Shot Scope V3 GPS Watch Review

Shot Scope V3 GPS Watch and Automatic Performance Tracking.

The Shot Scope V3 GPS Watch and Automatic Performance Tracking system is a wonderfully simple and detailed tracking combo that any golfer will love. Featuring pinpoint yardage accuracy and robust performance tracking for every club in your bag, the Shot Scope V3 gives you everything you need to improve your game from an analytical standpoint.

Shot Scope V3 GPS Watch Technology and Features

While GPS golf watches have been on the market for years — including Shot Scope’s incredibly popular V2 model from a couple years ago — they’ve basically hit a ceiling in terms of features and standalone capability. The same can be said about performance tracking tags for your clubs; the small discs that screw into the base of your grip and “connect” to an app or similar tracking device.

What Shot Scope has done with the V3 GPS and Performance Tracking combo is to take the best from both worlds and combine them into a truly stellar golf analytics system.

Shot Scope V3 is a stylish, lightweight and advanced GPS watch packed with features to aid on course decision making. The Power-Sense strap, coupled with Shot Scope’s Club ID tags, allows V3 to automatically track every shot you hit on the golf course. V3 includes distances to greens and hazards, available in yards or meters. Post round, upload and analyze over 100 statistics on your game, including Strokes Gained analytics.

With over 36,000 golf courses pre-loaded into its software, the Shot Scope V3 is ready to go right out of the box. Simply charge it up, select the course you are playing that day on its multi-color interface, and start playing golf.

Performance and Comfort

First things first: the Shot Scope V3 GPS watch is very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. Doubling as an effective timepiece when not playing golf, the V3’s watch band is super comfortable, non-intrusive during your golf swing, and lightweight.

In terms of on-course performance, I had zero issues with yardage tracking or hole consistency (even when an errant tee shot may have landed in another fairway). Distances to the front, middle, and back of each green were extremely accurate and comparable to what I “shot” with a laser rangefinder. You can even locate distances to hazards and bunkers, giving you an encyclopedia of information right on your wrist.

The performance tracking features, however, left a little to be desired in my two rounds with the device. While Shot Scope accurately tracked every actual swing I took, there were a few additional miss-reads on the post-round analysis that needed correcting. The Shot Scope smartphone app makes this relatively painless to edit, however the need to go back and correct almost every hole’s performance can get tedious.

That said, I did find the post-round features and analysis informative and telling for my game. The Strokes Gained feature is awesome, and after making the appropriate edits to your round, offers a goldmine of information you can use to improve aspects of your game.

I particularly liked the “automatic” nature of the performance tracking. Competing brands with similar technology sometime requires you to physically touch the tracking disc to a hub wearable or to hold your golf club in a certain way when not swinging. Shot Scope doesn’t explicitly require you to remain mindful of making “extra swings” with your club, but considering the amount of edits I needed to make post round, this might be worth mentioning.

Overall Performance

Overall, I was very pleased with the Shot Scope V3 GPS watch and its performance tracking capabilities. The fact that this system is possible at price point of under $220 is incredible, especially considering alternatives. For that reason alone, purchasing the V3 is a no-brainer.

Don’t expect a flawless performance tracking experience, however. While we are probably a few years away from a truly mistake-proof system for on-course performance tracking, Shot Scope’s V3 system is really darn close to perfect. As long as you go in to your experience knowing a couple edits may be needed after your round, the benefits gained from the resulting analytics more than offset any minor annoyances.

For more information, visit the Shot Scope website here.