NEW YORK — Sal Syed admits it’s almost too good to be true. The first time he utilized the Arccos Caddie, golf’s first artificial intelligence-powered platform, he notched a hole-in-one.
“My first experience was nothing short of remarkable,” says Syed, who is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Arccos, a golf tracking, sensor and data company.
“(Arccos Caddie) is similar to, almost like a Waze or Google Maps. It’s giving you the optimal directions to get from Point A to Point B on the golf course. I know I’m biased but I can’t imagine playing without it now.”
On hole No. 7 at the Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn., Syed — who said the accomplishment is registered with Arccos and “all legit” — explained that the Caddie suggested he hit the shot with an eight iron despite him wanting to select the nine iron based on the distance and weather conditions that day. Ultimately, he deferred to the Caddie and aced the hole.
Founded in 2011, the Stamford, Conn.-based Arccos moved away from originally placing tracking sensors in golf balls to putting them in the butt of golf grips in order to capture shots and yardage information, eventually creating a micro-sensor platform that launched three years ago in the form of mobile app Arccos 360.
In 2016, Syed began thinking more about the direction of the company after collecting millions of shots across tens of thousands of golf courses. He said that the next step in Arccos’ evolution was applying machine learning to the data and predicting how golfers would fare on the links.
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According to Syed, just three percent of golfers today play with a human caddie but with the virtual Caddie powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud platform — Arccos’ Cloud Partner as of January — golfers will now have access to objective data that wouldn’t be present otherwise.
“We’re going to create the world’s smartest caddie to bring something back to the game of golf that used to be a mainstay 100 years ago,” Syed said. “We are bringing that tradition back using technology and data.”
Added Microsoft Sports Principal Evangelist Mike Downey in a statement: “Arccos Caddie is the first platform in sports that truly harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to help players make smarter decisions. Through the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Arccos Caddie instantly digests unique data sets and delivers actionable advice to any golfer, from beginners to pros seeking to make the PGA TOUR.”
Syed illustrated that once a golfer plays just five rounds with Arccos’ 360 system and pairs it with the Caddie, a subscription-based product that launched last month, the machine learning will begin to take effect and understand a player’s tendencies. The data collected from Arccos and its club sensors is then fed into the Microsoft platform, whose machine learning tools are used to create machine learning algorithms for Arccos. In short, the data is then turned into noteworthy insights, suggestions and decisions for golfers to integrate into their golf strategy and make split-second decisions through the use of their smartphone.
He said that hundreds of variables are being factored into the Microsoft platform, which then spews out recommendations. For example, if a golfer has struggled with his driver the past 10 rounds on a certain hole length, the Caddie will respond to that information and also layer in wind speed, temperature, precipitation, fairway length, hazards, elevation and other variables to deliver advice on what club to use. When providing feedback, the Caddie will not only consider prior round history but also factor in the 61 million shots hit by the Arccos community along with the 386 million data points across 40,000 courses.
“The average Arccos user improved their handicap 2.77 shots per season and 36 times faster than the average golfer out there,” cited Syed, who added that club decisions will take roughly three seconds to form.
Said Syed: “The more you play, the smarter the Caddie gets.”
He reiterated that with learning the objective data, the Caddie will be “smarter than humans” and provide tangible insights void of any emotion, over-analysis or exaggerated thinking about one’s hitting prowess. By 2020, he believes every golf club will come embedded with Arccos sensors. Currently, it has a formal partnership with golf brand and manufacturer Cobra, with Syed saying the company’s technology will “help make the golf industry more efficient.”
The United States Golf Association recommends competitors complete a full round in four hours and 30 minutes compared to those who have utilized Arccos and shaved off almost a half four. Additionally, through Arccos’ data collection, Syed said that in the future there’s the potential to share information with golf courses to understand the walking patterns on courses and determine what areas need more or less water and treatment. Thus, irrigation costs could hopefully be lowered with the data analysis, according to Syed. It’s just one example he provided for how Arccos could make the game more economically viable.
Through channeling the relationship with Microsoft and leveraging millions of data points, Arccos is still on the ground floor of what it hopes to accomplish via technology and data, not only for itself but the golf industry as well.
“We’re going to keep pushing the envelope forward and fast,” Syed said.