Arccos Golf announced Thursday that Microsoft will be its official cloud partner in an initiative that will see the two companies develop technologies that use advanced analytics to deliver insights to help golfers of all skill levels.
The Arccos Course Analyzer will debut Jan. 24 at the PGA Show in Orlando as a platform that layers an Arccos user’s data on top of millions of data points for more than 40,000 golf courses mapped in the Arccos system. It uses Microsoft Azure’s cloud-computing services and machine learning capabilities to provide personalized recommendations for strategies on nearly every golf hole in the world.
“Our goal is to create the most advanced Artificial Intelligence platform for golf,” Arccos CEO and co-founder Sal Syed said in a statement. “It will leverage a user’s personal performance history, all the shots ever taken by the Arccos community, weather, elevation, course features, equipment selections and much more. The resulting strategic advice will be smarter than anything that’s humanly possible. With its broad suite of capabilities, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform is the ideal solution to unlock this vision.”
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Arccos brings its performance tracking and data set of 50 million golf shots to Microsoft Azure and Azure Machine Learning. Their collaboration comes after Arccos introduced in November the Arccos 360, which consists of 14 light sensors that attach to the club grip and records and analyzes every shot in real-time. Arccos also that month announced it had connectivity with Cobra Golf drivers.
“The use of advanced analytics in golf is in its infancy compared to other major sports due to the tremendous challenges of collecting the required shot data,” Mike Downey, Director, Principal Evangelist – Sports at Microsoft, said in a statement. “The PGA Tour overcomes these hurdles with a team of 350 data collection volunteers at every tournament. Arccos is the first company that has truly cracked this code for amateurs by creating a virtually automatic sensor platform that seamlessly integrates into a player’s routine. As a result, Arccos has developed an impressive and rapidly expanding data set. We’re excited to layer this with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to deliver intelligence that helps golfers realize their full potential.”
Added Syed: “Despite being at a very early stage, our insights have directly contributed to the average Arccos user improving their handicap by a remarkable 3.52 strokes. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the advanced analytics that will be delivered to the Arccos community through our work with Microsoft.”