Haven’t done much on this blog in the last three years but I’ve found something really fun that takes some of the cool stuff from work with golf. In last 3 years I’ve manged to really take my golf game to the next level with a lot of deliberate and focused practice. Its been a steady improvement but I still have ways to go to a steady very low single digit hcp. I’ve really tried to change my approach and attitude as I can be quite angry at my self on the course. Family and friends know what I’m talking about – sorry you get to see that but I am working on it. I’ve been inspired by the excellent Vision54 approach and books by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriot as well as really great podcast series from Golf Science Lab hosted by Cordie Walker. Lately I have also discovered Steve Elkingtons website and video series at Secretgolf.com which focus on all parts of the game and I find it most interesting because they present a lot of different ways to think and swing. There is no swing or approach that works for all

Never been a golfer that takes a bunch of lessons as I think my swing is just that – my swing – but I did find this place with a bunch of technology such as Trackman and videos so I tried that out this winter and did get some great things to work on for consistency. Golf Science Lab podcasts are a really entertaining way for golfers t

I work in a customer success team at Microsoft where we deliver an enterprise identity and security cloud service and this has lead me to the need to learn a whole set of new things about using data, doing things differently and approaching things with an open mind and not be afraid to experiment.

So what’s this all about?

First of all Pia and Lynns vision and approach to optimal performance inspires all of us to aspire for greatness with simple and clear tools. I often find myself approaching tasks and projects at work thinking of little things I write down from their book Every Shot Must Have A Purpose , such as how Think Box – Play Box really makes sense in many ways.

Cordie Walker from Golf Science Lab tweeted about this thing called Arccos Golf that was powered by the Microsoft cloud … i had to read about it and realized that this is something I have to try. Have been using apps on my phone to try and track my golf or take notes about shots and performance but it all just fails as there is too much work. That it runs in the Microsoft cloud is an added fun thing as I use the same engines and service every day to crunch data and make decisions. I would of course love to see that Arccos adopts our Azure AD service for their login services but that’s another post. Arccos Golf is so easy – screw in the sensors, pair with the app and just play as you always have.

Arccos Golf – first impressions

I’ve played five rounds with Arccos and right now I am really satisfied and feel that this will improve my golf game. First off I went into the season with goal to work on my weakest part of my game so spent lot of time putting and chipping. First two rounds showed me something that I hadn’t identified. My putting is just fine but approaches are just not giving me the chances I need.

This insight and data helps in focusing in on how to practice.

During play with Arccos I dont have to do anything special to tell the system which club I’m hitting but occasionally I have to edit number of putts or location of the flag or distance on first putt to ensure that my data is more accurate. This is easy to do in the app on the phone or afterwards using the new dashboard site on Arccosgolf.com. In five rounds I have had one shot that wasnt detected but the app really made it really straightforward to adjust.

If there is something I would complain about it is the GPS function during play doesn’t have the full feature set like GolfLogix or GolfShot. Arccos is a simple GPS allowing me to check distances by touching locations on the screen.

There are small improvements here and there that ArccosGolf can do in the app and website but overall I’m really impressed by accuracy and of course by the data that I now see as information that I use to influence how I practice and eventually strategize my game.

Will post again after trying the caddie function.

/Brjann