How Various Handicaps Use Arccos

Arccos is Jam-Packed with Features to Help Golfers of All Skill Levels

Three golfers walk into a pub. The first is a professional. The second is a 15-handicap with his sights set on single digits. The third is a beginner shooting in the low 100s who took up the game during the pandemic and never looked back. 

The punchline?

Arccos can help all three realise their game improvement goals.

And getting better, faster, is no joke. 

From Smart Club Distances for true yardages and club selection via Arccos Caddie Advice, to its A.I.-powered GPS Rangefinder and Strokes Gained Analytics feature, Arccos is chock full features to help golfers of all skill and experience levels.

On average, new Arccos players drop 2.77 strokes after just 10 rounds, and five strokes after the first year. They’re even five times as likely to have a hole-in-one. 

Curious how Arccos can help your game? 

Here’s a breakdown of our three pub-bound golfer personas, and the specific Arccos features that will benefit them the most as they embark upon their game improvement journey. 

The Pro

Jarred Garcia is a rising star on the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour in the US. As you’d expect, Garcia isn’t just low handicap golfer, as a professional he’s a plus handicap player. 

The 31-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla. initially thought Arccos was for high-handicappers. After playing a few rounds with it, he changed his mind. 

“I looked at all the stats and then flipped to the strokes gained section and thought ‘well, that might be useful,’” Garcia says. “Golfers at this level know we do certain things well, but Arccos takes the bias out of it.”

Arccos Strokes Gained Analytics feature (SGA) is a treasure chest of actionable data for highly-skilled golfers. Traditional stats can be misleading, as they don’t diagnose the source of a problem. 

The SGA feature, on the other hand, goes much deeper by breaking the game down into five areas: overall, driving, approach, short game and putting. 

For example, traditional stats might indicate you take too many putts per round and need more practice time with the flat stick. Strokes gained can reveal that your approach shots are actually too far from the pin and that you need to work on your iron game.

This level of detail is invaluable for all golfers, but especially low handicappers trying to squeeze every last bit out of their game to get even better. 

And as Arccos Ambassador and master club-fitter Bryan LaRoche recently explained, low handicappers can tap into the SGA feature to customize their bags and improve their gapping between clubs. 

The SGA feature is also a go-to for professional golfer Luiza Altmann, a 22-year-old Brazilian native who is leveraging Arccos to improve her performance on the Symetra Tour. With a busy travel schedule that leaves little time for practice, Altmann relies on Arccos to focus her time on the range. 

The 15 Handicap

Mid-handicappers are in an ideal spot in their evolution to tap into all that Arccos offers. Most mid- to high-handicappers think they hit it further than they do, so features like Smart Range and Smart Distance can quickly quell cognitive bias. 

And speaking of distances, players who are shooting in the 90s have typically used some type of rangefinder, whether it be the traditional handheld version or a wearable. They find that Arccos’ A.I. Powered GPS Rangefinder (the world’s first), takes accuracy to a whole new level.

Seamlessly integrated into the Arccos Caddie app, it factors in wind (speed, direction and gusts), temperature, humidity and altitude. Altitude is even personalised to each Arccos player based on elevation differential between their home course and the one they’re playing. 

Arccos Ambassador Ted Scott, caddie for PGA Tour Player Bubba Watson, uses the Arccos Rangefinder to chart he and Watson’s strategy on Tour-caliber courses. But Scott, also a golf coach in his hometown of Lafayette, La., believes golfers of all handicap levels will benefit from customised, real-time data.  

Mid-handicappers often play well enough that they’re interested in learning how to attack a golf course. With Arccos Caddie Preview, they can do just that. Available to any Arccos player after five 18-hole rounds, Arccos Caddie Preview provides both Optimal and Alternate club-selection strategies for any layout in our database of more than 40,000 courses. 

The Beginner (Or Experienced High Handicap)

The amount of information available to beginners and high handicappers through Arccos can seem overwhelming at first. By keeping it simple, to start, they can benefit from Arccos after only a few rounds. 

For example, golfers in this category typically don’t know their average distances for each club in their bag. Smart Distance and Smart Range can help paint an accurate picture of how their perception (perhaps cultivated on the practice range) stacks up against reality (actual on-course data). 

Knowing precisely how far they hit their clubs can not only affect club selection, but tee selection as well. Experienced high handicappers are especially prone to playing from too far back, where as beginners can be more accepting of playing from a forward set of tees. 

When just starting out, golf can be an intimidating game. There are a seemingly endless set of decisions to make based on a nearly infinite set of variables. The “Ask Caddie” feature is like having your own personal looper right in your smartphone. Available after 90 holes, golfers can simply tap the “Ask Caddie” icon in the bottom right corner for an A.I.-powered club recommendation. 

The detailed data on environmental conditions available in Arccos A.I. powered Rangefinder is also an eye-opener for beginner and high-handicap golfers. An uphill hole into a 20 mile-per-hour headwind could make a two, three or even four-club difference. 

For golfers who aren’t quite ready to dive into all that the Arccos Strokes Gained Analytics feature has to offer, the “Top 3 Insights” section under the “Overall” tab is a great place to get tips and drills from our Arccos Ambassadors.

Are You Ready?