To date, golf smartwatches have been pretty simple. They’re useful for tracking shots on the course, but useless for tracking swing data. For that, you’d use launch monitors and simulators, but even those are more about where the ball is going, not what you’re body is doing. Until now, a coach was your best bet to perfect your golf game. Aside from that, you’d have to spend hours at the range finding your swing through trial and error.
But Apple, in partnership with the developers at Golfshot, has created the ultimate driving range tool. Fittingly, the update dropped just before Father’s Day 2024. With the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Golfshot’s new Swing ID—part of its $59.99/year Golfshot Pro plan—you can get some of the most accurate golf data out there, swing-by-swing. It completely changes the game for casuals, weekend warriors, and diehards alike.
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Golfshot has released a new update that leverages the data collected on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 to hone in on every little mechanic that comprises a swing—hand and wrist rotation, the club face, body rotation, hand speed, rhythm, etc. Your watch can now measure your “Swing ID,” every time you hit a ball. Essentially, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has one of the most minutely accurate accelerometer and gyroscope setups we’ve seen—much more accurate than those of other smartwatches, even lesser Apple Watches. And in watchOS 10, Apple leveraged that tech for some high-motion frequency APIs. (That means golf-specific data collection. Try to stay with me here.) The watch collects thousands of data points throughout your swing that can measure infinitely small variations within the duration of a golf swing, all the way up to the millisecond that the club strikes the ball. (The watch is sophisticated enough to measure when you strike the ball based on vibrations within your wrist.)
Ok… What does any of this mean for a golfer? It’s easiest for me to explain with my experience. Apple and Golfshot let me try the combo out at the range.
I thought I was in a bad spot golf-wise. The last time I hit at a range would have been in college. I’ve never found golf to be like riding a bike. To use that analogy, getting a driver back in my hands feels like riding a bike in a dream. I know how it should feel, but it actually feels like all my muscles work independently from one another. I’m doing too much with my legs, not enough with my core, and chronically slicing because of it.
This is where I’d still call in a professional. On site, our pro was Jonathan Doctor. (Incredible coach, by the way.) He told me to call him Doc. Doc came over and pretty much told me my issue was more technical than anything I was worried about. “Grips great,” and my legs and core were “not bad at all.” I could slow my tempo down, but I was consistent, at least. Cool, but now I’m in the territory of minor tweaks, and those take years to fix.
Doc took a look at my Golfshot stats. Hand speed is decent. Rhythm, backswing angle, and transition could all use work, but they wouldn’t break my swing. Swing path is a tad too straight, and my slices are (you guessed it) stemming from a wide open club face—something shocking like 30° on my worst swings. I’d be more intentional on an iron, which would hide it. But put a driver in my hands, and I’d swing for broke and end up hitting the driving range’s side netting. So, Doc tells me first to focus on that inside-to-outside, and we do a quick train tracks drill. Gives me an extra 50 yards before my ball starts to slice. “Now, just focus on closing that club face.” And that was the last I saw of the Doctor.
The rest of the time I was just closing that club face. The app gives you targets to hit—obviously, it tells you 0°. I set a more reasonable target of 5°. Anything under that, and I’m staying on the fairway. Incrementally, I cut that angle down. By the end of my session, I had a string of five decent drives, so I decided to go for distance again… Slice. Look at my watch, and it’s another open club face.
None of this feels revolutionary, even if it is done with some of the most inconceivably advanced tech on earth. A coach would see problems faster than I would see them with a watch, but I’d have to pay them to stand there. If I were working on my own—as my journalist salary would allow—it would take multiple weekend sessions to figure this all out. But load up Golfshot on my Apple Watch Ultra 2, and I’m fixing my swing in one afternoon. That’s what’s revolutionary here. I’m getting data that’s so hyper-specific to my swing, and I can see it change swing by swing. If I need a second opinion, I can share my Golfshot data with my coach, and they’ll give me steps for my next session. But I don’t need them to be there. I could set up a net in the backyard, walk out there at 7:00 A.M. on a Saturday, hit one hundred balls, and send that to my coach. For the freedom and precision of information the Apple Watch Ultra 2 gives you, I’d say it’s more than worth the price of admission.
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