Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

European Tour's Vision To Create the Connected Golf Course Through the Internet of Things

12/12/2019

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
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/european-tour-on-its-vision-t...
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...

10/09/2026

Tedial to introduce Media Business Hub at IBC 2026

Tedial is introducing Media Business Hub (MBH) at IBC 2026, a new business enablement platform designed to help media organizations unlock the full value of the...

10/09/2026

Globecast Unveils Next Phase of Media Orchestration at IB...

Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will unveil the next phase of its transformation at IBC2026 with a preview...

10/09/2026

Fabric Data and TMT Insights Merge to Create Fabric Insig...

Fabric Data and TMT Insights today announced that the two companies are combining to create Fabric Insights, uniting authoritative data, purpose-built software,...

10/09/2026

Operative Launches Unified Platform to Transform Advertis...

Operative, the preferred advertising and broadcast management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced a comprehensive slate of new pr...

10/09/2026

Leader announces new Sx2 handheld Test and Measurement se...

Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced the launch of its latest range of handheld signal generation, analysis and monitoring ...

10/09/2026

Kiloview Partners with Zixi to Deliver Reliable IP Video...

The partnership begins with native Zixi protocol support on the Kiloview D350 and will extend to deeper product integration and joint go-to-market initiatives ...

10/09/2026

Avid and FilmLight announce strategic partnership to reimagine the color pipeline for post production

Avid and FilmLight announce strategic partnership to reimagine the color pipelin...

10/09/2026

Maxon Brings Exclusive Preview of Fall Innovations to IBC2026

Maxon Brings Exclusive Preview of Fall Innovations to IBC2026 Brie Clayton September 10, 2026 0 Comments IBC attendees will get the first look at new ...

10/09/2026

Three Boston Conservatory Dance Alums Honored for Their Early-Career Promise

Three Boston Conservatory Dance Alums Honored for Their Early-Career Promise India Hobbs and Demetrius Lee received Princess Grace Awards, while Lilly David t...

10/09/2026

MonoNeon Returns to Berklee to Kick Off Signature Series

MonoNeon Returns to Berklee to Kick Off Signature Series The Grammy-winning bassist and alumnus performs with students and faculty from the Planet MicroJam In...

10/09/2026

Study: NFL Ad Revenue to Hit a Record $6.3 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

Teradek Unveils Bolt 7 With 900MHz RF Pipeline

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

Survey: Roku Remains Most Popular Streamer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

Sony Unveils Fourth Generation Of DWX Wireless Mics

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

Scripps Revamps Local Media Regional Leadership Structure

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

RT Sign Ryder Cup Highlights Rights Ahead of Historic Return to Ireland

RT to Broadcast Amgen Irish Open free-to-air New multi-year agreement will see RT continue to bring the Amgen Irish Open to Irish audiences Ryder Cup hig...

10/09/2026

RT Prime Time report into the National Ambulance Service to air tonight

More than 30 women report allegations of sexual harassment, misogyny and bullying within National Ambulance Service Tonight on RT Prime Time, 9:35pm, RT One ...

10/09/2026

Visit the mythical island of Mrunglody in the new series of RT KIDS podcast and brand-new retro video game

Series 3 of Nero's Class begins Friday 11 September on RT Listen The third...

10/09/2026

Boots on the Ground: WARDOGS' Goes All Out on GeForce NOW at Early-Access Launch

Gear up: The latest PC games and major updates are ready to play on GeForce NOW ...

10/09/2026

d-Matrix Adopts NVIDIA NVLink Fusion for Rack-Scale XPU Deployment

AI inference chipmaker d-Matrix today announced it will use NVIDIA NVLink Fusion to connect its next-generation Raptor XPUs to NVIDIA's AI infrastructure pl...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Sony Introduces SEL814G Fisheye Zoom G Lens

Sony Electronics has announced the SEL814G, the company's first fisheye zoom G Lens for full-frame Alpha E-mount cameras. The lens will be available in Octo...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream Expands Practical AI Capabilities Across Vantage and UP Platform

Telestream has announced an expansion of its Practical AI capabilities across th...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Chyron and Haivision Announce Camera-to-Cloud Live Production Integration

Haivision and Chyron have announced a technology partnership integrating Haivisi...

09/09/2026

ManningCast Reveals 2026-27 Season Schedule with Heist Mini Movie

Omaha Productions has released ManningCast: Heist, a short film featuring Peyton and Eli Manning attempting to break into NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's o...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Imagine Communications to Showcase XVR Updates

Imagine Communications will demonstrate the next evolution of XVR at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14). XVR is Imagine's channel-in-a-b...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: swXtch.io Launches AI Broadcast Orchestration Tool abbe

swXtch.io has announced abbe, an AI-based orchestration layer for live media workflows, making its world premiere at IBC2026 (Meeting Room 5.MR13, Hall 5, Septe...

09/09/2026

Inside the NFL Returns to X for Second Season, Marking 50th Anniversary

NFL Films has announced the second season of Inside the NFL on X as an X Original, premiering Wednesday, September 9. The series marks Inside the NFL's 50th...

09/09/2026

LiveU Expands AP Partnership with LU900Q Fleet and MAM Integration

LiveU has announced an expanded partnership with The Associated Press, deploying the largest fleet of LU900Q intelligent production units in the industry as par...

09/09/2026

Diversified to Consolidate New Jersey Operations into New Newark Facility

Diversified has announced plans to consolidate its four existing New Jersey locations into a new facility in Newark, expected to be fully operational by the end...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Wisycom Showcases MATF Antenna Matrix, PFL RFoF Box, and MPR60 Updates

Wisycom will exhibit new RF products at IBC2026 (Stand 8.D60, September 11-14), including the MATF Wideband Antenna Matrix, PFL Portable RF over Fiber Box, and ...

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: G&D and VuWall to Introduce vsNEO KVM-over-IP Platform

Guntermann & Drunck (G&D) and VuWall, both Panoptec companies, will introduce vsNEO at IBC2026 (Stand 8.B63, September 11, RAI Amsterdam). Pre-orders open in ea...

09/09/2026

Mo-Sys Completes Restructuring, Promotes Selin Kemal to Managing Director

Mo-Sys has completed a business restructuring and relocated to a new facility in Canada Water, London. As part of the reorganization, Selin Kemal has been promo...

09/09/2026

Aicox and TAG Video Systems Power Monitoring for Telefnicas TSAmediaHUB

Aicox has integrated TAG Video Systems' Core monitoring platform into Telef nica's TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure....

09/09/2026

IBC 2026: Blackmagic Design Releases DaVinci Resolve 21.1

Blackmagic Design has released DaVinci Resolve 21.1, a free update available now through the Blackmagic Design website. The release adds new AI tools, workflow ...

09/09/2026

ESPN and Apple Music Collaborate on Monday Night Football Music Curation for 2026-27 Season

ESPN and Apple Music have announced a collaboration on music curation for Monday...

09/09/2026

Sacramento Production Services Deploys Wisycom RF System at Sutter Health Park

Sacramento Production Services has completed a wireless audio overhaul at Sutter Health Park, home of the Athletics during their three-year residency in Sacrame...

09/09/2026

NDI and NVIDIA Collaborate on AI-Powered Multilingual Content Workflows

NDI and NVIDIA have announced a collaboration to develop AI-powered workflows enabling broadcasters to create and distribute multilingual content from a single ...

09/09/2026

Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Announces the Class of 2026

Christopher Chip Adams, Troy Aikman, Jim Dove, Jim Eady, Bucky Gunts, Robert A. Iger, Charlie Jablonski, Robert Kraft, Tom Rinaldi, and Dick Stockton to be ho...

09/09/2026

NBC Sports Opens 21st SNF Season With Expanded Schedule, Traveling Studio Show, and Bulked Up Toolkit

ND2 returns as the primary unit, While FNIA gets SSQC and new flexible Rover...

09/09/2026

Celemony Tonalic gains additional Paul Kleber upright bass

New parts aimed at hip-hop and pop productions The latest update to Celemony's innovative virtual session musician expands the collection of built-in in...

09/09/2026

Sonarworks Autumn Sale

Save up to 40% until 21 September 2026 Sonarworks are currently running their Autumn Sale, with discounts of up to 40% currently available across their rang...

09/09/2026

Bjooks Beat Gems to begin shipping

Upcoming title officially launches in September 2026 Bjooks' celebrations for this year's 909 Day will be welcome news amongst drum machine lovers, ...

09/09/2026

NITV to bring First Nations netball to audiences nationwide

NITV to bring First Nations netball to audiences nationwide 9 September, 2026 Media releases Every match of the 2026 First Nations Tournament will be live ...

09/09/2026

NFVF CALL FOR PROPOSALS: YOUTH FILMMAKER PROJECT FACILITATING COMPANY 2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites eligible Tier 1 and 2 South African production companies to submit proposals to serve as the Facilitating ...

09/09/2026

Nielsen launches CTV Ad spend data into its Italian Ad Intel product

Italy launch follows UK and Germany as Nielsen expands product across EMEA Milan, Italy, September 9, 2026 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, ...

09/09/2026

Gracenote Expands AI Product Roadmap with Sports MCP Server, Entertainment SLM and Agents

Planned solutions tackle accuracy, cost and latency barriers to deploying AI at ...

09/09/2026

Dalet Promotes Brian Doheny to CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...