Golf Tech Weekly Podcast #2: The New Shot Scope LM1 Launch Monitor
Watch Golf Tech Weekly Ep. 2: Why the Shot Scope LM1 Golf Launch Monitor Is Mind-Boggling
The Shot Scope LM1 is generating major buzz as one of the most affordable launch monitors ever introduced. At just $200, Shot Scope’s first launch monitor works both indoors and outdoors, features a bright built-in display, stores up to 1,000 shots, and requires no subscription. Rather than overwhelming golfers with data, the LM1 focuses on five core metrics: club speed, ball speed, smash factor, carry distance, and total distance.
Marc Sheforgen and Daniel Fitzpatrick discuss why the LM1 could be an ideal portable practice tool, particularly for driving-range sessions, warm-ups, and golfers who want reliable distance information without a phone or tablet. Its compact size, simple operation, lack of special balls or club stickers, and relatively small space requirements add to its appeal.
The biggest question is accuracy, which the team plans to test extensively. They also explore potential future integrations with Shot Scope’s broader ecosystem. With pre-orders beginning February 11 and shipping expected in late March, the LM1 could make launch-monitor technology accessible to a much wider audience.
Read The Shot Scope LM1 Podcast Transcript
With your hosts and golf tech experts Marc Sheforgen and Daniel Fitzpatrick!
Marc Sheforgen:
All right, welcome back to Play Better's Golf Tech Weekly. This is our weekly podcast where we aim to discuss the hottest, most exciting products in golf tech. Last week, we kicked this off with a great discussion about the upcoming Square Omni Edition, which has really been unbelievably popular coming out of the PGA show. This week, we're talking about the product that I would say has been kind of the other product that's been generating the most buzz and that would be the Shot Scope LM1. It is Shot Scope's first ever launch monitor. It's only $199.99. It works indoors and outdoors. It's got a built-in screen. It has some other kind of subtle advantages that we'll talk about today. And it is another one that I think people are very excited about.
I'm Marc Scheforgen, a golf writer with PlayBetter.com and joining me again today is Daniel Fitzpatrick. Daniel is our in-house golf simulator expert. And Daniel, before we get going here or dive deeper, just curious to ask you what maybe you're hearing from customers about the LM1.
Daniel Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, thanks, Marc. It certainly grasped the market a little bit just by curiosity, just for the fact that, you know, I believe that Shot Scope has had a good history in the golf industry of just promoting and pushing out good solid products. And like similar other companies, they've now started to dip into the launch monitor side of things so we can you know, start using that data we get on the driving range to now apply it with some of our other devices, maybe from Shot Scope out on the golf course. So it's certainly exciting to see more companies get involved. Like we said last week, it's a great time to be a golf consumer because there's more products, there's more competition, and that keeps everybody on edge as far as the manufacturers go to keep pushing, you know, the envelope of technology and making things more affordable for us golfers.
Yeah, like you, Marc, I think we're excited to get it in-house and do some testing with it. I think both of our, I'll at least speak for myself, I think the first impression was that it looks really cool. It feels like a nice product, but just being able to get out and test it is what we're all eager to do.
Marc:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, full disclosure. So Daniel and I did see the product at the PGA show. We got to hold it. We got to talk to Shot Scope pretty extensively about it. Got to see and walk through some of its features, but we have not yet got to test this product or hit shots with it and see things like shot to shot times or capture rate or any other discrepancies that may or may not present themselves. And so just as Daniel says, as we get further along here, we will have that chance to test it extensively and update some of this information.
But today we'll share what we have learned, what we do know, and potentially what we suspect. And also maybe some of the questions that we still do have or even some of the things that we'd like to see come as this product continues to evolve. But again, the headline here is a $200 launch monitor, that is, you know, that alone is quite shocking because even in the so-called affordable launch monitor space, to date we've been talking about products that are just under that thousand dollar mark. Even when we get into some of the lower priced options, they're still, you know, above the $500 mark. And so to now have not only a launch monitor, but one that can be taken indoors and outdoors and that has a built-in screen for only $199.99 is very, very compelling. As Daniel mentioned, Shot Scope is not a new company. They've certainly been around for a while and have been generating a lot of excitement. They have a loyal following, mostly because they've been known as the company that offers the value alternative.
In a lot of cases, rather than opting for the most tricked out or fanciest packaging or some of the features and bells and whistles that may or may not be of interest to consumers, they tend to choose to focus on kind of the core technology and core performance and do it at a really, really attractive price. So up to this point, they've been doing that with a line of range finders, a line of golf watches, GPS watches, handheld GPS units. And we've kind of been waiting for their entry into the launch monitor space. Now we've got that. And so I've reviewed several of their products.
I've always thought quite highly of this company and one thing that I've always thought about them is that even if you're not a Shot Scope user, you potentially are an indirect beneficiary for all the reasons that Daniel just mentioned. They really are kind of, kind of almost like watchdogs in this space and keeping the bigger brands and manufacturers honest in their pricing because if those brands want to get a little too aggressive or greedy with their pricing, Shot Scope stands by as a really, really nice value alternative. Let's talk, Daniel, about maybe one of the first kind of, at least for me, eye catchers, which was that screen. When you saw the product initially, can you tell me kind of what maybe jumped out to you? Was it that display? And if so, what grabbed your attention?
Daniel:
Yeah, definitely was the built-in display that first caught my attention, not only because it's nice and bright and the numbers are large and easy to read, but the screen is almost the size of the unit. I mean, it takes up probably half, I'd say half the size, I should say, you know, and the numbers are easy to read, which when it is on the ground position behind you, that's important because you don't want to have to bend over to look at the screen. You want to be able to just see it from where you're hitting the golf ball.
So I came away impressed immediately by that. But even so, by its overall size, I would say it's probably not much bigger than a cell phone. So it is very portable, which is attractive to me because like I've said before, I believe this launch monitor is gonna be something that people buy not only as maybe their only simulator or launch monitor device, not that this device can do simulation, but...
Maybe people who have permanent sims in their home and they want something for the driving range. This is the perfect solution for them to get some basic data in their practice sessions or their warm-ups before they go play golf. So yeah, right away, like you said, the screen and just the actual size of the device was really appealing because I know I could put it in my golf bag and if I'm, you know, if I'm walking and carrying my bag, I don't even have to worry about it being in there because it's not going to really add any weight.
Marc:
Right. Right. And I know you saw or I think maybe you talked to them about the case. And I'm not sure I got any info on that. But they did confirm that it comes with a carrying case. Is that right?
Daniel:
Yeah, I believe it's like a soft side, like almost hard soft sided type of zippered case that it will be stored in, is a nice feature, especially if you are pretty much using it on the go or before rounds at practice routines at the golf course, then it's a nice protection for it while it's in transport.
Marc:
Yeah, yeah. I think you bring up a really good point of the likely use case. And we can touch on this a bit more as we go. But most likely, even though it can be used indoors, I think we're going to see a lot of outdoor range use for this. And just as you said, I think this becomes potentially the perfect portable device for somebody who maybe doesn't want to move their indoor setup.
Anyways, I guess let's talk about, also kind of what this is and what this is not. Daniel touched on this. This is not a golf simulator. And that's important to note. This is very much just a golf launch monitor. It does not interface with sim software. Who knows what the future may hold, but that's the case as of now. Furthermore, it is not a launch monitor with every last data metric. In fact, it's quite simple in that it gives you just club speed, ball speed, smash factor, carry distance, and total distance. With the built-in screen, you've got the option to operate without interfacing with the app at all. And the unit itself can store up to 1,000 shots. Is that right, Daniel? I believe internally. Yeah, which means that then post-session or when you get home from your round or whatever the case, can sync up to the app and compare your data with other sessions or get a little bit more insight. But I know, Daniel, you're somebody that probably would agree to this fact that not everybody needs all the data. It's great, of course, and it's nice to have in-depth information. But when we talk about kind of the core metrics of club speed, ball speed, smash factor, carry distance, and total distance, we essentially have what we need to know, you know, how fast we're swinging the club, how fast it's coming off of our face, how efficiently we're striking it, and how far it's going. And really, for most amateur golfers, that's solid information without giving them information over.
Would you agree?
Daniel:
Yeah, 100%, especially for the value we're talking about, you know, when it's only a couple hundred dollars and especially like we're talking about it, if it's, you know, mainly a driving range tool, you know, which we suspect it will be, you know, it's great. Even if I look at it as before a round, you know, hitting some golf balls, can, you know, maybe you know what your normal club and ball speeds are. You'll be able to quickly tell when you're actually got your body warmed up and everything's activated and you are ready to go play a round of golf.
Plus it's user friendly. I mean, like you said, you don't have to have the app to pair with it if you don't want to. And like we talked about in last week's episode, that means you don't have to have a phone or tablet out on the driving range to get overheated or just cause additional headaches while you're just trying to maybe hit some golf balls. So it is certainly attractive with how simplistic it is, even though obviously the user may want more data.
But this is really all you need for a practice session to zero in on how far you're hitting the golf ball because I would bet that eight out of 10 amateur golfers don't truly know how far they actually hit every golf club in their bag.
Marc:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And something that we'll be of course excited to test obviously is accuracy. One thing that we've seen with devices maybe somewhat similar to this like the Swing Caddie SC4 PRO comes to mind with these smaller radar devices that are less expensive is sometimes as you get further up the bag into the woods and driver and the swing speed increases, accuracy can start to wane a little bit. I know that Shot Scope was pretty aggressive in declaring that this was going to be, I think, within a few yards of accuracy of the Trackman. We'll, of course, see if that's in fact the case.
Again, $200 for those core metrics is very, very exciting on the surface. The other thing too that's so cool about this is the Shot Scope model still remains no subscriptions ever. I know when you met with them, Daniel, they hammered down on that point that this is a company that doesn't believe in subscriptions or ongoing cost. And so in this case, it really is $200. It's a one-time $200 spend, got what you need for the life of the product. That makes it that much more attractive. I'm sure, Daniel, you encounter that pretty regularly. Customers wanting to know kind of that carryover cost of ownership. And this is just another one of those examples of a product that's pretty attractive in that respect.
Daniel:
Yeah, and it's nice that they are very proud and confident and continuing to say, no subscriptions, it's not something that they do. That's a welcoming statement for consumers to hear because it seems like everywhere we turn now, there's subscriptions on every little thing. So it's nice to have that, especially when they do have a software app that pairs with it.
I think we'll see as time goes on if there's any type of integrations with some of their other products. I think that would be cool. But yeah, I think that's a cool thing to be able to hang your hat on because it's not something that's normal, especially in technology these days to not have additional subscriptions or ongoing costs because the company themselves, they have ongoing costs to keep this product up to date and make changes. And for them to not push those costs onto the consumers is certainly an attractive thing as a consumer buyer to navigate or be pulled towards their direction in their products. So I think that's really incredible to not have to continuously charge customers for the product after they own it.
Marc:
Yeah, yeah, excellent. Price is $199.99. Tell us about the pre-order process. When can customers get this? When do we anticipate starting to show up? How are we looking there?
Daniel:
Yeah, so pre-orders are going to start on February 11th. That'll be available at playbetter.com. I do believe it's just going to be a partial deposit just to get your place in line. That'll be updated on the website tomorrow. I'm not sure if that's been confirmed just yet. But basically, once you place your order to be placed in line, we will hold you as the orders come in and then ship as the orders are received. So we're expecting to ship this late March from our initial plans as we talked last week, obviously technology, things like this can change slightly. But as of right now, that's the plan, is late March. So February 11th, I believe probably around nine or 10 a.m. Eastern time, it'll be live on our website for purchase.
Marc:
Yep, great.
Seems like it's going to likely be a very popular gift option. Again, when we talk about, you know, golf tech, it's not always so affordable. I don't know what kind of gifts you give Daniel. I'm looking forward to the next one you give me, but they don't often give multi hundred dollar gifts, but $200. Maybe I could swing it for somebody that I really liked. And yeah, this seems like it's easily the most accessible launch monitor and probably one that's going to be tough to keep in stock. You anticipate it going pretty quickly, the initial batch?
Daniel:
Yeah, 100%. I think a big part of it obviously as we've briefly touched on will be understanding how accurate it is. Like you said, the Shot Scope team was very confident in it and they have every right to be because their products have been consistent over time. So I think as we're as eager as most of the people that are hopefully gonna be watching and listening to this, we're eager to get some demo units and test it as soon as we can so we can get that feedback back out as well. Because as you know, Marc,
with golf technology, once we get to certain price points, that's where accuracy is scrutinized the most because everybody wants a $200 product to perform like a $25,000 Trackman, which in my opinion, if we're within three or 4% of average, then we're gonna be pretty dang impressive at a $200 price point.
Marc:
I would think so. Not to use the term good enough is good enough, but let's face it, for a lot of amateur golfers, do we need to be down to the 10th of a yard or are we potentially good enough if we're within a yard or two? I would argue that for most all of us, it's plenty, plenty accurate if we're even approaching that Foresight or Trackman standard. And if in fact we are for only $200, I mean, that's going to become a no-brainer for a lot of people.
I think. There's some other kind of interesting subtle advantages to it. Of course, it is available to use indoors and outdoors, which is nice. I think as we've discussed, we both envision probably the majority of use being outdoors, but that's not to say that there won't be users who do choose to use it indoors, especially in the off season. And one nice thing about that is that it requires a little bit less space than other radar units.
It brings to mind the Swing Caddie SC4 PRO, which is another one that isn't quite the space hog that some of these other radar units are. And we bring that up because that's such a big deal for so many users. Not everybody has a room that is long enough to accommodate a Doppler radar unit. And even a couple of feet difference is oftentimes the difference between having access to this $200 unit and it being impractical or not an option for you.
So this one, if I'm understanding it right, and I did get some conflicting information here, which we'll have to confirm as we get in there, but I think that it may be anywhere between five and six feet behind the ball, which when you consider that there are other other Doppler devices that, you know, may need to sit seven or eight feet behind the ball. Again, that space difference oftentimes can be major. Can you talk about that, Daniel, as to what you see as maybe the potential advantage there.
Daniel:
Yeah, definitely. You know, like you said, it is an advantage to not have to have as large of a footprint. I believe, you know, with the history of understanding of the radar products is that because it doesn't, you know, it's not taking as much data, it's not going to need as much space to capture everything. So we're not measuring spin rate. We're not measuring, you know, certain ball data that needs time for that golf ball to fly through the air.
So, yeah, like you said, I think they said, I think around five or six feet behind. Obviously we can confirm that with them directly. But that's impressive to be able to do that because, you know, like a golfer, I feel like I can get pretty creative even with a device that doesn't show me which way the golf ball's flying. You can still do wedge ladder drills and work on, you know, hitting a specific distance with a golf club and trying to see how close to that distance you can get.
Marc: Yep.
Daniel: I would anticipate that the software will advance over time and have some type of built-in games like that. That's just me speculating, of course. But yeah, I certainly see value to even users using it inside if maybe they just want to get started on a budget launch monitor and have a little bit of feedback, then this could be a perfect option for them without maybe the products before. Like you said, they just didn't have the space for them or the budget for them. Well, this can hit two birds with one stone here and allow them to build that space, you know, for basic practice.
Marc:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Another interesting point is that because we're not capturing club data here, we don't need fiducials or club stickers or hosel stickers of any kind. So it's much more simple in that regard. And then also because we're not reading spin rates, you can use any golf ball, whether even indoors, you don't need a RCT or RPT ball. I do wonder, and I think you brought this point up, if in the future we may see interface with an RCT ball, maybe potentially adding spin rate or just that much more accuracy to the unit. But I think it's a welcome thing for a lot of golfers buying a $200 launch monitor to not have to worry about special golf balls and club stickers. So I view that by and large as a positive.
But let's talk about potentially maybe integrations that aren't here currently that you'd like to see or that speculate could be potentials for down the road as the product continues to evolve.
Daniel:
Yeah, I think there's certainly some wants and needs already that we're seeing through the forums, you know, that are similar with past devices like we've briefly touched on. I can certainly see or hope I should say not see, I should hope for integrations with speed training products, you know, devices that are just capturing the swing speed and giving you readouts. You know, there's similar devices already in this realm that are providing that type of feedback with integration. So I can certainly see opportunities there. And like you said, maybe some of these radar specific golf balls to potentially add more data on the future, that would certainly be interesting. The only thing I would question on that is if the type of display that's on the device, if that can be added data or not down the road, because like you said, we know very little about those intricacies of the build out of the hardware.
And it's not like a touch screen or anything like that. So it makes me wonder, you know, with this specific device, can those type of upgrades be made? And maybe that's why it's called the LM1 because they have plans for something down the road depending on this device's success. So of course that's me just speculating. Please everybody understand.
Marc:
There you go. Yeah, yeah, blame Daniel if we don't get those features for the same for the same $200. Yeah, you know, I don't want to get too far away from that screen because I do think it's worth highlighting again or just talking about again.
One product that comes to mind when we think of comparisons, in fact for me potentially the only product that comes to mind is that PRGR? Because it is, I'm going off memory here, $230. It measures the same five metrics. It also is portable and indoor outdoors, but to me the huge thing that jumps out is the LM1 not only is it $30 cheaper, but the screen is far far superior and just as you said, for a device that's gonna sit behind the ball when we want to glance back and see our numbers, especially those of us that might be more visually challenged, that's huge to be able to see crystal clear big numbers at a glance and not have to strain or walk back to get the data is awesome. As Daniel mentioned, it is not a touchscreen device, but it does have some buttons on the side of the device that allow you to toggle and choose club selection. And the reason that you have that option to tell it what club you're hitting is because again, it has that internal storage and then you can later on sync to the app to store your session and compare to previous sessions and start to get an idea of your averages, carry distance with your 7-iron, for example, and start to kind of develop some actual data patterns over time that help you and inform you about what it is that your swing is doing and maybe where there's opportunity for improvement. So the other competitor that I think comes to mind potentially is the Swing Caddie SC4 PRO, considerably more expensive. and does do some things that the LM1 does not, most notably, simulate our software integration. Am I missing any, Daniel, or would those be the products that jump to your mind as comps here?
Daniel:
Yeah, I even think back to the original FlightScope Mevo. However, that device didn't have a built-in screen. So, you know, this does feel like a little bit more advanced, very similar metrics that are provided. You know, from the outside looking in, I would assume that this is similar to that and that it's a, you know, a limited tracking radar. So it's going to track, you know, a portion of flight and then they have, you know, some calculations. So I think that's where there might be some settings within the device that you might need to show its location or through the app.
So those are the things I think that are yet to be seen to see how sophisticated it is for different locations. But I do think it's very similar to even that FlightScope. Even I think some of it is similar to that. The shape of it is kind of similar. But that built-in screen is the game changing piece of it in my mind, like you've mentioned, Marc, because like with the PRGR, even some of the Swing Caddie device is the screen wasn't easy to read. You know, the Swing Caddie did a little bit better job than like the PRGR did. But I just love that even when I was at the show, actually set it down on the ground and took a few steps forward just to see how easy it was to read on the ground. It's very bright, very easy to see. So that is, you know, I know we've been repeating that a little bit, but that's certainly important because that's the whole aspect of having the screen is being able to see it without having to bend over.
Marc:
Hmm. Right. It almost reminded me a little bit of a miniature Full Swing Kit, you know, which is another product that has just a gorgeous, gorgeous display with the built-in screen radar unit that you can see so crystal clear. Yeah, again, just like Daniel said, we don't mean to just keep hammering on the same point, but it's important to note because it's 200 bucks and the screen looks awesome. Yeah, we should make that clear. No remote control. So you're manually adjusting the club selection. I don't think that's a huge deal for everybody, but again, just talking about some of the comps. Something like the SC4 PRO comes with a remote. Anyhow, quite a lot here for $200. Should be very, very popular, very, very exciting. Also interesting to consider what may come down the line.
Daniel touched on a number of things that could be possibilities. Another one would be just kind of further integration with the Shot Scope ecosystem. You know, one thing that Daniel and I talked about internally is how much we saw companies evolving to start to integrate their full ecosystems. So we're seeing more and more, you know, personalized club recommendations in rangefinder reticles based on launch monitor data. That's becoming kind of a common, in fact, I would say that was one of the sub themes of the PGA show for me was just seeing how many companies are following the lead that Foresight, Bushnell, FlightScope established with their products last year here and how kind of commonplace that's becoming. Shot Scope is one of those brands that's well positioned to follow suit. You know, they've been doing shot tracking for quite a while. They have, you know, their GPS watches, their rangefinders. So potentially at some point we see this LM1 data integrated with their watches and rangefinders. But who knows? Point is that they've got a robust ecosystem that they're building now.
Marc:
And probably the one missing piece, kind of cornerstone piece, was the launch monitor. And so now we've got that. Super, super exciting. Anything that we've missed, Daniel, obviously we will know more when we get hands on. Anything else that you're thinking about as we talk about the LM1?
Daniel:
No, I think we've hit on all the main talking points here today. I think there is a ton of excitement around this product already. You know, anybody who follows online newsletters or beat reports on the show, this was a pretty hot product. I mean, we even kind of touched on some of our articles. We had to wait just to be able to see one because there were so many people at their booths. So there's certainly a buzz, certainly a lot of excitement about this.
And we're excited too. I think we're just excited to go out and do some of our own testing and see how much potential this device has. Because I think we do believe that it does have a lot of potential. And the sky's the limit for after the fact for type of integrations and things like that. That's obviously between Shot Scope and their potential partnerships. But yeah, certainly excited. It's always nice to have new technology, people dipping into to areas that they haven't before and to bring this out as the first launch monitor and have this type of impression already is certainly impressive in my opinion.
Marc:
Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's going to continue to generate a lot of buzz. If you've wanted a launch monitor but haven't been able to justify the cost, I think this becomes the product that allows you access, potentially even just to experiment or see if it's for you. The risk of skin in the game is a lot lower. And so I think for that reason and a lot more, it's going to be very, very popular. I should remind everybody that Daniel's available to help customers with their launch monitor, simulator, other golf tech purchasing decisions. Very, very cool guy to talk to. Makes it very easy to kind of work with your individual use case and see what best fits your budget, kind of your game, what's important to you.
So encourage anybody that may be on the fence about any of this to give Daniel a call, talk through it with him. Go to playbetter.com to place your pre-order. We do anticipate this one being hot, probably gonna be a tough one to keep in stock. So please be patient, but get in line if you're interested. And appreciate everybody watching and Daniel, thanks so much. Look forward to talking to you next week.
Daniel:
Yeah, thanks, Marc.
Marc:
Thank you.