
European Tour on its vision to create the connected golf course through the internet of things By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, December 9, 2019 - 17:28
Print This Story
Golf's European Tour is on a path that will see the internet of things (IoT) taking a leading role in how the association transforms the game going forward. The IoT is going to influence the future of the European Tour's operational side, for broadcasters, for players and referees, as well as for fans on-site and at home.
The smart city IoT concept is being utilised by the European Tour to create a roadmap of evolution to connect everything on any tournament site, from player strokes to overflowing dustbins. Millions of new data points will be generated which will in turn have the potential to inform commentators and broadcasters and further engage existing and new fans, as well as improving the game itself.
Commented Michael Cole, chief technology officer at European Tour: Golf is complicated by its nature and technology has a key role to play in underpinning that complexity. It is a sport that provides a platform of great opportunity, because of the challenges it has to address on that complexity.
On the latter, he explained: We don't have a single field of play; we have 18 holes, [so] have 18 fields of play. We don't have a stadium environment; we have typically up to 40,000 to 50,000 people roaming what could be up to 300 acres of a venue [with up to 70,000 attendees at premium events]. We are totally about temporary overlay. More often than not we are playing our tournaments at Greenfield sites where we have to build that town and that infrastructure. This complexity doesn't happen in any other sport, so we need to address the underpinning technology in a different way.
Our strategy is one of a three staged vision. The first is to create what I call the connected course, because if we can create an underlying platform - call it the stage - then actually we have a mechanism for connecting not just people but players, and things, through the internet, and that is a key objective in our vision.
We want to go from building a small town to a smart city. That is the goal. And that is where everything is connected then everything is possible
The second one is how we can work with the vast array of data that is now being collected across our tournaments. That data creates intelligence and insight that we can utilise around the operations, around our commercial partners, around our own marketing teams to drive real benefit as well.
And then the third phase of that strategy is how we can industrialise a technology solution and how we can repeat it time and time again, 46 tournaments, 31 countries, and the only way we can really achieve that is delivering it through the cloud, what I call tournament as a service (TaaS), he said. And that allows us to deliver ubiquity of services from the cloud in a consistent way wherever we're playing those tournaments. That's a little bit about the complexity of the game, and the key role that technology has to play in that complexity.
The untold story
Cole continued: Golf has suffered for many years, I believe, in being an untold story and the true role that technology plays. I think we're about to change that. We're going to take this from being an untold story to being a told story. In this vanguard of innovation [European Tour is] going to be considered one of the leading adopters of that innovation across the sporting industry.
As an organisation, the European Tour is, transforming its, perhaps, under investment over the last 20 years , Cole stated. But the tournament side is all about digital transformation and that absolutely is about that smart city environment. The analogy I would use is when everything is connected then anything is possible. We can physically connect the fans, the players, the commentators, and any moving item, into this wonderful platform and use that connectivity to drive real intelligence. So we can be far more efficient in our operations, far more effective in how we go about delivering tournaments, and equally we can look at the commercialisation of that and where we can drive our consumer-based revenues.
He continued: The vision is to create the smart city environment, the IoT, with everything delivered through the cloud; that's where we can get that ubiquity of world-class delivery, whatever the tournament, whatever the country. Now that's a fairly bold vision to have and we're not going to get there overnight, so we will look at how we can phase it in. We may consider for our premium events an uplift in terms of technology, but over time, why wouldn't we roll out the smart city concept to all of our tournaments?
Fast advancements
Since 1972 the European Tour's methods of scoring data collection have evolved from collecting by tournament, then round by round, then hole by hole. The latter version, which most recently would involve walking scorers of around 80 volunteers using handheld devices, collecting scores hole by hole, generated 20,000 to 25,000 data points.
Now, with a new data collection scheme for scoring in a deal announced with IMG in February this year, things are changing, said Cole, who added, we will have around 60 full time professionals on the course, collecting up to 15 data points on every stroke for every player in real time.
That is a huge leap forward, said Cole. That equates to anywhere up to 700,000 data points in any given tournament, and that creates huge opportunity. The difficult part in this jigsaw is actually collecting that data off the course.
He said the European Tour has been trialling a system to retrieve data from courses for 12 months, and that is now set to go live in January 2020. We now have a huge opportunity to take
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
25/04/2026
Mediagenix Sweeps 2026 NAB Awards With Wins for Product of the Year and Best of ...
25/04/2026
SCHOEPS Microphones Announces Desert Island Boom Set for NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 24, 2026
0 Comments
Compact modular set ideal for location sound ...
25/04/2026
Berklee Africana Studies Hosts Gospel Extravaganza 2026 The Signature Series event will honor three new inductees to the Berklee Gospel Hall of Fame and celeb...
25/04/2026
Student Spotlight: Siva Maja Gierszewska, who performs under the artist name Siva, shares how she found her songwriting confidence at Berklee.
April 24, 2026...
25/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/04/2026
Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes from 1/...
24/04/2026
Daktronics has partnered with DCL (Design Communications, Ltd.) to design, manuf...
24/04/2026
Chyron has announced PRIME Translate, a workflow solution that produces live content simultaneously in multiple languages within the PRIME platform. The system ...
24/04/2026
Eutelsat has announced a new partnership with Co-op Cable, introducing an expand...
24/04/2026
Pitch Dublin, an indoor golf simulation and hospitality venue on Dawson Street i...
24/04/2026
G&D and VuWall have announced two senior leadership appointments, effective Apri...
24/04/2026
Victory , the free sports streaming service from A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC), has announced a multi-year agreement to become the exclusive local streaming ho...
24/04/2026
The former business major from Massachusetts has found his home in graphics and bug operation while contributing to live ESPN productions
In the live-sports-vi...
24/04/2026
The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and Spectrum have announced a multiyear carriage agreement making MASN available to Spectrum customers in areas of southe...
24/04/2026
The NFL Draft is rebuilt from the ground up in a new city every year. The three-day fan festival is expected to draw 500,000 or more attendees, with millions fo...
24/04/2026
Diversified has continued expansion of its sports and media capabilities to supp...
24/04/2026
NAB reports that the 2026 NAB Show wrapped with more than 58,000 registered atte...
24/04/2026
Clear-Com has announced significant updates to its Arcadia Central Station and E...
24/04/2026
NAB reports that the 2026 NAB Show wrapped with more than 58,000 registered atte...
24/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
24/04/2026
B/R NFL Draft Live' refines the digital giant's productions around footb...
24/04/2026
Study highlights five pillars shaping modern fan engagement as broadcasters reth...
24/04/2026
The 2026 event, the first Draft with NFL Network under the ESPN umbrella, will b...
24/04/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
24/04/2026
Integral to the Draft production for three almost decades, the company tells the...
24/04/2026
Championing documentaries that illuminate and expand the artform is at the core ...
24/04/2026
The Peabody Awards spotlight excellent work that endures. This year's winner...
24/04/2026
Earth Day is a chance to reflect on our connection to the natural world. To mark the 57th Earth Day on April 22, Spotify's editors have pulled together a co...
24/04/2026
This past weekend, Spotify was at the heart of the largest literary event in the...
24/04/2026
All data tells a story, and in our case, that story is written by you. To celebrate 20 years of Spotify, we're sharing bite sized moments that capture how t...
24/04/2026
Over the past 20 years, Spotify's look and feel has evolved with the way people use our platform, while ensuring we preserve an intuitive, personal, and fam...
24/04/2026
It's been 20 years since Spotify began, but the real story is what the world chose to play. For the first time, we're unveiling the most streamed artist...
24/04/2026
Whether you're relaxing at home or on the go, Spotify is there across more than 2,000 devices, ready with your favorites or something new to discover. Now, ...
24/04/2026
Nintendo and Spotify are welcoming fans to the Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary and the release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie with new playlists and a speci...
24/04/2026
30 October - 1 November 2026
The Audio Engineering Society (AES) have announced that the AES Show 2026 will be held on Halloween weekend - Friday 30 October...
24/04/2026
New closed-back design promises honest' low end
Sennheiser have just announced the launch of a new pair of flagship closed-back headphones which they s...
24/04/2026
Powerful 12-channel hardware sequencer announced
Cre8audio are renowned for their innovative, and often visually striking designs, and although their latest...
24/04/2026
Room correction now supports full 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos setups
The software element of IK Multimedia's room-correction system has just received an update th...
24/04/2026
New content for BBO Tutti & BBO Riffs
VSL have recently introduced some new free content expansions for two of their most popular Big Bang Orchestra Packs: ...
24/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to highlight its R&S EVSD1000 UAV-based navigation analyzer at I...
24/04/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
24/04/2026
ITV's Director of Drama Polly Hill has commissioned six part propulsive, lun...
24/04/2026
The NASA 777 aircraft departs the L3Harris facility in Waco, Texas....
24/04/2026
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has closed a $1 b...