Shot-level data used to belong to the PGA Tour. Now it fits in a phone, and the next changes are about baselines, interpretation and who owns your rounds. Here are five trends worth watching and what they mean for a golfer who logs their own shots.
The AI label now covers drivers, launch monitors, phone apps and smart caddies, but those products have little in common. Here is what each one actually does, what the improvement numbers really show, and how to judge one before you pay for it.
A launch monitor shows how a club performs in a fitting bay. Your round data shows how it performs in your bag. Here are five tests that tell you which club to question before you book a fitting.
Shot Scope sells hardware with no subscription. Its alternatives are either other wearables or phone-only apps. Seven options compared on price, hardware, strokes gained and platforms, with prices checked on each vendor site.
Five phone-based Arccos alternatives, compared on what they cost, what hardware they need, and how much strokes gained they give you. Prices checked on each vendor site, and the trade-off of tracking without sensors spelled out.
Strokes gained looks complicated because the answers come back as decimals. The calculation underneath is a single subtraction applied to every shot, using a lookup table of expected strokes built from tour data.