While the recently released Arccos Caddie Link represents a step forward for Arccos on the hardware side, Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics is nothing less than the company’s most significant advancement since it screwed its first sensor into the butt-end of a grip.
Arccos 101
If you haven’t used Arccos, here’s what you need to know. The previous versions took your shot data and turned it into a handicap for each of five facets of your game; driving, approach, chipping, sand and putting.
It provided a scoring breakdown (percentage of birdies, pars, etc.), tracked personal bests (longest drive, lowest score, that sort of thing), all with the intent of providing insight into what you needed to work on if you want lower scores.
The platform was reasonably intuitive and inarguably advanced for its time. However, as Strokes Gained took over the golf stats world, the analytics side of the Arccos platform started to feel a little basic. The data was OK but it wasn’t overly specific and didn’t provide nearly the detailed insights that some golfers (me) crave. That lack of detail often made targeting specific opportunities for improvement challenging.
With the rollout of Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics, the company has shifted from its handicap-based methodology to a more robust and ultimately more useful Strokes Gained-driven platform.
The way I see it, the update results in three significant advancements.
Strokes Gained Analytics
With the addition of a few proprietary tweaks gleaned from the data collected over the years, as the name suggests, the platform has shifted to leverage Strokes Gained as the key metric that powers the system. It’s no small change and it makes all the other good stuff possible.
Specific Comparisons
In its previous implementations, Arccos was an almost entirely declarative platform and Arccos did most of the talking.
You drive the ball like a 12.1 handicap. You chip like a 10.6. You putt like a +2.6. (FYI, that’s my actual Arccos data).
With the new platform, the experience is largely interrogative.
How does my driving compare to other golfers of my ability? How does my approach game compare to a five handicap’s? What do I need to work on?
You ask the questions. You choose the points of comparison. And because of that, the insights you receive are significantly more actionable.
“If I want to improve my handicap by two strokes, what should I focus on?”
Not only does Arccos know the answers (Your approach game is trash, Tony. It’s trash.), but with content provided by top instructors like Andrew Rice, it gives you targeted advice on how to improve.
In that respect, there’s an intelligently aspirational element to Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics that the previous system lacked.
Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics – A Richer Data Experience
Apologies for the BS-sounding marketing jargon. That’s on me. The point I’m trying summarize is that the Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics allows you to dig deeper into your data and with greater specificity than ever before.
In doing so, it eliminates the greatest weakness of the previous version.
For me, the best example is found in the Approach metrics. In the prior platform, Arccos would show your Arccos approach handicap, your greens in regulation percentage and the distribution of your shots (percent left, percent long, etc.).
I suppose that’s interesting but when you’re trying to address a specific weakness in your game, it might be helpful to look at approach performance on a more granular level.
Detailed Performance Segments
With the new Strokes Gained Analytics platform, your stats are broken out much like the PGA TOUR’s ShotLink data. You can drill down deeper into your approach stats based on a few different factors. Segmenting the data into blocks (50-100, 100-150, 150-200, and 200+ yards), for example, provides significantly improved insights into your strengths and weakness. It’s the difference between you suck with your irons, PERIOD, Tony, and Hey, it looks like there’s a hole in your game between 150 and 200. Why don’t you spend some quality alone time with your long irons?
The app also allows you to filter your data by terrain type (tee, fairway, rough and sand).
Arccos CEO Sal Syed cites an example of how the terrain filter helped improve his game. Digging through his own data, he discovered that his “strokes gained approach” values were lower when hitting from a tee box than the fairway. Connecting a few dots, he stopped using a tee on par-3s and his strokes gained approach numbers improved.
For fans of the classics, Arccos approach data still includes GIR percentage, average distance to the pin, and your miss tendencies.
Beyond Approach
Other than sand play being pulled off the main screen and folded into the terrain filter, the individual performance buckets haven’t changed.
Driving data includes Strokes Gained off the tee along with distance and accuracy stats. Arccos now will allow you to segment your data based on the shape of the hole. Are you considerably better with the driver on a dogleg-right than you are on a dogleg-left? It’s probably nothing you’ve ever considered but Arccos knows. Now that I’ve planted the seed, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
You’re welcome.
Short Game data can be segmented much like your approach stats. Distance ranges include 0-25 and 25-50 yards. You can filter by terrain. Traditional metrics like average distance to the pin and up and down percentage carry on within the new system.
Putting offers a similar story. You can stick with Overall Strokes Gained or you can drill down by putt length (0-10, 10-25, 25-50, 50+ feet). The older – some might say, obsolete – stats like putts per hole/round are still available but you probably don’t need them.
In with the New, Keep the Old
If you happen to prefer the old way Arccos did things, those insights haven’t been trashed, they’ve just been pushed down the screen a bit. You’ll have to scroll to find them but for fans of the handicap-driven system and other classic golf metrics, the implementation of Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics doesn’t mean you have to give up anything you loved under the old system.
Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics – Awesome without Overload
What’s truly impressive about the Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics is that despite being exceptionally data-rich, it doesn’t overpower you with information to the point that you go data blind. Initial screens provide a top-level overview of your game. Top Insights (what you’re doing well and what you need to work on) are provided as well. From there, it’s up to you how deep you want to dive into the individual facts to find the actionable insights that are important to you.
With Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics, Arccos keeps it simple for those who want it simple but doesn’t shortchange the guys looking for a level of detail that was previously lacking.
Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics – Pricing and Availability
Strokes Gained is the best part of the upgrade. The next best part is that there’s no charge (beyond your annual subscription fee) for the upgrade. Arccos Caddie Strokes Gained Analytics will be there waiting for you the next time you upgrade your Arccos Caddie app.
For more information, visit ArccosGolf.com.
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