Shot Scope V5 - review

[Thunders]

Long time user (and fan) of the Shot Scope watches and their added app/website with statistics and analysis tools.

After upgrading my V2 to a V3 and replacing that V3 with another after a few years I decided to upgrade to the V5.

Shipping was fast and I was kept informed of its progress from the UK to the Netherlands.

As I was already an experienced user the installation process was a breeze but even if I was a brand new user I think the process is easy and well supported with documentation and the FAQ section on the website.

 

A couple of functions I would have hoped to see to be included:

- When using manual putting; the ability to subtract putts when you have accidently added too many.

- The ability to exit the "Pin Collect" screen (when using manual putting).

 

On the course:

As an upgrade from the V3, the added functionality is fantastic. The new watch has made my phone (Golfshot) app obsolete as I can now see the hole and hazards on my watch and also keep score.

I really like that when you use the Pin Position function and move the pin to the correct spot teh distances on the main screen adjust accordingly, reducing the need to keep going back to the rangefinder.

 

But......

I have only used the watch once and only for 9 holes so the following issue may be an anomaly.

I always use manual putting so those shots will always be added in the stats.

Yesterday I shot a 43 with 16 puts so the watch should have picked up 27 shots. 

As I was going around I noticed that not all clubs/tags were registering on the watch so I tried to make a conscious effort to tap the tag against the band of the watch (something that should not be needed mind you).

But at at the end of the round when I uploaded the round to my dashboard only 34 shots were registered, 34 - 16 (manually added) puts = 18 shots actually picked up by the watch (that includes two shots were I actually walked back to the spot I hit from with the relevant club as I noticed it hadn't registered).

That means that on 27 shots it missed 9. (a 33.333% failure rate).

This is totally unacceptable as the amount of editing post rounds will defeat the whole idea of having tags in your clubs that automatically register your shots.

 

I have shared the above information with Shot Scope and having dealt with their customer service before I know they will address/fix this promptly.

 

I will update this review as things progress.

 

Happy Hitting!

 

[Teebs]

ShotScope are notorious for releasing new units before they are ready.

 

I had an X5 and it was just awful.

 

All the 'reviews' on the Web are just influencers and not actual equipment reviewers. 

[Minarets]

I am nearing my end to Arccos 45 day trial. I’m thinking of switching to the Scots Scope v5. I need some extra putter sensors and preferred the glue on as the grips I use are not very concussive to the screw in.  They end up coming off in the bag. 
 

I don’t love using a watch instead of my ultra but will love with that over the subscription method. I think I like the idea of battery vs the X5.   How does the pin set feature work with shot scope? 

[zap311]

FYI - You can use the code SWEETSPOT to get $70 off this watch, even if you're not a previous Shot Scope customer. This is an offer through The Sweet Spot podcast (which I recommend).

[Thunders]

Quick update:

 

As I expected Shotscope customer service has been great and they are swapping the watch. It has been send out today so when I get the new one I will play some rounds and update the review.

[Konklifer]

On 4/17/2024 at 6:19 AM, Thunders said:

Quick update:

 

As I expected Shotscope customer service has been great and they are swapping the watch. It has been send out today so when I get the new one I will play some rounds and update the review.

 

Any update?

[eclectic taste]

I got my Shot Scope V5 last week and have used it for 2 rounds now. Like OP, I found it missed about 10 swings on each round. I had to go back and manually add those on the website. 

 

OP - Did the new watch make an improvement on detecting swings?

[Thunders]

Unfortunately it has not been remedied, even with the second watch Customer Service send me.

I now make sure I actually tap the tag against the band to ensure it registers.

But this is not what I expected with the new watch and “improved” tags

[NatSt8er]

Quick question; does the V5 have an "always on" display, or does it time out so you have to raise to wake? Thanks...

[Fickert]

I just got my v5 earlier this week but will be trying it for the first time this weekend. I am coming from using the Connex system which if you don't mind scanning with your phone they aren't bad. At first I thought it would be super annoying but it forced you to see yardages and look at the course map more readily.

 

So the good news is I am used to tapping on the end of my club which I am okay with as when you tap it "assumes" your previous shot distance and location. Its not supposed to be that way from my understanding though. 

 

Is there a way to verify it scanned the club? Does it give you shot count during play? I was content with my connex system but if the watch becomes a hassle I will just keep them and return the watch.

[TimGru]

10 hours ago, Fickert said:

Is there a way to verify it scanned the club? Does it give you shot count during play? I was content with my connex system but if the watch becomes a hassle I will just keep them and return the watch.

Yep your current club will show up on the watch. It’s also a good way to verify your watch read the tag on the club. It will also show your current score. There’s also a setting to hide it if you’d rather not see it. 

[Fickert]

So just got back from playing 18, shot a 97 which my goal was to break 100 after a long winter of grinding at Big shots and putting mats. Was a good day.

 

On a preliminary note, the V5 performed pretty well. I ended up wearing it on my left wrist (even though I am LH and it technically should have been on my right). Did not effect how the watch worked as far as I can tell. Few key takeaways:

 

- As I suspected it is easy to give a false reading. I am still not sure if it affects the distances (more on that in a few) but I did a lot of tapping the wrist band on the sensors. I preferred it as you could verify it scanned. Arccos has a leg up on this (I did their 45 day trial earlier this year) as its more seamless. 

- Scrolling to the full course map is a game changer for a watch as far as I am concerned. Using it to find lay up positions, or green shapes quickly helped a ton with my traditional way of thinking through a hole.

- Use manual putting but I am going to try auto next time and just manually tap the sensor when I am up to put. I don't see how you can get any putting stats without it being on auto, aside from knowing how many putts per round you had. 

- After inputting my # of putts sometimes the score was off. Usually high. So I assume these were false readings. I am not sure how this effects the stats of your shotscope dashboard.

 

The Bad:

- My biggest annoyance right now is I do not see any sign of my round today in the app or on the dashboard even after syncing my watch to the app and seeing it "upload". I don't know if there is some downtime on the Shotscope servers to organize this info or what but if it isn't showing in the next day or two I will submit a ticket to see if this is a common issue. 

- As far as I can tell (which someone can correct me please) I don't think you can edit a hole after you finish it. Kind of a bummer if your riding in a cart and remember to add a penalty shot on your way to the next hole. 

- You can access "history" to see where you played but there is no way to view the score card or literally any info about that round on the watch itself. I don't understand why this is the case. If you have a history section and have the round stored on the watch, let me AT LEAST see the score card. Hard to verify your score on the card or on your watch when you lose access to it after "ending" the round. A simple fix but an very odd implementation. You can view your scorecard during the round though, but thats not the point, we sat down for a few drinks and I wanted to review my round, but couldn't.

 

Overall it was welcome addition on course today. No fiddling with my phone for a fingerprint scan, or face recognition. Simplify look at a watch face and scroll through the full mapping, and hazards. Very nice. As for data collection, I am hoping my stats were saved somehow so I can review it on the dashboard. 

[Frankensteins Monster]

On 5/19/2024 at 8:37 PM, Fickert said:

So just got back from playing 18, shot a 97 which my goal was to break 100 after a long winter of grinding at Big shots and putting mats. Was a good day.

 

On a preliminary note, the V5 performed pretty well. I ended up wearing it on my left wrist (even though I am LH and it technically should have been on my right). Did not effect how the watch worked as far as I can tell. Few key takeaways:

 

- As I suspected it is easy to give a false reading. I am still not sure if it affects the distances (more on that in a few) but I did a lot of tapping the wrist band on the sensors. I preferred it as you could verify it scanned. Arccos has a leg up on this (I did their 45 day trial earlier this year) as its more seamless. 

- Scrolling to the full course map is a game changer for a watch as far as I am concerned. Using it to find lay up positions, or green shapes quickly helped a ton with my traditional way of thinking through a hole.

- Use manual putting but I am going to try auto next time and just manually tap the sensor when I am up to put. I don't see how you can get any putting stats without it being on auto, aside from knowing how many putts per round you had. 

- After inputting my # of putts sometimes the score was off. Usually high. So I assume these were false readings. I am not sure how this effects the stats of your shotscope dashboard.

 

The Bad:

- My biggest annoyance right now is I do not see any sign of my round today in the app or on the dashboard even after syncing my watch to the app and seeing it "upload". I don't know if there is some downtime on the Shotscope servers to organize this info or what but if it isn't showing in the next day or two I will submit a ticket to see if this is a common issue. 

- As far as I can tell (which someone can correct me please) I don't think you can edit a hole after you finish it. Kind of a bummer if your riding in a cart and remember to add a penalty shot on your way to the next hole. 

- You can access "history" to see where you played but there is no way to view the score card or literally any info about that round on the watch itself. I don't understand why this is the case. If you have a history section and have the round stored on the watch, let me AT LEAST see the score card. Hard to verify your score on the card or on your watch when you lose access to it after "ending" the round. A simple fix but an very odd implementation. You can view your scorecard during the round though, but thats not the point, we sat down for a few drinks and I wanted to review my round, but couldn't.

 

Overall it was welcome addition on course today. No fiddling with my phone for a fingerprint scan, or face recognition. Simplify look at a watch face and scroll through the full mapping, and hazards. Very nice. As for data collection, I am hoping my stats were saved somehow so I can review it on the dashboard. 

 

There has to be a way to edit after the round. It would be an utterly useless platform if there isn't. Contact support.

[Fickert]

Yeah I submitted a ticket yesterday, I will keep everyone informed. 

 

Edit: Support did not respond with anything useful as of yet, BUT I found the problem to be the app itself. Apparently using Connex with the app and not uninstalling/reinstalling to use with the V5 was the culprit. Maybe an odd scenario for me but for anyone reading it fixed my issues with uploading my round to the app. 

 

Upon uploading data an issue arose. If you have a miss read and close out the game on the watch, the app alerts you of scores per hole not matching to how many scans you had a round. Even if it is a mis-scan it will not allow your score to be posted to the leaderboards, or for rewards. Not a deal breaker for me but I can see people using this for training or whatever and have some issues with this. 

Edited May 22, 2024 by Fickert

[MWMW]

The Shot Scope 5 often misses shots.  So a drive of 230 yards becomes 380 yds as it doesn't pick up the second shot.  The stats are then irrelevant and one shouldn't have to go into the app to make corrections.

[SwingBlues]

Any updates on this V5 owners?

 

Have they done any firmware updates to address the issues and how often are the updates?

 

Any info is appreciated, thanks

[Warrior42111]

Had mine for a couple months now;

 

The only missed or extra shots I see are usually around the green. Updating post round is easy and takes a min or two.

I like the screen and the ease to add a penalty as needed.

 

Only gripe is the screen when it gets wet. It's about as useful as a fart in an elevator.  

[phil75070]

16 hours ago, Warrior42111 said:

Only gripe is the screen when it gets wet. It's about as useful as a fart in an elevator.  

Make sure you have the latest firmware update. A "rain mode" has been added in Settings. It turns off the touch screen, and you use the buttons to then navigate. It automatically switches back to normal mode after the round.

[SwingBlues]

On 8/29/2024 at 3:57 AM, phil75070 said:

Make sure you have the latest firmware update. A "rain mode" has been added in Settings. It turns off the touch screen, and you use the buttons to then navigate. It automatically switches back to normal mode after the round.

 

Just curious, the V5 has issues with rain and it needs a "rain mode"? I thought this was an issue with the X5 that is a touch screen but the V5 should be a "button" navigation. Perhaps I missed something...

 

How reliable is the sensor at the end of the grip, do you need to tap it against the watch or is the watch sensitive enough not to require contact?

[phil75070]

14 hours ago, SwingBlues said:

 

Just curious, the V5 has issues with rain and it needs a "rain mode"? I thought this was an issue with the X5 that is a touch screen but the V5 should be a "button" navigation. Perhaps I missed something...

 

How reliable is the sensor at the end of the grip, do you need to tap it against the watch or is the watch sensitive enough not to require contact?

I got confused. Yes, the X5 has the rain mode in settings. The V5, NOT being a touch screen, should work just fine in the rain.

 

If the V5 is like the X5, there should be a tag read function in settings. That should give you an idea of how close the tag has to be to the watch band to be sensed. I have found the tags, the original tags that came with the V3, and the newer tags that came with the X5 to both be very reliable. I did have two of the original tags go bad from rubbing on the bottom of the bag. "Copper" was showing around the edges when they no longer were sensed. I solved that problem by using self-stick felt furniture pads or glass table-top bumpers to prevent that happening again with any of my other tags.

 

I have found no need to tap the tag against the watch band with the X5. Missed shots tend to fall into a few categories. To prevent practice swings from being recorded as shots, there is an algorithm that says shots must go at least 5 yards or so, and two shots with the same club within about 45 seconds will only have one of them recorded. Another cause of missed shots is when using Auto mode in putting, the number recorded at the hole should include every time the putter was used, even if from off the green, not just the number of official "putts" taken on the green, The system will sort that out and assign those shots with the putter from off the green to the short game stats. (Editing may be required to make sure a shot with the putter from off the green shows that way due to GPS error.) Finally, missed shots can be caused by how the club is gripped, and thus the tag will be too far from the watch band to be recognized. One can choke down too far on those chip shots around the green, or, as one user on Facebook realized, you can hold the club so much at the end of the grip that the tag is almost in the palm of the hand.

 

I have had the X5 since it came out and have experienced very few problems other than those that were associated with the initial roll-out. Firmware upgrades addressed and fixed all of those problems, and my X5 misses very few shots, and those missed are usually caused by "user error".

 

 

[larrybud]

I bought the v5 at the end of August and continually have tagging problems. The tags often only read once touched to the band. I've got a support ticket opened and will update when/if I learn anything new. I'm coming from the V3 and never had any issues with it except when the band physically broke.

[larrybud]

So I went through support back and forth a couple of times and even sent demo videos to them showing the tagging issue. They then wanted me to reset to the default firmware by holding and pressing a sequence of buttons, and even THAT didn't work, so they are sending me a new unit. I'm sending the old one back for them to examine. Good support, only took 3 days or so before the decision was made to send a new unit out.

[ArcticSound]

On 11/21/2024 at 11:52 AM, larrybud said:

So I went through support back and forth a couple of times and even sent demo videos to them showing the tagging issue. They then wanted me to reset to the default firmware by holding and pressing a sequence of buttons, and even THAT didn't work, so they are sending me a new unit. I'm sending the old one back for them to examine. Good support, only took 3 days or so before the decision was made to send a new unit out.

 

Did that end up fixing the issue?

 

I've currently got the H4 (the belt-clip tagging thing) and am fine with it, but would prefer a system where I don't have to tag clubs before I hit. I'm interested in the V5 but a bit scared off by all the feedback.

[larrybud]

On 3/26/2025 at 10:24 PM, ArcticSound said:

 

Did that end up fixing the issue?

 

I've currently got the H4 (the belt-clip tagging thing) and am fine with it, but would prefer a system where I don't have to tag clubs before I hit. I'm interested in the V5 but a bit scared off by all the feedback.

Yes, they sent me a new unit and the tagging issue was fixed.

[larrybud]

FYI, I used the new watch for 2 rounds this season and it quit taking a charge. Both charging cables tested ok, tried multiple chargers, etc. They are sending me ANOTHER new watch. 

[phil75070]

On 4/11/2025 at 8:28 AM, larrybud said:

FYI, I used the new watch for 2 rounds this season and it quit taking a charge. Both charging cables tested ok, tried multiple chargers, etc. They are sending me ANOTHER new watch. 

I know that when my X5 was new I had to make sure the charging cable snapped into the watch, and it took some effort, more than expected. Otherwise, it wouldn't make good contact and wouldn't charge.

[larrybud]

On 4/12/2025 at 3:25 PM, phil75070 said:

I know that when my X5 was new I had to make sure the charging cable snapped into the watch, and it took some effort, more than expected. Otherwise, it wouldn't make good contact and wouldn't charge.

Yeah, the cable snaps in. It's the internal charging circuit that is bad. Side note, IDK why companies insist on putting their own flavor on USB. Just use USB-C. They make waterproof usb-c connectors.

[phil75070]

5 hours ago, larrybud said:

Yeah, the cable snaps in. It's the internal charging circuit that is bad. Side note, IDK why companies insist on putting their own flavor on USB. Just use USB-C. They make waterproof usb-c connectors.

From what I understand hearing from Shot Scope, the proprietary charging system was due to price and size considerations.

[Thunders]

An update on the whole Tags not picking up:

Long story but I have gotten a second set to take with me abroad (and leave there).

I had V3's laying a round so have put "old" sensors in the spare set and link it to the V3.

 

Yesterday I played a round with the spare set (and V3) and it only missed one (!) shot for the whole 9 holes....

Much better performance than the V5 with the bigger new style tags.

 

I am now 100% convinced the V5 has a flawed band/sensor issue. 

[NCDuffer]

On 4/15/2025 at 1:49 AM, Thunders said:

An update on the whole Tags not picking up:

Long story but I have gotten a second set to take with me abroad (and leave there).

I had V3's laying a round so have put "old" sensors in the spare set and link it to the V3.

 

Yesterday I played a round with the spare set (and V3) and it only missed one (!) shot for the whole 9 holes....

Much better performance than the V5 with the bigger new style tags.

 

I am now 100% convinced the V5 has a flawed band/sensor issue. 

I agree.