This is another one of those reviews I can easily summarise in one line, as the Shot Scope V2 does everything that the original Shot Scope GPS Performance Tracker did, but now it comes with a screen on it showing distances to the front, middle and back of each green.
For those new to Shot Scope then I will continue as this is also a GPS Shot Tracker that tracks where you took your shots and which club you used through plastic tags that you screw into the butt of your grips.
If you have a putter with a counter balance grip in it then the weight might prevent you from screwing it in so you might have to come up with your own solution such as cutting the thread off and gluing it on the end.
The tags are predefined with every club in the bag so you don't have to do any pairing before you play. There are 20 supplied with each Shot Scope and you do have to configure them in your online account so that Shot Scope knows what is in your bag before you use them for the first time.
This is another one of the upgrades from the previous model as the online bag enables you to name and colour code different models clubs such as the driver so you can compare the performance of one against the other over time.
The Shot Scope V2 is charged via a supplied mini-USB cable that plugs a slot behind a slightly fiddly rubber cover on the back of the watch.
The battery manages to keep going for at least a round, although two might be a push. The Shot Scope also seems to discharge quite quickly even when switched off so I would leave it on charge overnight until you leave to play.
This does mean that its use as a watch substitute is unlikely given the battery life, which is not the end of the world as the four number time without any punctuation looks a little odd.
However this is a golf performance tracking device and the rather chunky look is lighter than it looks and you hardly notice it when it is on.
The rubber strap is wide and comfortable and should adjust to fit most wrist sizes large or small.
The V2 is slightly thinner than the original Shot Scope, even though it weighs 17g more at 65g, which is not surprising given that it has a screen now.
After creating your account online you need to download the Shot Scope app to your Android or Apple smartphone so you can select the courses that you are playing and download them to the V2 watch.
Just pair the watch to the phone via Bluetooth and the relevant course information from their database of 40,000 courses is transferred to your wrist.
On arrival at the course, the Shot Scope V2 found the course I was playing in around 30 seconds and then showed the first hole information.
The display shows the front, middle and back yardages to each green and these adjust to take account of your angle of approach in the unlikely event that you are not coming from the middle of the fairway.
It is easy to scroll between holes using the bottom left and right buttons, but really all you have to do is go and play. If you don't want to track your shots then you can select the GPS option to just use it as a GPS. If you just want to track your shots only then select the Pro option.
In full GPS + Tracking mode there is no scoring, steps, shot trackers or other nice to have information, which is quite refreshing in a way. Click the top left button next to the triangle and the V2 will show distances to hazards and to carry them, which is good to see both distances as not many devices do this.
Given that the Shot Scope is a performance tracker too, then it is probably for more dedicated golfers who might be using a laser for distances to the flags. For me this is the perfect combination anyway and as you swing along merrily the Shot Scope V2 is recording the club and GPS positions of each swing without you having to do anything.
The only time you have to touch the V2 is when you have holed out. Then the Pin Collect screen automatically comes up and all you have to do is stand next to the hole and push the button marked 0, 1, 2 or 3 for the number of putts taken.
This marks the position of the flag so that your putting and approach stats can be worked out and the Shot Scope approach to this is the best in the market as it is simple and easy to use.
In practice the sensor in the putter was very good at picking up almost every shot including tap ins, providing you give it a decent strike. Sometimes the final putt and the flag position were recorded as being a little further apart then in reality.
However all this can be fixed in the post-match edit. Once you are finished you sync your V2 with the app and the shot data is transferred back to your online account.
It can't be viewed easily on the app as it needs to be 'confirmed' in your online account first so you will need to login via a computer or tablet to do this.
Here you can add, remove or edit shots easily using a drag and drop admin area which takes around 10 to 15 minutes so it does require some dedication.
After that the holes diagrams and performance stats are then visible online and in the app. This is where Shot Scope also stands out as it has the most in depth analytics that is based on the strokes gained philosophy.
You can see your distances and accuracy by club and as well as the overall average, you can also see a performance average that takes into account drives into the wind or that land on a cart path that might distort the average. Swtiching between clubs to see individual stats is easy enough, although the % figure scrolling up rather than just displaying starts to get tiresome if you switch between clubs a lot.
This enables you to see if there are areas to improve such as certain types of shot, fairways that are only missed on one side or the actual distances you hit clubs so that you can choose better in the future.
You need a decent number of rounds for this and if you use say a 9 iron for chipping then you can mark this as a positional shot within the system after the round and it won't count for distance stats.
The stats analysis is improving all the time and a recent update saw the introduction of a Red Zone analysis to show how many shots you hit close by round and club.
The putting stats also now feature a Never Up, Never In stat for missed putts which can be quite a shock, but I guess if you are short you will always miss, so maybe a short miss as a percentage of total putts attempted would be fairer.
The accuracy of the flag position relative to your recorded shots is key here, so given that there is a GPS margin for error of a couple of feet on this, then you will need to be kind to yourself and look at the general trends over a period of time.
The date for analysing your rounds is set to the calendar year which is frustrating if you want to pick a shorter period or look at rounds over the last 6 months and it is spread over 2017 and 2018. Hopefully that will be another update soon.
Overall the tracking element of the Shot Scope V2 is still one of the best in the market as it requires nothing more than wearing something on your wrist and clicking the flag position after you have holed out so the interference with your game is minimal.
The looks are quite functional and so is the menu, but that makes it simple to use and the statistical analysis is one of the best out there so over time the Shot Scope V2 will give you a valuable insight into your game that will hopefully get you round in fewer shots in the future.