Out with Garmin, in with [blank]

[Shlax]

So my Garmin Approach watch is fried (it simply won’t charge anymore).

I’ll limit my venting to this: I’ve had it for a little over a year and as soon as the warranty expired, it failed. From what I read online, it’s a common issue and there is nothing that I can do or that Garmin will do to try to keep me as a retuning customer so… OUT WITH GARMIN.

I liked the device and its convenience during rounds, but the advanced data analysis tool in the app was primitive and honestly disappointing.

What should I get next?

I read a bit about some options in the forum and online but I’ll let you fellow Spies convince me or your preferred device and best "bang for tour buck" option!

I’m looking for, in that particular order:

1. Distance measurement including slope adjustment;
2. Score and club tracking,
3. Advanced data analysis (e.g., representative strokes gained);
4. Convenience of use (e.g., I don’t want to have to pull my phone to manually input every shot);
5. Not mandatory to be a watch. It can be strapped to the bag or else.
6. Nice/clean user interface.

Fire away!

[GolfSpy_APH]

No advice as I am not using anything other than a rangefinder. 

However ShotScope H4 has me interested based off other reviews.

I'll be following along to see what others have to say!

[Shlax]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

No advice as I am not using anything other than a rangefinder. 

However ShotScope H4 has me interested based off other reviews.

I'll be following along to see what others have to say!

So far, the H4 is the option that caught my attention. Price is also very interesting.

[Parshooter36]

On 9/3/2023 at 5:48 AM, Shlax said:

So far, the H4 is the option that caught my attention. Price is also very interesting.

I used the V3 for 3 seasons, which I believe is the same thing has the H4 just in watch form.  Shotscope does everything you are asking except for slope adjustment.  For the money, Shotscope is hard to beat IMO.

[Shapotomous]

I dont ever wear a watch so i tried the Shotscope H4 and it performs very well.  The shot tracking is all i want, the GPS is accurate, I have not had any issues with courses loading but I don't play too many different ones.  I think the interface and button controls are very intuitive and I am pretty picky about that.  You need to hold the club sensor to the unit to get it to note the club for each shot which took more than a few rounds for me to remember each time.  But it is very easy to edit shots in after the round if I still forget sometimes.  The only thing I still routinely forget is to use it on the green to register the pin position & # of putts before walking off to the next tee.  And that only requires clicking 1 button because the screen is automatically displayed for you.  I have tried to make it a habit of pulling the pin for putts and being the one to replace it making that my memory trigger to hit the button.

 

[Shlax]

43 minutes ago, Shapotomous said:

I dont ever wear a watch so i tried the Shotscope H4 and it performs very well.  The shot tracking is all i want, the GPS is accurate, I have not had any issues with courses loading but I don't play too many different ones.  I think the interface and button controls are very intuitive and I am pretty picky about that.  You need to hold the club sensor to the unit to get it to note the club for each shot which took more than a few rounds for me to remember each time.  But it is very easy to edit shots in after the round if I still forget sometimes.  The only thing I still routinely forget is to use it on the green to register the pin position & # of putts before walking off to the next tee.  And that only requires clicking 1 button because the screen is automatically displayed for you.  I have tried to make it a habit of pulling the pin for putts and being the one to replace it making that my memory trigger to hit the button.

 

Does it come with a sensor for the putter and so that you can track strokes gained putting (e.g., it knows that your first putt was let's say 38' and the second was 4' to hole for example)?

[Shapotomous]

2 hours ago, Shlax said:

Does it come with a sensor for the putter and so that you can track strokes gained putting (e.g., it knows that your first putt was let's say 38' and the second was 4' to hole for example)?

Yes, there is a sensor for the putter that you hold to the h4 at your ball so it knows its position.  That is the same for all clubs.  And if i remember to hit the button when i put the pin back in it will register the pin location and know the distances to the putts.

[PhilM75072]

3 hours ago, Shlax said:

Does it come with a sensor for the putter and so that you can track strokes gained putting (e.g., it knows that your first putt was let's say 38' and the second was 4' to hole for example)?

There is a sensor for the putter. With the watches, you can choose to use "Auto" mode, whereby you just indicate the number of times you used the putter (including from off the green) while standing over the hole to mark its location. You can also use "Manual" mode with the watches, where you tap the watch each time standing over the ball to mark the location of the putt, and at the hole to mark the hole location. Since I currently own the X5 watch and previously used the V3 watch, I can only assume with the H4 that you tap the sensor on the device to mark each putt and the hole location.

One caveat for you. Given that GPS accuracy is typically 3–4 yards (95% of the time), that is anywhere from 9 to 12 feet (or maybe more!), putting probably has the least accuracy in regard to tracking and Shots Gained, but that is a limitation that all such devices face. If SG putting is critical for you, all I could suggest is walking off every putt and recording the distance on the scorecard, then adjust the putt location when editing after the round.

[Shlax]

Well, just spoke with a Garmin customer services' representative and following numerous e-mails and links to various posts on their own website where customers experienced the same issue than mine, they finally accepted to "exceptionally "  replace my Approach S60 watch.

I'll then hold on getting a ShotScope V3 (or H4) for now.

Thank you all for your comments!

[Shlax]

Plot twist: I finally went with the Shot Scope X5 + club sensors.

I have played 6 rounds with it and I am delighted by the switch so far.

The Good

• Data analysis and Shot Scope app.
• Distance, hazards and layups measurement.
• Green view.
• Score keeping.
• Club and shot tracking.
• Overall look of the watch.

The Not So Good

• Battery life (not long enough to play two full 4-hour rounds).
• The touchscreen’s response.
• Fair amount of editing after a round (mainly putts).
• No distance correction for slopes.

Note that battery life was also somewhat short on my Garmin so that doesn’t change much with the Shot Scope and it appears to be a common issue with this type of devices.

The one thing that Garmin did better was the hole layout view where you could visualize the entire hole and pinpoint precise spots/hazards/targets to obtain the yardage, slope correction included).

[tony@CIC]

11 hours ago, Shlax said:

Plot twist: I finally went with the Shot Scope X5 + club sensors.

I have played 6 rounds with it and I am delighted by the switch so far.

The Good

• Data analysis and Shot Scope app.
• Distance, hazards and layups measurement.
• Green view.
• Score keeping.
• Club and shot tracking.
• Overall look of the watch.

The Not So Good

• Battery life (not long enough to play two full 4-hour rounds).
• The touchscreen’s response.
• Fair amount of editing after a round (mainly putts).
• No distance correction for slopes.

Note that battery life was also somewhat short on my Garmin so that doesn’t change much with the Shot Scope and it appears to be a common issue with this type of devices.

The one thing that Garmin did better was the hole layout view where you could visualize the entire hole and pinpoint precise spots/hazards/targets to obtain the yardage, slope correction included).

Nice write-up and glad you're happy with it. I've found the battery is pretty solid for 27 holes, but depending on how much you interact with the watch it could get you most of the way to 36 holes.  I use the auto mode for putting and yes it does require some editing. I did have a recent problem with increased edits but found that if I tag the club to the watch band it eliminates the edits. 

[Shlax]

7 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

Nice write-up and glad you're happy with it. I've found the battery is pretty solid for 27 holes, but depending on how much you interact with the watch it could get you most of the way to 36 holes.  I use the auto mode for putting and yes it does require some editing. I did have a recent problem with increased edits but found that if I tag the club to the watch band it eliminates the edits. 

Thanks. The battery life is only an issue when I'm playing back-to-back rounds in a day which is something that wil become more rare as time goes on, unfortunately, so it's not truly a big deal. When I'm playing alone or paired with another golfer that likes to play relatively fast, there isn't any issue. I'd say that the battery life in GPS+tracking mode (i.e.,s during a round) is about 6-7 hours maximum.

As for the post-round edits, I view it as an issue only for golfers that are not all that into precise metrics or in-depth analysis. I personally like to have very precise statistics so I spend quite some time verifying the tracked shots.

For all shots not involving putter, I would say that the Shot Scope X5 is 99.99% accurate in my experience. It happened a few times where I was at the very edge of the fairway and the app did not count it as a fairway hit and vice versa but other than that, I only have positive things to say about the shot tracking feature. It never gets a club wrong and never registers a shot where there wasn't one.

As for putt tracking, I will test manual putting mode this Saturday. I liked the idea of simply having to "collect the pin" and enter my score after every hole which rendered the whole watch usage quite seamless and did not required any specific effort for data gathering during a round. However, it often considers more than 10+ putts than I truly had because it often registers pitch marks repairs as putts and leaning on the putter to read a line as putts.

Overall, these a fairly minor flaws and don't prevent me from enjoying this device but I know a few playing partners that aren't all that about stats and game analysis and that would likely make them not using the watch for anything else other than distance measurement.

[KC Golf]

Controversial Choice.... ARCCOS... addresses all of your points.

Despite its flaws with an Apple Watch and iPhone its a winner.  I realize its pricey, but the SG Data is unreal! 

Just my personal view.

[Shlax]

5 hours ago, KC Golf said:

Controversial Choice.... ARCCOS... addresses all of your points.

Despite its flaws with an Apple Watch and iPhone its a winner.  I realize its pricey, but the SG Data is unreal! 

Just my personal view.

Good point and it does seem like a very good product.

But now it’s a bit late for me to change.

I’m happy with Shot Scope for the time being despite it not being perfect.

[Paul Hedrick]

12 hours ago, KC Golf said:

Controversial Choice.... ARCCOS... addresses all of your points.

Despite its flaws with an Apple Watch and iPhone its a winner.  I realize its pricey, but the SG Data is unreal! 

Just my personal view.

I have to agree with KC Golf.  I started using ARCCOS, again, after trying other options, and so far it has performed great!

[CudaKota66]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:09 PM, Shlax said:

The one thing that Garmin did better was the hole layout view where you could visualize the entire hole and pinpoint precise spots/hazards/targets to obtain the yardage, slope correction included).

Glad you are enjoying the X5. I have been a ShotScope user from the beginning (in the US).

For viewing entire holes, install the SS app to your phone. Open the app when playing & press the "+" on the lower-right corner of the phone screen. It will use GPS to identify the course you're playing & you can view an overhead image of each hole. You will need to manually advance the holes (on the phone) while playing - the watch takes care of itself

I used the feature yesterday to play an unfamiliar course & it worked flawlessly