HARRISON, NY – JUNE 12, 2004: Sergio Garcia during the third round of the 2004 Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club
(Photo by Scott Clarke / ESPN Images)
A hole-in-one seen in 360-degree video was the first of its kind.
If fans were tuning into the PGA Tour’s live stream on Twitter/Periscope on Thursday during the THE PLAYERS Championship, they would have seen Sergio Garcia drilling a 122-yard shot on No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass.
Fresh off winning The Masters last month, Garcia knocked in the ace on the par-3 iconic island hole. Though the PGA Tour claimed a 360-degree perspective, viewers were still met by “THE PLAYERS” branding and tournament logo as they completely rotate their cursor.
When fans watch the short clip, they’ll first see Garcia hitting his tee shot from a near camera followed by a different perspective on the green. Fans will faintly notice the incoming shot land and then bounce a few times before dropping in the cup. If fans rotate the camera to the left and slightly up, they’ll witness another angle and see Garcia’s reaction along with fans celebrating behind him.
At Twitter’s Digital Content NewFronts presentation two weeks ago, the social platform first announced that fans could watch a live stream of the hole.
The PGA Tour and Intel True VR have been testing live virtual reality over the past few months, with the latest public experience for fans at TPC Sawgrass encompassing more than 30 hours of streaming in virtual reality and 360-degree video, according to PGA TOUR’s Chief Media Officer Rick Anderson.
“Intel’s operational and technical team has been great, and we look forward to exploring further collaboration like this in the future,” he said.
The TOUR is in the midst of a current live streaming partnership with Twitter for the 2016-17 season, which includes over 70 hours of free content from PGA TOUR LIVE. Anderson said that while the current partnership with Twitter is through 2017, “we will continue to look at more ways to partner in 2018 and beyond.”
“Twitter has been very proactive with the PGA TOUR, offering to test new features first with us, which we value,” Anderson added.
