Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

PGA Championship Spotlight, Part 1: Video-Gamification of Golf's Final Major Changes How Viewers See the Sport

10/08/2018

PGA Championship Spotlight, Part 1: Video-Gamification of Golf's Final Major Changes How Viewers See the Sport Shot-tracer technology, live green animations, 4D replays enhance insight into the game By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Friday, August 10, 2018 - 10:45 am

Print This Story

Story Highlights

Golf has a reputation for being very much set in its ways. It's a game romantically - at times, stubbornly - steeped in tradition, a sport not exactly known for living on the bleeding edge.

CBS Sports and Turner Sports' joint coverage of the PGA Championship - which continues through Sunday on TNT and CBS - has spent the past few years blowing those notions to smithereens.

Toptracer technology provides a real-time look at the path of a shot off the tee. For the first time, CBS and Turner are able to offer Toptracer on all 18 tees, as well as in selected circumstances on golfers' second shots off the fairway.

In fact, viewers of this weekend's tournament, the final major of the golf season, may feel that they're watching a new videogame more than an old sepia-toned film. Turner and CBS are rolling out a slew of technologies - live ball tracking, green mapping, even 360-camera rigs - designed to give the viewer insight they've never enjoyed before.

The approach may be surprising to the casual observer, but it's widely embraced by many who both cover and consume the sport.

This audience is a bit more progressive than we give them credit for, in terms of what they'll accept on screen, says Matt Kane, an associate producer for Turner Sports. He is overseeing much of the Thursday and Friday coverage, which airs on TNT; the action flips over to CBS air on Saturday and Sunday. I believe that, when you don't see many of these elements, it leaves you as a golf viewer wanting more. These things have become expected now, especially at a major championship.

So, as golf's best tackle the course at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, these innovations are blasting their way onto viewer screens:

Toptracer

Perhaps the most impactful technological development of the past few years on CBS Sports and Turner Sports' golf coverage has been the integration of Toptracer. 3D radar tracking enables the real-time graphic display of the true path of a ball.

Shown on screen as a red line, Toptracer allows the broadcaster to show flight direction, speed, the height apex, and even the curve of the shot. When used correctly, it's golf's version of the yellow 1st & and Ten line. It's at that level of importance to the viewing experience.

Says Kane, The Toptracer technology is a game-changer in the coverage of this sport, for sure.

Toptracer is not new (it was first used for the 2016 PGA Championship, at Baltusrol in Springfield, NJ) but is being deployed much more aggressively this year. In the past, the tracer was available only on the tee shot from selected holes. Now it's available on all 18 tee boxes and, with the addition of Toptracer RF, is available even on some second shots from the fairway. Two RF cameras roaming the course are outfitted with the Toptracer technology, allowing additional use of the onscreen enhancement.

Toptracer data is married with a 3D rendering of the hole to give viewers a live animation of a tee shot in-flight.

It's really exciting because, from my experience, that's what fans want to see, says Harold Bryant, executive producer/SVP, production, CBS Sports. It's a great tool that will help us make this an even more exciting event.

The broadcasters also leverage Toptracer data to create what is called the ARL Virtual Eye. During the event, golfers on their tee shots will be shown with a 3D map of the hole on the right side of a split screen. With the combination of the Toptracer data and a virtual flyover of the hole, viewers get a highly accurate real-time look at where a drive is headed along the fairway and when it eventually comes to rest.

Execs from both Turner and CBS note the importance of these kinds of storytelling tools in broadcasts from a course that many viewers may not be familiar with. Bellerive has not hosted a major championship since 1992.

The Tracer technology has become integral to [our storytelling process] in broadcasting the sport of golf, says Kane. We've fully embraced it, along with the animations we've added. Viewers are very familiar with seeing Augusta every year, but, when you have a course like Bellerive, I think a fair amount of our job initially is to educate the viewer on what the course is like and how it plays. All of our technology direction is going towards that mission.

Hawk-Eye Green Technology

Broadcast tech at this PGA Championship is also solving the mystery of the green. For many years, broadcasters have used different technologies, such as grids and moving arrows, to show what undulations a golfer faces when putting. Although there will still be plenty of that on this show, CBs and Turner are deploying Hawk-Eye for a new approach to putting.

Hawk-Eye technology allowing CBS and Turner to offer a new look at putting, displaying a path to success based on data on swing power and green layout.

Hawk-Eye is known for its game-changing work on official reviews in tennis and on goal-line technology in soccer. Now the Sony-owned tech developer is changing how viewers watch putts, not by outlining the hills and curves of the green but by offering a predicted path to success. A shaded area is sandwiched between the line of a hard, powerful putt to the back of the hole and a curved line for a softer, finesse putt. The idea is that, if a golfer's putt leaves that shaded area, the putt will be off target.

According to Bryant, the technology is available for use on four holes this year, and the front bench is likely to call on it w
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/08/10/pga-championship-spotlight-part...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

20/08/2026

NEP's Summer of Soccer Didn't End at World Cup: 1,100+ Domestic Productions Follow the Final

From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...

20/08/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 27: San Jose Sharks' Emily Garner - Production Tales From the Shark Tank

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Veritone To Showcase Enterprise AI and Media Supply Chain Automation

At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...

20/08/2026

Telestream and ScorePlay Partner to Connect Live Sports Ingest with Media Management

Telestream and ScorePlay have announced a partnership combining Telestream's...

20/08/2026

Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League Sign Multi-Year Deal with ESPN

The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League have announced a three-year agreement with ESPN, bringing more than 300 hours of live curling coverage to U.S. audienc...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Announces Measurement Enhancements Ahead of Fall TV Season

Nielsen has announced a series of enhancements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement methodology, taking effect August 31. The updates were developed in ...

20/08/2026

ORF Deploys Net Insight Nimbra Platform for Nationwide IP Contribution Network

Net Insight has been selected by service provider Big Blue Marble (formerly ORS Group) to provide its Nimbra platform as the core media transport solution for a...

20/08/2026

2026 US Open Launches Fan Activations Across New York City

The 2026 US Open will bring a series of free fan activations across New York City ahead of and during the tournament, which runs August 23-September 13. We...

20/08/2026

Bridge Technologies Adds TS Playout to VB330 and VB220 Monitoring Probes

Bridge Technologies will announce a transport stream (TS) playout feature for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71). The fe...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: ENCO To Showcase AI and Automation Solutions

ENCO will demonstrate solutions across captioning, translation, AI production tools, automation, and virtual production at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A34, Amsterdam RAI, ...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne MRMC To Exhibit for First Time as Part of MultiDyne Organization

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will demonstrate camera robotics and mot...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Chyron Showcases Newsroom Workflow Solutions

Chyron will demonstrate news workflow solutions at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A23), marking the company's 60th anniversary. Highlights include updates to PRIME HTML, ...

20/08/2026

Spectrum SportsNet LA Now Available to Customers in Former Cox Markets

Spectrum SportsNet LA, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets following the clos...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: swXtch.io Launches Expanded SRT Distribution and Native Multicast Services

swXtch.io will unveil expanded Global SRT Distribution and native multicast tran...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Deploys Riedel Artist Intercom System

Riedel Communications has announced that Transformation Church in the United States has deployed a communications system built around the Artist intercom ecosys...

20/08/2026

Apple at 50: Author and CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent David Pogue on How a Tech Giant Became a Media Powerhouse

The bestselling author and longtime Apple observer explores how product launches...

20/08/2026

Orlando Magic's David Storm Reflects on the Franchises First Year With Its New ST 2110 Control Room and Massive Center-Hung Videoboard

The Orlando Magic entered last season with a dramatically upgraded in-venue prod...

20/08/2026

Indiana Pacers Name DAZN Exclusive Streaming Home Beginning 2026-27 Season

Pacers Sports and Entertainment has announced a partnership with DAZN, making it the exclusive streaming home of Indiana Pacers basketball. A team-branded strea...

20/08/2026

Ratings Roundup: Scotty Scheffler Win Tops the Week, ESPN Posts Most-Watched WNBA Game Ever on Cable

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...

20/08/2026

NHL Announces Germany Expansion with FC Bayern Partnership and 2027 Global Series Games in Munich and Cologne

The NHL has announced two major developments tied to its Germany growth strategy...

20/08/2026

SoundBridges TURN server tutorial

Set up your own private remote collaboration infrastructure SoundBridge have recently put together a tutorial video that provides users with a step-by-step ...

20/08/2026

Neyrinck revive Avid D-Control surfaces

New V-Control Pro features restore basic functionality Neyrinck's V-Control software has long been keeping older Avid control surfaces compatible with n...

20/08/2026

ROSE AYLING-ELLIS BEGINS FILMING SERIES TWO OF ITVS BAFTA-WINNING THRILLER CODE OF SILENCE

TV, BritBox and Mammoth Screen have announced that filming is now underway on th...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Incorporates New Enhancements To Improve Its Data Measurement Leading Into The New Fall TV Season

New York August 19, 2026 Nielsen today shared a number of key enhancements t...

20/08/2026

FAST Sports Programming Surges at More Than Twice the Rate of Sports Channel Growth

New Gracenote Data Hub analysis finds sports program titles up 31.2% and individ...

20/08/2026

Charter Completes $34.5 Billion Cox Acquisition

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

SubtitleNEXT makes a significant leap in localisation eff...

At IBC, Profuz Digital will showcase at stand 8.A88 the SubtitleNEXT platform delivering innovative AI transcription integrations and stunning new features boos...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Elevates Production Communications...

Riedel Communications today announced that Transformation Church, one of the fastest-growing and most influential digital ministries in the United States, has d...

20/08/2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC 2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC ...

20/08/2026

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton August 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist Siggy Ferstl uses Depth Map to bring a three ...

20/08/2026

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound effects in one place

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound ...

20/08/2026

Broadpeak launches Multiview as a Service to accelerate m...

Multiview available via SaaS for streaming platforms and operators through broadpeak.io, with live demonstrations at IBC2026 Broadpeak , a leader in streaming ...

20/08/2026

Techex Appoints Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer

Techex, a leading provider of live broadcast infrastructure solutions, has appointed Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer, further strengthening its executive...

20/08/2026

MediaCity Studios upgrades with Avid

Avid today announced that MediaCity Studios has upgraded its production infrastructure with an enhanced end-to-end Avid production ecosystem, including the dep...

20/08/2026

MS Now to Launch $7.99 DTC Service

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Details Improvements to Audience Measurement Capabilities

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Study: 174 Billion Illegal Streams During FIFA World Cup 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Prasad Opens New 8K/4K Film Preservation & Restoration Center

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner C...

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...

20/08/2026

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment...

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...

20/08/2026

Scripps Research scientist to receive $2.76 million NIAID New Innovators Award

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...

20/08/2026

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026 Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R) By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...

20/08/2026

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Hero image displays a student about to mix be...

20/08/2026

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Elevates Production Communications With Riedel Artist and Bolero

Wuppertal August 20, 2026 Transformation Church Elevates Production Communicat...

20/08/2026

The music between the notes

The music between the notes Coming together In the middle of 2026, as conversations around artificial intelligence continue to raise questions about how musi...