Arccos, the golf analytics startup that works as a digital caddie, deepened its partnership with Microsoft this week. A new version of its app will offer golfers real-time swing strategies and analyses for every shot on any course in the world.
Through an updated feature in the company’s app called Arccos Caddie 2.0, the Microsoft Azure-powered service will use artificial intelligence to offer users advice about strategies and predict outcomes as they work their way down the golf course. Among the factors Caddie 2.0 will consider are a user’s shot history, the historical performance of other Arccos users, weather conditions such as wind speed and direction, elevation changes, hole geometry, and hazard locations.
“The entire sports landscape is being revolutionized by advanced analytics, and golf is the most ideal sport for the application of these concepts,” said Arccos CEO Sal Syed, in a statement. “Working with Microsoft, we’re plugging into a very traditional framework—the caddie/player relationship—and taking it to the next level through the power of AI.”
While golfers once regularly teamed up with caddies, Syed says just three percent regularly use human caddies today. In pro competitions, such as the U.S. Open and PGA Tour, caddies are used not only to carry and hand golfers clubs, but also as someone golfers can talk strategy with. Arccos is attempting to democratize that experience by providing recreational golfers with a pocket tool that uses analytics and artificial intelligence to do something similar.
Arccos boasts the golf industry’s richest dataset, with more than 100 million shots hit during one million rounds played by Arccos users, and 418 million GPS mapping data points on more than 40,000 courses worldwide. In 2017, Arccos says users improved their handicap by an average of 3.55 strokes—a rate that’s 46.7 times faster than the average player with a USGA handicap.
“The PGA TOUR has done a great job of using advanced analytics to help its players practice and perform their best,” said Mike Downey, director of sports at Microsoft. “At other levels of the game, capturing the necessary on-course data has been a real challenge. Arccos has cracked that code.”
Arccos is also expanding its partnership with golf club maker Cobra Puma Golf, which recently launched a connected club called the Cobra Connect Powered by Arccos. Every club in the Cobra KING F8 line now features an Arccos sensor automatically embedded in the grip.
SportTechie Takeaway
Arccos believes that it’s only just scratching the surface of what it imagines will be a much more connected golf game in the near future. Syed says there’s no question that every golf club will be embedded with sensors in the coming years. Democratizing access to this kind of data will help attract a fresh wave of analytically-minded players to the game, says Syed.
The USGA, meanwhile, continues to deploy technology at its events in an effort to reinvigorate the brand with younger fans. Last year, USGA and FOX Sports partnered to integrate augmented reality and aerial drones into the coverage of the U.S. Open.