PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is making more data points available to fans, as this week’s LECOM Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour marks the debut of the “Tourcast” tracking feature on the circuit.
The PGA Tour has used ShotLink for years to run Tourcast, and earlier this year even
rolled out ShotLink Pro as part of its ShotLink 2.0 revamp. For the KFT, the tour this week officially debuted ShotLink Select, a more cost-effective option that will provide new coordinate data for players. It’s not clear what the week-to-week cost to operate ShotLink Pro or ShotLink Select is, though PGA Tour SVP/Golf Technology Ken Lovell estimated ShotLink Select was at least 50% more cost effective.
Rather than the hardware and network buildout needed for ShotLink Pro, ShotLink Select tracks data based on a GPS device worn by players on a voluntary basis. The GPS device is about the size of an old-school pager, Lovell said, and most players have been wearing them on the back of their belts.
Walking scorers on the KFT also provide data that will be used in conjunction with the GPS devices for ShotLink Select.
Only a handful of players at Thursday’s opening round in Florida chose not to wear the device. The KFT did a beta test of the system at the Savannah Golf Classic from April 4-7.
“It’s not going to be perfect, athletes think about things and you don’t want to get in their heads,” Lovell said. “But the data is so much better.”
Other differences between ShotLink Pro and ShotLink Select? The PGA Tour captures ball-in-motion data from tee to green and transmits it to fans virtually in real time, whereas ShotLink Select data will be one shot behind using the player-worn GPS devices. ShotLink Select and the GPS devices also run based on public cell service availability, while ShotLink Pro runs on a private, secured network.
ShotLink Select will only track data such as hole score and yardage, but the vision long term is to incorporate Strokes Gained data, the tour said.
“There are things that we do because we feel like we’re obligated to do them because they’re a core part of our business. This is the core of what we do,” PGA Tour SVP/Digital Operations Scott Gutterman said. “Our core goal is to ensure that we show every single shot in some format from every one of our players.”
