You knew it was just a matter of time.

Titleist and Arccos are announcing today that they’re entering into a global partnership agreement. The arrangement makes Titleist the fifth major OEM to officially partner with Arccos, joining COBRA, PING, TaylorMade and Srixon-Cleveland.

Titleist will drive the partnership through Team Titleist, its customer loyalty program. Team Titleist members will be able to access data-driven insights and other benefits from Arccos, including a free set of Arccos sensors and a 45-day free trial Arccos membership.

“The partnership with Arccos expands our commitment to excellence by delivering AI-powered game-tracking and data-driven strategy at the highest level,” Titleist Brand Management and Communications VP Mike Lowe said in a prepared statement.

Why are Titleist and Arccos partnering?

The obvious answer to that question is, simply, why not? Arccos, along with Shot Scope, are the industry standards for shot and data tracking. Additionally, Arccos Caddie may be the most robust and data-driven on-course strategy package in golf.

COBRA was the first OEM to team up with Arccos back in 2016. Three years later PING joined in, followed by TaylorMade in 2021 and Srixon-Cleveland not long after. Those partnerships provide golfers who buy clubs from those OEMs a free set of Arccos sensors and a 45-day free trial membership. After that, regular Arccos subscription fees apply.

The benefit for Arccos is obvious. These partnerships set the hook, so to speak, making it easy for more golfers to experience Arccos products. It’s a shotgun method of seeding the market, a sort of the-first-one-is-free approach.

The benefits are also obvious for Titleist (and the other OEMs). It serves as an inexpensive “free-with-purchase” extra for consumers but it also gives Titleist access to a mountain of collected data.

“We’re excited to learn from Arccos’ data set and expertise to enable our consumer insights, product innovation and fitting teams to enhance the relationship with our brand fans,” said Lowe.

Arccos’ data will allow Titleist to see exactly how their products perform in the hands of real golfers. That knowledge can then be applied to future R&D efforts and as well as improved clubfitting programs.

“Together, we’ll harness golf’s richest data set alongside the expertise of elite players and world-class engineers to deliver groundbreaking insights,” said Arccos Executive VP Tom Williams. “This collaboration will empower Titleist players to understand their game like never before.”

New Arccos Caddie is coming

Arccos says a newly updated AI Caddie system will be launching soon with enhanced course strategy algorithms.  The new AI Caddie was developed in partnership with Arccos Ambassador Edoardo Molinari, the European Ryder Cup vice-captain.

The 43-year-old Italian holds an engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Turin and is known as the “stats whisperer” on Tour. He serves as a stats and analytics advisor to 40 Tour pros. His stable includes Matthew Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland and Nelly Korda as well as the European Ryder Cup team.

Molinari launched his own analytics platform called Statistics Golf in 2020. Last year, Molinari became an investor in Arccos and Statistics Golf morphed into Arccos Pro Insights. He’s now Lead Tour Ambassador for Arccos as well as the company’s chief data strategist.

Callaway is still out there

Callaway remains the only member of the Big Five without a formal partnership with Arccos. That, however, does not mean Callaway is on the outside looking in. In 2023, Arccos initiated a strategic fundraising effort that included investments from the PGA Tour, PING, TaylorMade, COBRA and Callaway. The effort resulted in $20 million in new funding for Arccos. That’s when Arccos was tabbed as the official game tracker of the PGA Tour.

Arccos has collected more than 1.2 billion on-course shots over 22 million rounds in 162 countries. The company was founded in 2012.

Team Titleist members can go to titleist.arccosgolf.com to learn more about the partnership and claim their free Arccos sensors.

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