Tracking Putts Is The Key To Lowering Your Scores
Arccos Ambassadors Ryan Crysler and Trillium Rose Sound Off on New Smart Club Distances, Enhanced Putt Tracking
ICYMI ('In case you missed it'), September was a huge month for Arccos Members as we announced two major features updates for Q4 2021. The first being new Smart Club Distances, highlighted by a next-gen algorithm and first-of its-kind weather and location scenarios.
And coinciding with the “SCD” rollout was the introduction of Enhanced Putt Tracking, adding the ability to track and easily edit the distance of each putt.
What will these changes mean for Arccos Members? We asked long-time Arccos Ambassadors Ryan Crysler and Trillium Rose for their take on the impact these enhancements will have on your game, whether you’re a beginner or professional.
Ryan Crysler, Senior Instructor, The Floridian
With two strokes allocated to putting, per hole, for par and 36 total, putting theoretically comprises 50% of all shots during a round of golf. The reality, however, is that high handicap golfers (25 and above) average closer to 39 strokes per round. While it's often lost amid the pervasive driving distance conversation, putting remains the most influential part of the game.
“Second putt distance is a really valuable strokes gained metric that will have a big impact on your lag putting,” Crysler says. “Arccos Members will know, for example, what their average second putt distance is following a 33-foot first putt. They’ll understand how close to the hole they need to be on the first putt to score.”
This information is invaluable to professional golfers, according to Crysler, who essentially make 100% of their putts from five feet and in. Now, Arccos Members can easily build “professional grade” putting practice plans after just a few rounds of data collection on the greens to improve their Strokes Gained Putting.
“The Top 3 Insights feature in the Strokes Gained Analytics Feature will be even be more meaningful when it comes to what to work on, and what’s helping you,” he adds.
As for Smart Club Distances, Crysler believes it adds a new layer of game planning that will help Arccos Members be even more prepared for both casual and competitive rounds.
“Let’s say I was coaching a player who was competing in the Colorado Open (at elevation) and we could go into Smart Club Distances and account for altitude and weather conditions,” he says. “That’s a layer of preparedness no other platform can offer. It gamifies the experience and gives Arccos Members yet another reason to use their Arccos Caddie app.”
Related: Using Arccos to prepare for tournament play
Crysler, who counts numerous high-level junior, amateur and professional golfers among his students, says the Smart Club Distances and Arccos Caddie Preview offer a powerful one-two punch that provides a decided competitive advantage.
“You can make a preliminary plan with Caddie Preview and adjust the distances for each club using Smart Club Distances, and then play a practice round and calibrate it,” he says. “Tour players do this every week with expensive launch monitors on the practice tee or on specific areas of the course. Arccos Members can now do this before they even arrive at the course. Tour players are one step behind Arccos Members in that regard.”
Trillium Rose, Director of Instruction, Woodmont Country Club
As one who loves to travel with clubs in tow, Trillium Rose views Smart Club Distances’ Simulated Distance feature as a boon for Arccos Members embarking on golf trips. To see what affect wind, temperature and elevation have on every club in your back, tap the Clubs icon at the bottom of the screen and toggle to Simulated Distances on the drop-down menu.
“Arccos Members already have an A.I.-powered caddie available to them on every shot, and now they have a future caddie,” Rose says. “With Simulated Distances you can prepare for your next round of golf on the road with accurate information that will improve your performance.”
Simply put, adds Rose, the more information we have as golfers, the better decisions we make that ultimately lead to optimal outcomes. This is especially true with average golfers when it comes to hitting greens in regulation.
With the new Smart Club Distances, Arccos Members can access their stats for every club using a range of the last five to 100 shots. They can also select from custom date range or presets of the past seven days, 30 days, year, or even all-time.
“Bogey golfers are trying to eliminate big misses and having this level of detail for each club helps solve for that,” Rose says. “High-level players are looking for more birdies and where to find a half of a shot here and there. The new Smart Distances is extremely beneficial for them.”
The Enhanced Putt Tracking is a new feature Rose believes will appeal to and benefit every Arccos Member because anyone, regardless of skill level or physical attributes, can be a good putter.
“Putting is great way to lower your scores because you don’t need brute force or a lot of strength, and I recommend golfers work on their lag putts,” she says. “These are essentially long putts, which average golfers have plenty of during the course of a typical round.”
Similar to Crysler, Rose believes Enhanced Putt Tracking will lead to rapid game improvement in strokes gained putting by demystifying the average length of second and third putts.
“With all shots, the goal is to get to hole quickly,” Rose says. “That means hitting the ball accurately, long and close to the hole. With this new information on all of the putts, players will have information to help benchmark their progress and direct their practice to the areas costing strokes.”
