or 2 later because the watch would not start the round in time. 

The Good, the bad, the inbetween (15 out of 20)-
My favorite thing about the Shotcope V5 watch is the shot tracking and all the great data you receive from it. Shot scope has really changed the way I focus my practice time. The performance averages is a great metric for club gapping. There is so much valuable information on the app and desktop site that you can go over for hours. 



One of the best features of the watch itself is the full hole maps.  We played a course on vacation that did not have GPS carts or hole maps on the card.  I had everyone in the group asking to look at the map on several holes. 
Most everything about this watch is particularly good, however there are a few things I do not like, or think could be improved.  The biggest thing is the number of missed shots.  Far more than on my H4 device.  I really wish this watch had the vibrating notice when your club is noticed by the watch like the H4.  I would also like to be able to brighten the screen when needed, it's not very bright. 
Play it or Trade it? (18 out of 20)-
I will continue to play with this watch. I believe the shotscope platform has really helped improve my game. The watch is a great buy for the price. All of the features that it includes on the watch itself along with the shot tracking app with no subscription is the best bargain in golf.  
Conclusion-
The Shotscope V5 watch is a great golf watch packed full of features. Some of these features include shot tracking, GPS distances to lay ups, hazards, and dog legs, GPS distance to the front, middle and backs of greens, full hole maps, and green maps.  With the watch you get tons of shot tracking information on the shotscope app without subscription fees.  
A few things that I would like to see improved are a bigger and brighter screen.  Less missed shots. I would also like to have a vibrate club tag notification added to the functions of the watch. 

Final Score (86 out of 100)
 
 
 
 
 

Crazy few weeks, had my warehouse move, youth baseball starting, strep running rapid through the house, broken car windshield and emergency vet trip! Golf and everything about golf had been put on the back burner for the last couple weeks!  Thankfully we are heading on vacation Saturday, and I am going to play a couple rounds at Charleston Municipal Golf Course.  
I'm getting ready to mess with the my strategy for the first time.  Any pointers in how you all have used it?

Crazy few weeks, had my warehouse move, youth baseball starting, strep running rapid through the house, broken car windshield and emergency vet trip! Golf and everything about golf had been put on the back burner for the last couple weeks!  Thankfully we are heading on vacation Saturday, and I am going to play a couple rounds at Charleston Municipal Golf Course.  
I'm getting ready to mess with the my strategy for the first time.  Any pointers in how you all have used it?

Crazy few weeks, had my warehouse move, youth baseball starting, strep running rapid through the house, broken car windshield and emergency vet trip! Golf and everything about golf had been put on the back burner for the last couple weeks!  Thankfully we are heading on vacation Saturday, and I am going to play a couple rounds at Charleston Municipal Golf Course.  
I'm getting ready to mess with the my strategy for the first time.  Any pointers in how you all have used it?

App seems to be working better now that I reinstalled it. 

I haven’t, but I am having several issues with the app on the phone now.  Last round it uploaded as 2 rounds and now I am unable to edit at all in the iPhone app. The app just shuts down. I’m going to try to delete the app and reinstall it and see if that helps. 

App seems to be working better now that I reinstalled it. 

App seems to be working better now that I reinstalled it. 

I haven’t, but I am having several issues with the app on the phone now.  Last round it uploaded as 2 rounds and now I am unable to edit at all in the iPhone app. The app just shuts down. I’m going to try to delete the app and reinstall it and see if that helps. 

I haven’t, but I am having several issues with the app on the phone now.  Last round it uploaded as 2 rounds and now I am unable to edit at all in the iPhone app. The app just shuts down. I’m going to try to delete the app and reinstall it and see if that helps. 

I've not ran into that issue yet.  My battery has been over 50% after each round. The other day I played and wore the watch for a few hours afterwards and still had 50% battery.

Just finished a round and uploaded it to my phone. Don’t have time to edit it right now but, this is a first. It uploaded as 2 separate rounds. Not sure what happened, I’ve never had that happen before. 
 

Shot a 90, so it looks like it missed a lot less shots than normal but will take some major editing to make it one round. 

I’ve found the battery lasting less lately. Played on Wednesday with it full charged and by the end of the round it was at 13%. Admittedly it was a long round 5.5 hours but normally does better than that

Watch charged up to 100% and I'm ready to face the cold and play some golf. Playing a mashie course today, want to check the accuracy on the "smaller" or not so popular courses. Will keep you all posted, will be using the manual putting mode again, found on auto you need to edit so much more putts. 
Hopefully no thin shots today🥶🥶🥶

Morning @Shrek74, I have the same situation. The two rounds I played on Bankenveld seams to have hit the battery way harder than the one on Middelburg CC, also worth mentioning, the two courses is just like 25Km from each other. I was also thinking the GPS might be working harder on some courses than others, might be because of the insane solar weather we are getting of lately, this has an impact on GPS systems...not saying this is the reason the battery doesn't last that long but might be. 🤓 🖖🏽

Although I'm not a tester, I did buy the V5 when it came out to replace my H4. I have about 6 rounds with it now and have found the battery life to be less than they've stated.
Here on my home courses, after about a 5 hr round the battery is anywhere from 55%-65% used. So that's just 1 round per charge. I noticed that in Kingsmill, it seemed to be better using about 45% per round. But it still hasn't been as good as I'd hoped, especially from their stated 2 rounds per charge. Perhaps where I live is just too "remote" and the GPS has to work harder? Who knows, but for now I just charge it after each round and it works just fine.

I saw that one when I was looking for a driver a while back. It’s been on there for a while!

Just finished a round and uploaded it to my phone. Don’t have time to edit it right now but, this is a first. It uploaded as 2 separate rounds. Not sure what happened, I’ve never had that happen before. 
 

Shot a 90, so it looks like it missed a lot less shots than normal but will take some major editing to make it one round. 

Haven’t tried the manual putting mode on the v5 yet. I might try it next round just to see how well I like it. 

Date 06/03/2024 Course Name Blue Ridge Country Club Gross Score 90 Course Handicap 22 Gross Strokes over/under par 20 Net Score to Par -2 Net Score 68 Net Birdies or better Longest Drive White tees 69.6/134 par 70. 
 

Just finished a round and uploaded it to my phone. Don’t have time to edit it right now but, this is a first. It uploaded as 2 separate rounds. Not sure what happened, I’ve never had that happen before. 
 

Shot a 90, so it looks like it missed a lot less shots than normal but will take some major editing to make it one round. 

Haven’t tried the manual putting mode on the v5 yet. I might try it next round just to see how well I like it. 

Just finished a round and uploaded it to my phone. Don’t have time to edit it right now but, this is a first. It uploaded as 2 separate rounds. Not sure what happened, I’ve never had that happen before. 
 

Shot a 90, so it looks like it missed a lot less shots than normal but will take some major editing to make it one round. 

Haven’t tried the manual putting mode on the v5 yet. I might try it next round just to see how well I like it.