Golf on the Band 2

[HSolo]

Anyone experienced playing golf with the Band 2, and selecting a different wrist / orientation?

On the original Band, the golf app required one to wear the Band on one's leading wrist. This was to enable it to count shots, and it generally did a pretty good job. I'm right-handed, and I made the mistake once of forgetting to move it to my left wrist (I usually wear it on my right wrist when not playing), and it did not count any of my shots.

I wear a heavy watch, and have gotten used to how the watch feels and moves on my wrist while playing golf. So moving the original Band to my left wrist impacted how my golf swing felt (felt "off"). But I had to do that to enable it to count shots. So imagine my delight in finding that the golf app on the Band 2 allows one to specify which wrist, and orientation, the Band 2 will be worn during golf.

Problem is......it didn't work. Wore it on my inside right wrist, and it didn't count a single shot. I know someone posted on these forums that they experimented with the original Band, and that worn on the right wrist, but face outside, it worked. Which makes sense, because the sensors would detect motion the same way as if on the inside left wrist. Soooo........

Either my Band is defective, or maybe they left out the algorithm to switch the way it detects a swing if the user has selected to wear it on a different wrist. I will try to test it tonight, with it on my left wrist.

 

[peterrod116]

Good afternoon, my wife purchase the band 2 on Friday night for me(early Christmas gift)
I tested the golf aspect yesterday morning at a 9 hole course in union NJ.
The process was very smooth.
I did get an option to chose which hand to put the band on.
I am a left handed player so my right hand is my lead hand.
9 out of 10 in my eyes.
Took 30 seconds to lock in the GPS. tap the action button to get yardage information.
Easy to get in a pattern. Walk to your shot, hit the action put, grab your club and go.
For some reason it had a little difficultly with small chip shots and tap in putts.

My only gripe was the scorecard had incorrect data for holes 4-9.
Example #9 hole is a par 3 scorecard app said par 5.
My score was a 39 +6 over not +3.
Email was send to my round pro to resolve this issue.
The GPS yardage was maybe 4 to 6 yards off my playing partner GPS device.
I hope to have a better review on Thursday night.

 

[HSolo]

peterrod "I tested the golf aspect yesterday morning at a 9 hole course in union NJ.
The process was very smooth.
I did get an option to chose which hand to put the band on.
I am a left handed player so my right hand is my lead hand."

So you wore it on the right hand, inside wrist? Maybe there is some setting on the website where it incorrectly thinks I am left-handed :wink:

 

[peterrod116]

Yes right hand with the band screen was facing down.
Hope whatever issue you have gets straight out.

The lead hand does all the work in the golf swing so it makes sense for the band to be in that location.
Right handed left wrist and vice versa for left handed golfers.

 

[HSolo]

Yes right hand with the band screen was facing down.
Hope whatever issue you have gets straight out.

The lead hand does all the work in the golf swing so it makes sense for the band to be in that location.
Right handed left wrist and vice versa for left handed golfers.

I will test it out on Saturday on my left wrist. Was just disappointed that they now ask which wrist you will be wearing it, but that it didn't seem to be any different to my experiences with Band 1 (had to be on leading arm to count strokes).

 

[Dave47]

Very interesting. I would not have known to wear the band on the "leading" wrist. I golf right handed but have worn a watch (now band2) on my right wrist *forever*. Why? Because I write lefty along with other things. Throw and bat righty. Tennis lefty. Stuff like that.

I haven't tried the B2 with golf yet but I now have to get used to wearing something on a wrist I've never wore anything on before. Hope this doesn't cause mind games on top of trying to concentrate on hitting the small ball before the BIG ball. BIG ball = planet.

 

[HSolo]

Very interesting. I would not have known to wear the band on the "leading" wrist. I golf right handed but have worn a watch (now band2) on my right wrist *forever*. Why? Because I write lefty along with other things. Throw and bat righty. Tennis lefty. Stuff like that.

I haven't tried the B2 with golf yet but I now have to get used to wearing something on a wrist I've never wore anything on before. Hope this doesn't cause mind games on top of trying to concentrate on hitting the small ball before the BIG ball. BIG ball = planet.

That's funny! I must be very "environmentally aware" because I tend to be scared of harming the BIG ball.....hence my tendency to hit thin shots rather than fat.

 

[insight3fl]

I played my third round yesterday and I must say, I did get the "rhythm" of making sure the band found the next hole and it recorded the shot (you must confirm right after you hit because if you need to "add" the shot, it must be done where you hit from to keep the game tracking process accurate) which it did about 90% of the time. For some reason, it still misses some shots even though I have the distance measurement showing on the correct hole just before I hit. I need to give it a few more rounds, but I am pretty happy with it and the shot tracking accuracy at least up to the green is pretty good. Not sure how to make sure it knows where the pin is and how far your putts are. I guess it must measure everything to the center of the green.

 

[Snapperlicious]

I read somewhere that it has to be on the leading arm, so that's how I wore mine. Just like Dave47, I golf right handed, but write left handed. I normally wear the band on my right wrist, but switched it for golf today. It worked perfect, and counted every swing I expected it to count.

I did run into one issue where I got a bad yardage reading. I checked the yardage again, and it failed to lock on. No large trees or hills nearby, and the sky was clear. Aside from that, I was pretty happy with it. I will be even happier if they can find a way to retrieve yardages quicker. The speed seems similar to my phone when I used to use that, but it seems slower than some other golf specific devices I have seen other players use.

 

[insight3fl]

I read somewhere that it has to be on the leading arm, so that's how I wore mine. Just like Dave47, I golf right handed, but write left handed. I normally wear the band on my right wrist, but switched it for golf today. It worked perfect, and counted every swing I expected it to count.

I did run into one issue where I got a bad yardage reading. I checked the yardage again, and it failed to lock on. No large trees or hills nearby, and the sky was clear. Aside from that, I was pretty happy with it. I will be even happier if they can find a way to retrieve yardages quicker. The speed seems similar to my phone when I used to use that, but it seems slower than some other golf specific devices I have seen other players use.

I agree that the time to acquire the distance after you push the action button is slow. I find my self standing there staring a it while waiting to choose my club. I am going to try and push it before I quite get to the ball and see if the lock is at the point it displays or when I push the action button. I am afraid it is when you push the button, but maybe not.

 

[HSolo]

Yeah, I tend to push the button as I am getting to my ball, then by the time I have to pull a club out the bag, it generally has my yardage. It may be that it works similar to golf apps on the phone with regards to GPS yardage......Phone will often count up or down yardage until it has a true "fix", which may take a few seconds. I'm guessing the Band does the same thing, but doesn't show the yardage until it has the true fix. If that is the case, then it should display the yardage from where it got the actual triangulated fix, and not from where you initialized the button press.

 

[HSolo]

Oh, and I agree about the greens.....if I look at my stats on MyRoundPro, it shows me losing a ton of shots for putting......but that's because any short chip around the greens are read as putts. It doesn't seem to have the area of the green defined well enough to distinguish between on or just off the green, certainly on the courses I play that are mapped. Don't know if that can ever get improved upon though.

 

[sullibr01]

Do you have to push the action button prior to every shot? Do you have to push the action button to advance to a new hole? Any help is appreciated

 

[golfingasu]

Do you have to push the action button prior to every shot? Do you have to push the action button to advance to a new hole? Any help is appreciated

You don't have to push the action button before each shot. Personally I use a range finder, so I don't need the gps yardages.
From my experience, you don't have to acknowledge it on the tee but you need to wait for the band to realize you are on the tee.
That being said, I have found for the very best results as far as shot tracking it's best if you acknowledge the tee before you swing or at least verify the score on the previous hole.

 

[HSolo]

You don't have to push the action button before each shot. Personally I use a range finder, so I don't need the gps yardages.
From my experience, you don't have to acknowledge it on the tee but you need to wait for the band to realize you are on the tee.
That being said, I have found for the very best results as far as shot tracking it's best if you acknowledge the tee before you swing or at least verify the score on the previous hole.

I agree 100% with golfingasu. I use my phone for yardages, and only use the Band as yardage backup if I question the yardages the golf app on my phone gives me. I leave the Band alone to do it's thing while I play. Exceptions are:
1. If hit a ball OB (or hazard), I add the stroke to the Band right at the spot, otherwise it won't display on the hole graphics on MyRoundPro or Microsoft Heath correctly.
2. As I walk off the green, I check that it has counted my strokes correctly (often misses counting little 2-inch putts), and manually advance it to the next hole. I find that the "auto-advance" to next hole is hit-or-miss, and that can mess up your hole scores. Oh, and you have to "double-press" to get to score change, or manual hole advance.

 

[TealHaze]

I went golfing on Tuesday afternoon in Minnesota (beautiful weather!).
The first couple holes went without a hitch. But as I was walking to the 3rd tee box, the path sort of goes by the 9th tee box and the band thought I was going to play the 9th hole. I didn't understand what to do at that point because I was teeing off from #3 but the score went in as the 9th hole. (I think that was overwritten when I actually played the 9th hole).
This happened again later in the round too, but by this point I was getting the idea of clicking on the button to set the hole if it was incorrect and swiping left/right to add/remove strokes so I made sure I was on the correct hole before teeing off.
After the round was complete, my score was a bit off since I didn't have a score for hole number 3.
The summary of the round from the health app contains some excellent information and now that I've used it once and also getting a few tips from posters above, I'm looking forward to using it again (hopefully before the snow starts flying).

 

[HSolo]

"I didn't understand what to do at that point because I was teeing off from #3 but the score went in as the 9th hole. (I think that was overwritten when I actually played the 9th hole)."

At the point that the Band buzzes saying it wants to play the 9th hole, simply swipe to the right, and there is an option to remain on the current hole.

 

[peterrod116]

I was able to play 18 holes at Shawnee golf course in the Poconos.
27 holes course Red White & Blue.
So this was going to be a great test.
The front nine was the Red course. Easy process to sync the course.
My GPS yardage was close to my buddy Garmin GPS watch(off by 3 yards)
Maybe one or two shots around 100 yards the band did not recognize.
Now playing the back 9 the Blue course.
It took about 2 minutes to get my phone go on the health app and sync the blue course.
Now i alter my swing to create a more steeper swing this caused the band to record my practice swing.
No biggie just remove shot and hit.
Tip : if the band does not move to the next hole(occur maybe 4 times)
Hit the action button to pause then swipe to the left and touch next hole.
Overall a very good experience.
I wish there was a social media share button in the MS health app/Myroundpro
I have to save a screenshot crop then post on FB twitter etc.
Stats from myround pro and Ms health app.
Enjoy

 

[sullibr01]

Does the band keep a course in memory, or do you have to reload the course each time? Not a big deal, just curious. If the weather holds up, I hope to try it this weekend

 

[peterrod116]

Does the band keep a course in memory, or do you have to reload the course each time? Not a big deal, just curious. If the weather holds up, I hope to try it this weekend

The band only keeps one course. So the last course you played will still be on your band.
In the MS health app home screen touch sync a new course.
Start searching for courses that your play. I sync about 5 courses(even though the band can only hold one course) so the history can stay in my recent settings.
So when i need a course click recent and click on your course.
hope that helps