#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4

[edingc]

18 hours ago, ncwoz said:

I've only heard good things about it, best of luck and looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

As far as the course goes, it costs what it does because it's located so close to downtown Grand Rapids. With my free birthday greens fee I ended up paying $21 for a cart and a small bucket of range balls, and I spent $6 at the gas station beforehand to grab some Coke Zero and a snack. You need a cart, it's not really a walkable course at all.

The course was in very nice shape, although the greens on the first few holes were pretty thin. They were rolling OK, but you can tell the long stretches of heat and dryness we had this summer did some damage to them. Despite all of the rain we've had the past few days there were only a few wet spots, a major plus.

The design was fun, very challenging but fair, especially off the tee box. It's a par 70. The par 5 on the front was very underwhelming. The hole's difficulty comes from a very narrow landing area if you wanted to hit driver. I hit 2 hybrid, 5 iron, and then and bad approach shot that left me with a short chip and a one putt for par. Probably the only hole on the course I didn't like. On the back nine there's not a lot of flat spots to hit from, so you better be comfortable with different types of lies. I really struggled out of the rough. It's a very thick Kentucky bluegrass that kind of raises the ball up and I kept sliding the club face under leading to weak, high toe shots.

This picture gives a good idea of the type of stuff you'll encounter there. I hit my tee shot on the the par 3, No. 8 hole into this waste area. It took two shots to get out and then three putts as my second shot ran all the way back to the very front of green (left side of this picture).

My biggest complaint was that they let a group of five out, which I had to play through. Overall pace of play of play was good though, I teed off at 11:45-ish and was done just after 3 PM. Pairing up with the other single helped to speed me up a bit.

Also, they are not open on Sundays so Saturdays are generally packed. With the pace of play being what it was today with minimal people out, I'm not sure I'd be interested in playing the course when it was packed.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

19 minutes ago, edingc said:

First, a few pictures because the course was looking mighty fine even on this overcast and dreary September day.

I shot an 87 on the 69.4/123 tees.

Honestly, although the score wasn't earth shattering this was a very clean round for me. Never playing here before really, really hurt. First, as far as the challenge is concerned, I didn't disagree with the Caddie once. More on that in a paragraph or two.

These may have been the most undulated greens I've ever played on. I had 20 putts on the front nine, and the crazy thing is that I wasn't even putting that terribly. Basically, if you were not within eight feet of the hole, you were better off the green. On more than one occasion I was just happy to escape with a three-putt and not something worse. I understand the course is not long and so its difficulty lies with the greens, but it is also frustrating (as someone with no local knowledge) to hit the fat part of the green and then be faced with either a huge uphill or slippery quick downhill putt. Now that I've played here once, I know that off the green isn't necessarily a bad miss.

I was majorly disappointed in Arccos' strategy. After doing the Caddie preview last night, I expected to hit driver on almost everything that wasn't a par 3, since that's what the app was recommending. On the course, the app recommended an entirely different strategy. Only twice did it recommend driver, and instead it had a love affair with my 2 hybrid. I had a reasonably effective day with the 2 hybrid, but there was a two/three hole stretch on the back where I started losing the ball right with it and that led to a couple double bogies that hurt. 

On the bright side, Arccos absolutely nailed the strategy on the first par 3 on the front. A big downhill par 3 (one of my favorite hole designs), with the wind whipping up at the tee box (wish I had snapped a picture).

A threesome let me play through after they hit their tee shots and with the audience I stepped up with the 9 iron and hit a perfect, beautiful tight draw that landed and stuck about four feet from the pin.

The birdie putt lipped out.

I ended up joining another single that was visiting from Washington, D.C., area on No. 10 tee box. It was very nice chatting with him throughout the rest of the round (socially distanced, of course), and he was very interested in the Arccos Caddie challenge and MyGolfSpy. By the end of the round it was a running gag that Arccos would recommend the 2 hybrid even when there was plenty of room to hit driver. Thankfully, the 2 hybrid kept up with his driver pretty well and we were really evenly matched the whole nine holes.

I did end up pulling driver on No. 17. I assume that's what Caddie would have recommended on the par 5, but this is the screen I received. I actually got this on the first par 5 on the front as well, and ended up pulling 2 hybrid (which was actually the right club choice).

Any day spent on the golf course is a good day, and a round in which I play the same ball the entire round, have two birdies and nearly a hole-in-one is a great day in my book. Very fun round to start the wrap up of #CC4.

I did end up getting tomorrow afternoon off as well, so one more shot at besting this effort comes tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Was there not multiple strategies where you could choose different options off the tee? 
curious why strategy yesterday was different, assuming the tee boxes weren’t off by much.

but hey 87 on a first tome course is great well done. Do you think the benefit would have been flag hunting and if you missed the green oh well?

[edingc]

Just now, Lacassem said:

Was there not multiple strategies where you could choose different options off the tee? 
curious why strategy yesterday was different, assuming the tee boxes weren’t off by much.

but hey 87 on a first tome course is great well done. Do you think the benefit would have been flag hunting and if you missed the green oh well?

Yeah, so that was the crazy thing. Multiple strategies and none of them were driver or 3 wood? Basically, every hole was 2 hybrid or 4 iron. I thought it was going to be driver or 2 hybrid. Oh well. I have to go back through Arccos, but I know I hit a handful of 2 hybrids in the 230 range again so I'm happy. 

Regarding flag hunting, you hit the nail on the head. The first four holes I was not aiming at flags but rather playing for a 2 putt par. After that turned out to be a really bad strategy, I started going right at the flags with much better success. No. 12 comes to mind because I had the distance to pin in my head and just knew it would slide a little right off the slope. Hit my distance on the number, it had a little right kick and spin and it trickled to 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Unfortunately on 13, 14, and 16 I hit leaky tee shots that didn't let me attack the pin very well, if at all.

I'll definitely be back next year for my free birthday round armed with all of this knowledge.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

1 minute ago, edingc said:

Yeah, so that was the crazy thing. Multiple strategies and none of them were driver or 3 wood? Basically, every hole was 2 hybrid or 4 iron. I thought it was going to be driver or 2 hybrid. Oh well. I have to go back through Arccos, but I know I hit a handful of 2 hybrids in the 230 range again so I'm happy. 

Regarding flag hunting, you hit the nail on the head. The first four holes I was not aiming at flags but rather playing for a 2 putt par. After that turned out to be a really bad strategy, I started going right at the flags with much better success. No. 12 comes to mind because I had the distance to pin in my head and just knew it would slide a little right off the slope. Hit my distance on the number, it had a little right kick and spin and it trickled to 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Unfortunately on 13, 14, and 16 I hit leaky tee shots that didn't let me attack the pin very well, if at all.

I'll definitely be back next year for my free birthday round armed with all of this knowledge.

Wow can’t believe driver wasn’t in there. Regardless good round place looks immaculate 

[daviddvm]

xOldBenKenobiX   Thanks for being a big part of the fun we have had in #COBRACONNECT4. I think you would be a excellent candidate for COBRACONNECT5 !

Love the film clip !!!! One of my favorite movies.

 

[xOldBenKenobiX]

3 hours ago, edingc said:

First, a few pictures because the course was looking mighty fine even on this overcast and dreary September day.

I shot an 87 on the 69.4/123 tees.

Honestly, although the score wasn't earth shattering this was a very clean round for me. Never playing here before really, really hurt. First, as far as the challenge is concerned, I didn't disagree with the Caddie once. More on that in a paragraph or two.

These may have been the most undulated greens I've ever played on. I had 20 putts on the front nine, and the crazy thing is that I wasn't even putting that terribly. Basically, if you were not within eight feet of the hole, you were better off the green. On more than one occasion I was just happy to escape with a three-putt and not something worse. I understand the course is not long and so its difficulty lies with the greens, but it is also frustrating (as someone with no local knowledge) to hit the fat part of the green and then be faced with either a huge uphill or slippery quick downhill putt. Now that I've played here once, I know that off the green isn't necessarily a bad miss.

I was majorly disappointed in Arccos' strategy. After doing the Caddie preview last night, I expected to hit driver on almost everything that wasn't a par 3, since that's what the app was recommending. On the course, the app recommended an entirely different strategy. Only twice did it recommend driver, and instead it had a love affair with my 2 hybrid. I had a reasonably effective day with the 2 hybrid, but there was a two/three hole stretch on the back where I started losing the ball right with it and that led to a couple double bogies that hurt. 

On the bright side, Arccos absolutely nailed the strategy on the first par 3 on the front. A big downhill par 3 (one of my favorite hole designs), with the wind whipping up at the tee box (wish I had snapped a picture).

A threesome let me play through after they hit their tee shots and with the audience I stepped up with the 9 iron and hit a perfect, beautiful tight draw that landed and stuck about four feet from the pin.

The birdie putt lipped out.

I ended up joining another single that was visiting from Washington, D.C., area on No. 10 tee box. It was very nice chatting with him throughout the rest of the round (socially distanced, of course), and he was very interested in the Arccos Caddie challenge and MyGolfSpy. By the end of the round it was a running gag that Arccos would recommend the 2 hybrid even when there was plenty of room to hit driver. Thankfully, the 2 hybrid kept up with his driver pretty well and we were really evenly matched the whole nine holes.

I did end up pulling driver on No. 17. I assume that's what Caddie would have recommended on the par 5, but this is the screen I received. I actually got this on the first par 5 on the front as well, and ended up pulling 2 hybrid (which was actually the right club choice).

Any day spent on the golf course is a good day, and a round in which I play the same ball the entire round, have two birdies and nearly a hole-in-one is a great day in my book. Very fun round to start the wrap up of #CC4.

I did end up getting tomorrow afternoon off as well, so one more shot at besting this effort comes tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Great round, it had been foggy, just overcast the past few days, I think tomorrow we might get some sunshine here on the southeast part of the state, I hope you get blue skyes and calm winds tomorrow. 

[xOldBenKenobiX]

3 hours ago, edingc said:

Yeah, so that was the crazy thing. Multiple strategies and none of them were driver or 3 wood? Basically, every hole was 2 hybrid or 4 iron. I thought it was going to be driver or 2 hybrid. Oh well. I have to go back through Arccos, but I know I hit a handful of 2 hybrids in the 230 range again so I'm happy. 

Regarding flag hunting, you hit the nail on the head. The first four holes I was not aiming at flags but rather playing for a 2 putt par. After that turned out to be a really bad strategy, I started going right at the flags with much better success. No. 12 comes to mind because I had the distance to pin in my head and just knew it would slide a little right off the slope. Hit my distance on the number, it had a little right kick and spin and it trickled to 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Unfortunately on 13, 14, and 16 I hit leaky tee shots that didn't let me attack the pin very well, if at all.

I'll definitely be back next year for my free birthday round armed with all of this knowledge.

I think the AI is supposed to run a strategy in accordance with the best stats of your clubs, I don't know much about their algorithm, but I think it takes in consideration the breakdown of how to get you the best approach shot to the green. 

All I know is that my caddie and I are not on speaking terms as off late. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by xOldBenKenobiX

[xOldBenKenobiX]

1 hour ago, daviddvm said:

xOldBenKenobiX   Thanks for being a big part of the fun we have had in #COBRACONNECT4. I think you would be a excellent candidate for COBRACONNECT5 !

Love the film clip !!!! One of my favorite movies.

 

I'm starting to prepare from now

Thank you, I appreciate the vote of confidence. 

Im definitely applying next year, when CCC5 comes around. 

 

[xOldBenKenobiX]

3 hours ago, edingc said:

Yeah, so that was the crazy thing. Multiple strategies and none of them were driver or 3 wood? Basically, every hole was 2 hybrid or 4 iron. I thought it was going to be driver or 2 hybrid. Oh well. I have to go back through Arccos, but I know I hit a handful of 2 hybrids in the 230 range again so I'm happy. 

Regarding flag hunting, you hit the nail on the head. The first four holes I was not aiming at flags but rather playing for a 2 putt par. After that turned out to be a really bad strategy, I started going right at the flags with much better success. No. 12 comes to mind because I had the distance to pin in my head and just knew it would slide a little right off the slope. Hit my distance on the number, it had a little right kick and spin and it trickled to 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Unfortunately on 13, 14, and 16 I hit leaky tee shots that didn't let me attack the pin very well, if at all.

I'll definitely be back next year for my free birthday round armed with all of this knowledge.

Make sure to also check what tee box the app has at the start, I know it might seem silly because the app is knows your exact distance, but it could be a factor. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

7 minutes ago, xOldBenKenobiX said:

I'm starting to prepare from now

Thank you, I appreciate the vote of confidence. 

Im definitely applying next year, when CCC5 comes around. 

 

I’ll see ya there lol. This has been awsome to watch on the sideline

[GolfSpy BOS]

Just now, Lacassem said:

I’ll see ya there lol. This has been awsome to watch on the sideline

and if you and @xOldBenKenobiX are nominated as tributes you can bet your bottom dollar the #CCC4 crew will be there to give you guys hell! 

[xOldBenKenobiX]

4 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

I’ll see ya there lol. This has been awsome to watch on the sideline

I welcome the competition

3 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

and if you and @xOldBenKenobiX are nominated as tributes you can bet your bottom dollar the #CCC4 crew will be there to give you guys hell! 

I look forward to have you cheer me on Bryan

But I prefer to have the cowboys cheerleader squad behind me. 

[Nunfa0]

Let's just get this year finished before thinking about 2021, Stud will need a big rest after dealing with you lot!!

[mikeanthony]

14 hours ago, edingc said:

As far as the course goes, it costs what it does because it's located so close to downtown Grand Rapids. With my free birthday greens fee I ended up paying $21 for a cart and a small bucket of range balls, and I spent $6 at the gas station beforehand to grab some Coke Zero and a snack. You need a cart, it's not really a walkable course at all.

The course was in very nice shape, although the greens on the first few holes were pretty thin. They were rolling OK, but you can tell the long stretches of heat and dryness we had this summer did some damage to them. Despite all of the rain we've had the past few days there were only a few wet spots, a major plus.

The design was fun, very challenging but fair, especially off the tee box. It's a par 70. The par 5 on the front was very underwhelming. The hole's difficulty comes from a very narrow landing area if you wanted to hit driver. I hit 2 hybrid, 5 iron, and then and bad approach shot that left me with a short chip and a one putt for par. Probably the only hole on the course I didn't like. On the back nine there's not a lot of flat spots to hit from, so you better be comfortable with different types of lies. I really struggled out of the rough. It's a very thick Kentucky bluegrass that kind of raises the ball up and I kept sliding the club face under leading to weak, high toe shots.

This picture gives a good idea of the type of stuff you'll encounter there. I hit my tee shot on the the par 3, No. 8 hole into this waste area. It took two shots to get out and then three putts as my second shot ran all the way back to the very front of green (left side of this picture).

My biggest complaint was that they let a group of five out, which I had to play through. Overall pace of play of play was good though, I teed off at 11:45-ish and was done just after 3 PM. Pairing up with the other single helped to speed me up a bit.

Also, they are not open on Sundays so Saturdays are generally packed. With the pace of play being what it was today with minimal people out, I'm not sure I'd be interested in playing the course when it was packed.

That! looks like a fun course ... and agreed, it’s looks like it’s in great shape.

[MaxEntropy]

16 hours ago, Lacassem said:

curious why strategy yesterday was different, assuming the tee boxes weren’t off by much.

My experience with using caddie to preview courses is it is terrible about knowing which tee box will have the selected tees, which could explain the difference. If you play the tips (or close to them), maybe the difference is not as bad?

[xOldBenKenobiX]

14 hours ago, daviddvm said:

xOldBenKenobiX   Thanks for being a big part of the fun we have had in #COBRACONNECT4. I think you would be a excellent candidate for COBRACONNECT5 !

Love the film clip !!!! One of my favorite movies.

 

That movie has so many memorable scenes.

I love this one

 

[knightsofnii]

I haven't tried the caddie recommendations yet, and I've had Arccos for about a year now.   I suppose I should give it a shot

 

I did discover that BEFORE you select "start round", you need to pick your tee.  Does anyone know how to change what tee you hit from during or after your round?

Since doing so and not defaulting to the tips, my handicap has gone through a huge correction and is almost dead on with my USGA index.  

[xOldBenKenobiX]

3 minutes ago, knightsofnii said:

I haven't tried the caddie recommendations yet, and I've had Arccos for about a year now.   I suppose I should give it a shot

 

I did discover that BEFORE you select "start round", you need to pick your tee.  Does anyone know how to change what tee you hit from during or after your round?

Since doing so and not defaulting to the tips, my handicap has gone through a huge correction and is almost dead on with my USGA index.  

I am not sure, I have found this from their site.

@edingc

Does Arccos Caddie adjust tee boxes?

If a player is standing on a tee box, Arccos Caddie will show the optimal path from that location. If a player is not on a tee box, or not playing a round, Arccos Caddie will default to the middle tee box. Users may adjust the tee box location at any time.

 

[knightsofnii]

I received my Pumas a couple days ago!   

They're the Ignite PWRADAPT Caged. 

Thanks so much to the MGS Forum mods, Puma, and Cobra.

First impression is they're a pinch heavier and stiffer than my previous version Ignite PWRADAPTs.   Though, those have been well broken in over the course of a year and change. 

I just realized while watching the vid, they say "waterproof".  That will probably be the biggest upgrade

Once again, thanks.  I had fun dressing up!  

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[xOldBenKenobiX]

25 minutes ago, knightsofnii said:

I received my Pumas a couple days ago!   

They're the Ignite PWRADAPT Caged. 

Thanks so much to the MGS Forum mods, Puma, and Cobra.

First impression is they're a pinch heavier and stiffer than my previous version Ignite PWRADAPTs.   Though, those have been well broken in over the course of a year and change. 

I just realized while watching the vid, they say "waterproof".  That will probably be the biggest upgrade

Once again, thanks.  I had fun dressing up!  

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Very nice

[Headhammer]

TEAM HAMMER ARCCOS REVIEW

 

Let me start my review of Arccos by telling you that I’m a bit of a Luddite. You’ve probably already guessed that since I lack the video production & graphics skills of our younger competitors in this challenge. Considering I can barely operate my IPhone, taking on Arccos and relying on it for strategy, club selection and recording of rounds was a big step for me. If you are cliff notes kinda guy/girl here is my summary of Arccos up front.

 

Here’s what I love about Arccos:

·      Overhead views of holes 

·      GPS distances to F/C/B of greens

·      Distances to hazards

·      Shot corrections-wind, elevation, etc.

·      Club distances

·      All the analytics

 

Here’s what I love less about Arccos:

·      Must manually move pin to actual locations on each hole to get correct putting distance

·      Heavily tree lined fairways causes missed shots 

·      Misses/Adds putts 

·      Difficulty identifying fairways from rough on drives

·      Manually changing a putt to chip

·      Slows me down & can irritate playing partners that don’t use it

·      Manually reviewing the round hole-by-hole, club by club & shot-by shot

 

ON COURSE PEFORMANCE: 

The GPS data is my favorite feature on Arccos. I’ve never owned a range finder and my depth perception is horrible, so that aspect alone has helped me with club selection and reduced my shorts on approach shots by almost 20%. I have rarely found the GPS distances to be off of the actual distance. I also really like that you can get the distance to any point in the fairway or to a hazard. The overhead views of holes is also a great feature when a playing a course for the first time.

Knowing my club “Smart Distances” has also helped with hitting more GIRs, though I do take offense when I ask which club to get home in 2 on the long par 5’s and Arccos shows me the laughing emoji.

I find when I’m playing well it’s fairly easy to update each hole, but on days when I’m struggling to find a swing that works, I forget to move pins and make sure it recorded all of my strokes. This is why I created my own club sheet (see below), even though it creates redundant scoring, inevitably there are shots that need to be recorded in Arccos after my round.

I’m a fast player, my fastest round this year is 2:14, but my average round is 2:45. Managing Arccos slows me down having to move pins, add shots, add penalties, etc. When you are playing with a partner it can slow them down while you are trying to update all of the previously mentioned items. What’s funny is some playing partners love to use me for the GPS distance to the hole function, but as soon as I am changing a chip to a putt and rough to a fairway, and moving a pin it’s not unheard of to get a “come on, man”.

 

OFF-COURSE PERFORMANCE:

The tour level analytics are really what makes Arccos worthwhile. You’re getting the same information Pros use to improve their game and Arccos allows you to look at the data from a macro or micro level. You can really drill down on the data to improve the way you think through your round.  

Just to show you how far down you can drill here are some analytics on my 7-Iron. I can see what Arccos recommends as my smart distance with the club, drill down to see my max distance, see the accuracy of my approach shots and distance to the pin with this club. Then I can go deeper and see how my GIRs compare to tour pros. Ummmm, I’ve got some work to do. 

 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

I had challenges with Arccos understanding which part of the golf course is fairway and which part is rough. Case in point here is a tee shot that Arccos recorded as a missed fairway, when the ball was dead center of the short grass.

On heavily wooded holes it can be difficult to pick up shots. Sometimes it won’t show the shot, but record the distance when you take your next swing & other times it will say Club Detected, but won’t register the shot. Here is what my 18^thhole looks like every week. It does not see the driver or second shot, but picks it up on the 3^rd shot.

I usually use the back of my putter to pick my ball up off the green, and I’m ashamed to admit it can sometimes take me 3-4 tries to get in my putter. When reviewing rounds it’s not uncommon to find 1-2 extra putts added to a hole in Arccos due to this practice.

One thing I’ve found in using the App versus the Dashboard on your computer is that changing the data in one of them doesn’t always change the data on the other. Sometimes there is just a lag in the data from the Dashboard to the phone and sometimes it doesn’t update. My 14 in the chamber round on my phone said I shot 84, when I updated the dashboard it changed to 91, but never changed on my phone so I had to add all those shots on the App as well

PLAY IT OR TRADE IT: 

I like a lot of the features of Arccos, redundant scoring, correcting missed shots, moving pins, sorting out a chip from a putt and fairways from rough, not so much. At this point I’m not sure if I will play it or trade it. By the time my free subscription ends I will have a wealth of data on my game to analyze, I will know my ranges for each club and I really don’t need it to tell me I still come up short on 40% of my approach shots. So, do I renew my subscription or just get a GPS device? What would you do if you were me?

OVERALL ARCCOS CADDIE RATING: 

I know tech is supposed to make our lives easier, but I feel like certain aspects of Arccos have made the game more laborious to me. That being said, having a new set of clubs with no idea how far they go has made it indispensable through the Cobra Connect Challenge.

 

[knightsofnii]

28 minutes ago, Headhammer said:

TEAM HAMMER ARCCOS REVIEW

 

 

Let me start my review of Arccos by telling you that I’m a bit of a Luddite. You’ve probably already guessed that since I lack the video production & graphics skills of our younger competitors in this challenge. Considering I can barely operate my IPhone, taking on Arccos and relying on it for strategy, club selection and recording of rounds was a big step for me. If you are cliff notes kinda guy/girl here is my summary of Arccos up front.

 

Here’s what I love about Arccos:

·      Overhead views of holes 

·      GPS distances to F/C/B of greens

·      Distances to hazards

·      Shot corrections-wind, elevation, etc.

·      Club distances

·      All the analytics

 

Here’s what I love less about Arccos:

·      Must manually move pin to actual locations on each hole to get correct putting distance

·      Heavily tree lined fairways causes missed shots 

·      Misses/Adds putts 

·      Difficulty identifying fairways from rough on drives

·      Manually changing a putt to chip

·      Slows me down & can irritate playing partners that don’t use it

·      Manually reviewing the round hole-by-hole, club by club & shot-by shot

 

ON COURSE PEFORMANCE: 

The GPS data is my favorite feature on Arccos. I’ve never owned a range finder and my depth perception is horrible, so that aspect alone has helped me with club selection and reduced my shorts on approach shots by almost 20%. I have rarely found the GPS distances to be off of the actual distance. I also really like that you can get the distance to any point in the fairway or to a hazard. The overhead views of holes is also a great feature when a playing a course for the first time.

Knowing my club “Smart Distances” has also helped with hitting more GIRs, though I do take offense when I ask which club to get home in 2 on the long par 5’s and Arccos shows me the laughing emoji.

I find when I’m playing well it’s fairly easy to update each hole, but on days when I’m struggling to find a swing that works, I forget to move pins and make sure it recorded all of my strokes. This is why I created my own club sheet (see below), even though it creates redundant scoring, inevitably there are shots that need to be recorded in Arccos after my round.

I’m a fast player, my fastest round this year is 2:14, but my average round is 2:45. Managing Arccos slows me down having to move pins, add shots, add penalties, etc. When you are playing with a partner it can slow them down while you are trying to update all of the previously mentioned items. What’s funny is some playing partners love to use me for the GPS distance to the hole function, but as soon as I am changing a chip to a putt and rough to a fairway, and moving a pin it’s not unheard of to get a “come on, man”.

 

OFF-COURSE PERFORMANCE:

The tour level analytics are really what makes Arccos worthwhile. You’re getting the same information Pros use to improve their game and Arccos allows you to look at the data from a macro or micro level. You can really drill down on the data to improve the way you think through your round.  

Just to show you how far down you can drill here are some analytics on my 7-Iron. I can see what Arccos recommends as my smart distance with the club, drill down to see my max distance, see the accuracy of my approach shots and distance to the pin with this club. Then I can go deeper and see how my GIRs compare to tour pros. Ummmm, I’ve got some work to do. 

 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

I had challenges with Arccos understanding which part of the golf course is fairway and which part is rough. Case in point here is a tee shot that Arccos recorded as a missed fairway, when the ball was dead center of the short grass.

On heavily wooded holes it can be difficult to pick up shots. Sometimes it won’t show the shot, but record the distance when you take your next swing & other times it will say Club Detected, but won’t register the shot. Here is what my 18^thhole looks like every week. It does not see the driver or second shot, but picks it up on the 3^rd shot.

I usually use the back of my putter to pick my ball up off the green, and I’m ashamed to admit it can sometimes take me 3-4 tries to get in my putter. When reviewing rounds it’s not uncommon to find 1-2 extra putts added to a hole in Arccos due to this practice.

One thing I’ve found in using the App versus the Dashboard on your computer is that changing the data in one of them doesn’t always change the data on the other. Sometimes there is just a lag in the data from the Dashboard to the phone and sometimes it doesn’t update. My 14 in the chamber round on my phone said I shot 84, when I updated the dashboard it changed to 91, but never changed on my phone so I had to add all those shots on the App as well

PLAY IT OR TRADE IT: 

I like a lot of the features of Arccos, redundant scoring, correcting missed shots, moving pins, sorting out a chip from a putt and fairways from rough, not so much. At this point I’m not sure if I will play it or trade it. By the time my free subscription ends I will have a wealth of data on my game to analyze, I will know my ranges for each club and I really don’t need it to tell me I still come up short on 40% of my approach shots. So, do I renew my subscription or just get a GPS device? What would you do if you were me?

OVERALL ARCCOS CADDIE RATING: 

I know tech is supposed to make our lives easier, but I feel like certain aspects of Arccos have made the game more laborious to me. That being said, having a new set of clubs with no idea how far they go has made it indispensable through the Cobra Connect Challenge.

 

 

Arccos has great GPS functionality.  However, may I suggest getting a watch or a scope, and leaving the phone in the pocket?  

I find all the display that Arccos has to offer during the course of a round to just be overwhelming.  I use it as a shot tracker solely, and rely on my watch or scope for yardages. 

For my watch, I mainly keep it in the default front/middle/back numbers display, and if I'm torn over where a pin is in relation to those 3, I'll pull up the green display.  

 

I keep score of putts and strokes on a scorecard, and match it up to Arccos later.  When going through each hole in Arccos, I can most always recall every shot and add the missed ones. 

For instance, my 4i has no tracker installed, (I can't find the 14th one), so whenever it's used, I add it in after the round.  Or on the fly if nobody is behind me.  

[jddaigneault]

17 hours ago, Lacassem said:

I’ll see ya there lol. This has been awsome to watch on the sideline

Oh yes, can’t wait to throw my name in the hat next year! This has been a blast!

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 hours ago, knightsofnii said:

I received my Pumas a couple days ago!   

They're the Ignite PWRADAPT Caged. 

Thanks so much to the MGS Forum mods, Puma, and Cobra.

First impression is they're a pinch heavier and stiffer than my previous version Ignite PWRADAPTs.   Though, those have been well broken in over the course of a year and change. 

I just realized while watching the vid, they say "waterproof".  That will probably be the biggest upgrade

Once again, thanks.  I had fun dressing up!  

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Well those are

[yungkory]

3 hours ago, knightsofnii said:

I received my Pumas a couple days ago!   

They're the Ignite PWRADAPT Caged. 

Thanks so much to the MGS Forum mods, Puma, and Cobra.

First impression is they're a pinch heavier and stiffer than my previous version Ignite PWRADAPTs.   Though, those have been well broken in over the course of a year and change. 

I just realized while watching the vid, they say "waterproof".  That will probably be the biggest upgrade

Once again, thanks.  I had fun dressing up!  

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Sickkkk! I like the look of the new ones

2 hours ago, Headhammer said:

TEAM HAMMER ARCCOS REVIEW

 

 

Let me start my review of Arccos by telling you that I’m a bit of a Luddite. You’ve probably already guessed that since I lack the video production & graphics skills of our younger competitors in this challenge. Considering I can barely operate my IPhone, taking on Arccos and relying on it for strategy, club selection and recording of rounds was a big step for me. If you are cliff notes kinda guy/girl here is my summary of Arccos up front.

 

Here’s what I love about Arccos:

·      Overhead views of holes 

·      GPS distances to F/C/B of greens

·      Distances to hazards

·      Shot corrections-wind, elevation, etc.

·      Club distances

·      All the analytics

 

Here’s what I love less about Arccos:

·      Must manually move pin to actual locations on each hole to get correct putting distance

·      Heavily tree lined fairways causes missed shots 

·      Misses/Adds putts 

·      Difficulty identifying fairways from rough on drives

·      Manually changing a putt to chip

·      Slows me down & can irritate playing partners that don’t use it

·      Manually reviewing the round hole-by-hole, club by club & shot-by shot

 

ON COURSE PEFORMANCE: 

The GPS data is my favorite feature on Arccos. I’ve never owned a range finder and my depth perception is horrible, so that aspect alone has helped me with club selection and reduced my shorts on approach shots by almost 20%. I have rarely found the GPS distances to be off of the actual distance. I also really like that you can get the distance to any point in the fairway or to a hazard. The overhead views of holes is also a great feature when a playing a course for the first time.

Knowing my club “Smart Distances” has also helped with hitting more GIRs, though I do take offense when I ask which club to get home in 2 on the long par 5’s and Arccos shows me the laughing emoji.

I find when I’m playing well it’s fairly easy to update each hole, but on days when I’m struggling to find a swing that works, I forget to move pins and make sure it recorded all of my strokes. This is why I created my own club sheet (see below), even though it creates redundant scoring, inevitably there are shots that need to be recorded in Arccos after my round.

I’m a fast player, my fastest round this year is 2:14, but my average round is 2:45. Managing Arccos slows me down having to move pins, add shots, add penalties, etc. When you are playing with a partner it can slow them down while you are trying to update all of the previously mentioned items. What’s funny is some playing partners love to use me for the GPS distance to the hole function, but as soon as I am changing a chip to a putt and rough to a fairway, and moving a pin it’s not unheard of to get a “come on, man”.

 

OFF-COURSE PERFORMANCE:

The tour level analytics are really what makes Arccos worthwhile. You’re getting the same information Pros use to improve their game and Arccos allows you to look at the data from a macro or micro level. You can really drill down on the data to improve the way you think through your round.  

Just to show you how far down you can drill here are some analytics on my 7-Iron. I can see what Arccos recommends as my smart distance with the club, drill down to see my max distance, see the accuracy of my approach shots and distance to the pin with this club. Then I can go deeper and see how my GIRs compare to tour pros. Ummmm, I’ve got some work to do. 

 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

I had challenges with Arccos understanding which part of the golf course is fairway and which part is rough. Case in point here is a tee shot that Arccos recorded as a missed fairway, when the ball was dead center of the short grass.

On heavily wooded holes it can be difficult to pick up shots. Sometimes it won’t show the shot, but record the distance when you take your next swing & other times it will say Club Detected, but won’t register the shot. Here is what my 18^thhole looks like every week. It does not see the driver or second shot, but picks it up on the 3^rd shot.

I usually use the back of my putter to pick my ball up off the green, and I’m ashamed to admit it can sometimes take me 3-4 tries to get in my putter. When reviewing rounds it’s not uncommon to find 1-2 extra putts added to a hole in Arccos due to this practice.

One thing I’ve found in using the App versus the Dashboard on your computer is that changing the data in one of them doesn’t always change the data on the other. Sometimes there is just a lag in the data from the Dashboard to the phone and sometimes it doesn’t update. My 14 in the chamber round on my phone said I shot 84, when I updated the dashboard it changed to 91, but never changed on my phone so I had to add all those shots on the App as well

PLAY IT OR TRADE IT: 

I like a lot of the features of Arccos, redundant scoring, correcting missed shots, moving pins, sorting out a chip from a putt and fairways from rough, not so much. At this point I’m not sure if I will play it or trade it. By the time my free subscription ends I will have a wealth of data on my game to analyze, I will know my ranges for each club and I really don’t need it to tell me I still come up short on 40% of my approach shots. So, do I renew my subscription or just get a GPS device? What would you do if you were me?

OVERALL ARCCOS CADDIE RATING: 

I know tech is supposed to make our lives easier, but I feel like certain aspects of Arccos have made the game more laborious to me. That being said, having a new set of clubs with no idea how far they go has made it indispensable through the Cobra Connect Challenge.

 

100% agree with your last statement, and it's the reason why I ditched Arccos. I loved the data, but pulling my phone out to mark pins not only felt like a chore, it was also not very accurate. Waiting to see some long-term reviews on Link and maybe I'll jump back in. Shotscope has been decent but Arccos' dashboard is far superior, IMO.

[daviddvm]

26 minutes ago, yungkory said:

Sickkkk! I like the look of the new ones

100% agree with your last statement, and it's the reason why I ditched Arccos. I loved the data, but pulling my phone out to mark pins not only felt like a chore, it was also not very accurate. Waiting to see some long-term reviews on Link and maybe I'll jump back in. Shotscope has been decent but Arccos' dashboard is far superior, IMO.

Kory I have the link on it's way from Arccos. It will not be in my review this week but I plan on writing a review after using it for an extended time. I will post that review in this thread.

[daviddvm]

I have had a rigorous schedule this week playing 4 rounds of golf and working 3 very busy days at my clinic. I first played Galveston Country Club for my do you know de way? round for this week. I played my usual weekly round yesterday at Timber Creek. Saturday and Sunday I will be playing in The Bay Area Championship Tournament at Bay Forest to finish my #COBRACONNECT4 competition. 

[edingc]

Great day to play a new course! Even had a beautiful slight downhill par 3!

[GolfSpy BOS]

Had a lot of fun today. We didn’t make it around in time for our second 18 but that was going to be a scramble anyway. But I was going to get some more pics of the course.

3 birdies and some close putts. Looking forward to my first fully restriction free round tomorrow!

More details to follow when I get better cell service.

[edingc]

#MGSCobra2020 #CobraConnect Arccos Review - edingc, a.k.a. #TeamCalvesLikePhil

Arccos provided the “brains” keeping track of the entire #CobraConnect challenge. As a previous user of GAME Golf Live and ShotScope v2, getting to test out Arccos was one of the biggest highlights of this competition for me.

We were provided the screw-in sensors for our baseline rounds with our old clubs, and all of our Cobra clubs were outfitted with the in-grip sensors. 

On-Course Performance - 3.5/5 Stars

Arccos provides a similar experience to both GAME Golf and ShotScope from a round tracking standpoint. Arccos uses your Android or Apple phone to provide the tracking and GPS capabilities, while the other trackers I’ve used in the past utilized standalone devices.

Tracking is only as accurate as the phone’s GPS signal. I’ve found the signal can occasionally be off by as much as 5-10 yards with my Samsung Galaxy S10e. This is especially noticeable while putting, as putts are generally off by several feet until I go back to clean up the statistics post-round.

My home course is heavily tree-lined, and many of the tee boxes and greens are obstructed on the satellite imagery. This makes mapping the course difficult. When standing in the middle of the green on hole No. 11, for example, Arccos shows me several yards off to the side in the rough.

After playing around 25 rounds with Arccos on the Cobra clubs, I feel like the overall yardages captured are accurate as any weird outliers or mis-measured shots eventually are outweighed by the number of shots taken. Only now do I reasonably trust the Caddie intelligence’s recommendations, and even then having a limited number of shots with certain clubs limits its usefulness. For example, the system loves to recommend my 4 iron off the tee because it views it as a 200 yard club. I’ve hit maybe two good shots all challenge with the 4 iron. I would much rather take the 5 iron that also comes close to 200 yards from the tee.

I was frustrated during the Arccos Caddie challenge when the Caddie intelligence repeatedly skipped offering a suggestion for using my driver and instead consistently recommended my 2 hybrid or 4 iron off the tee even when there was plenty of room to “let the big dog eat.”

I use a laser rangefinder for distances to pins and easily measurable objects, but I found it helpful to be able to place crosshairs on the hole maps in the Arccos app and obtain distances to hazards, trees, etc. that I otherwise could not laser.

The biggest issue I experienced on course with the Arccos system is that the tags are reliant on light to “wake up” and detect shots. I often tee off in civil twilight before actual sunrise, when it is just barely light enough to track my opening tee shot. On multiple occasions Arccos would not start detecting shots until the second or third holes of my round when the sun had finally risen.

If you’re committed to using Arccos, I highly recommend purchasing the smart grips with the embedded sensors. I found the screw-in sensors to be very bulky and awkward, especially coming from the flat, low profile RFID tags of the other systems. The integrated sensors are much nicer, with the exception that several of them rattle when the club is tapped on the ground. I’ve actually had multiple people comment specifically about the rattle when handling the clubs. It sounds like something is loose in the club head if you are not used to the noise.

Off-Course Performance - 4.5/5 Stars

The beauty of Arccos lies in analysis of your golf game across all of your rounds. Shot tracking is cool and all, but the amount of information Arccos gives you about your total game in its web and mobile dashboards is the highlight of the ecosystem.

Arccos released an updated app about halfway through the challenge, adding in a strokes gained metric that allows you to compare your game against many different levels of handicaps. I really enjoy this feature because it clearly illustrates what I need to work on to play to my desired handicap target.

There is so much information displayed in the web dashboard that I cannot cover it all here. Some of my favorite information is the overall trends covering each area of my game, the club distance/gapping chart and the ability to obtain specific information about each club like fairways hit, approach accuracy and a spray chart.

One thing I’ve noticed is that with the new app things don’t always align between the web and app interfaces. It’s not uncommon for the app to list a different overall handicap than the web interface. I’ve also noticed that changes made to the web interface take some time to fully propagate through their system and are not immediately reflected on every screen. 

There is a cost to getting accurate analytics. Be prepared to spend some time after each round correcting things like first putt distance and fairway accuracy. As I mentioned above, the GPS signal and course mapping are only able to be reasonably accurate. This is not a problem exclusive to Arccos, of course, but if you want the absolute best statistics related to your golf game it is imperative to put in that time post-round. I also kept score on The Grint app throughout the entire challenge so I had something to reference.

Miscellaneous - 4/5 Stars

I had a very limited, but positive experience with Arccos support. Three of the original sensors shipped to me were DOA. Unfortunately, one was the putter sensor so I couldn’t track anything until it was replaced. I placed a support ticket on a Saturday morning and called to follow up on Monday. Replacement sensors were sent that evening, and I had them in hand by Friday.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e has fantastic battery life but the Arccos app is a battery hog. I made sure to have my phone fully charged before playing, and for the one time I played multiple rounds in a day, I purchased a portable power bank to charge my phone while driving between courses. I found the app could use up to 50 percent of the phone’s battery life during a normal length round.

I had few problems with the app itself. Once it did crash during a round which led to some extra fiddling, but overall it worked well. The app appears to have all of the local courses in my area. However, looking at the scorecard/tee boxes, many are inaccurate. This includes my home course, where the blue tees are listed at nearly 6,500 yards despite the scorecard listing them around 6,200. My plan is to submit changes to Arccos support after the conclusion of this challenge.

Play It or Trade It  - 4/5 Stars

I currently play enough golf to justify the $99 yearly subscription. If I was a casual player or someone who practiced more than played, I’d probably lean toward something that did not have a recurring cost.

I also have no issues with my phone in my front pocket, so I have no need to upgrade to the recently-released Arccos Link which would otherwise be an additional cost. 

No tracking system is perfect. Arccos is an improvement to ShotScope v2 for me because I disliked the bulky wrist watch. I still enjoyed the manual tagging of GAME Golf Live, but the platform was stagnant and buggy. It is obvious Arccos is constantly improving their offering and they are inching closer to a “perfect” platform.

As much as I hate to have another subscription service, I do plan on renewing my subscription next year.

Overall Rating - 4/5 Stars

There are plenty of small annoyances with the Arccos system, but overall there is little doubt in my mind that the product is the “best of breed” in the shot tracking and analytics world.