Golf Digest South Africa — January 2018

tephen Smith was perplexed in golf ’s
time-honoured struggle between a
caddie’s recommendation and his own
opinion. The caddie had been clear:
6-iron. But Smith felt more like 5-iron.
So naturally, he ignored the caddie and
went with his gut.
The 5-iron flew half a club too far, settling behind a tree
root and leading to an infuriating double bogey. The caddie
knew Stephen Smith better than Smith knew himself.
But the caddie wasn’t scowling, nor did he wrap a con-
soling arm around his man and steady him as they walked
to the next tee. The caddie, as it turns out, doesn’t walk,
and isn’t a he or a she. It’s a machine called Arccos Caddie
that can live inside your smartphone. And, having processed
more than 70 million shots and 368 million geo-tagged
data points, it not only knows Smith and his tendencies,
it has the potential to know everything there is to know
about every golfer and every shot that could ever be hit in
every situation on any golf course from any lie and in any
weather event there could be.
This is golf coming face to face with Big Data, a

meeting that could change the game’s future, in this case

restoring the bond between player and trusted caddie, even

if the caddie is artificially intelligent.

Since the invention of the pencil, golf has been lean-

ing in towards its numbers, and with the emergence of

Big Data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the

game is about to get smarter than it has ever been. Smarter

players, smarter course operators, smarter equipment man-

ufacturers. The measurement and analysis of golf ’s numbers

will eventually change every element of the game.

Thanks to rapid advancements in computer science,

AI has been making big news in all forms of business and

marketing since its evolution from sci-fi fantasy just a few

decades ago to everyday reality. AI is how Amazon

knows what brand of toilet paper you need to order

before you do, or how Netflix finds you the perfect movie

for a Friday night. AI is what drives your GPS system, and

it’s what will be driving your driverless Google car in the

not-too-distant future.

What AI says is, we are our data, and the numbers never

lie. And now it has found in golf a natural place for its

capabilities. Despite being a sport known for its volumes of

GOLFDIGEST.CO.ZA / J ANUARY 2018/ 49

A FOCUS ON MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS IS

CHANGING GOLF. HERE’S HOW IT CAN BOOST YOUR GAME

BY MIKE STACHURA

ILLUSTRATION BY TAVIS COBURN