The Viewing Experience: Golf
- Mar 17, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2020
Golf is a sport which is hated by those who don’t play it, and hated by those who do.
It is perhaps not one of the major commercial sports in the world today, but I decided to look at the impact of technology in televised golf for a few reasons:
Ireland is the country with the highest golf popularity per capita, according to GoogleTrends.
The motive for televising golf is different to that of most commercialised sports.
Technologies have had a noticeable impact in the viewing experience within the last decade.
Participation vs Viewership
The commercialisation and investment in televised golf has grown rapidly in recent decades, but unlike other sports this has been done primarily to increase participation levels. Golf is unusual in the way that its participation levels tend to be higher than viewership levels; this was shown among Irish people in a survey I recently conducted for Off the Ball. So, professional golf has been promoted in order to increase participation.
Participation levels have fluctuated in the last number of decades, reaching peaks around the triumphant years of the infamous Tiger Woods at the beginning of the millennium. This superstar was exactly what golf associations across the world wanted in order to attract millions to play the game. However, golf’s participation and general popularity levels fell after this due to the fall of Tiger, the 2008 recession, and ageing demographics. Since then, there has been heavy investment into the commercialization of the sport and this, along with the return of Tiger, have seemed to ceased the fall. Comparing Google searches for "play golf" and "watch golf" highlight the difference in trends.
Televised Golf
The game of golf originated in St. Andrews Golf Course, Scotland, in 1764. The first televised golf shots were shown on the BBC in 1938, but it wasn’t until the 1947 US Open that a golf tournament was televised. Since then, broadcasting companies have been fighting it out to get the rights to televise professional tournaments across the globe. The Golf Channel was launched in 1995, emphasising the worldwide interest in televised golf.
A simple phrase often used amongst golfers is: "Golf is hard." That too applies to broadcasting, as it is far more difficult to broadcast when compared to commercial sports such as soccer, American football, Gaelic football, and rugby. For a start, there can be up to 150 players playing in a tournament. On top of that, the course can be up to 8,000 yards long and the action is usually quite slow and fragmented. This has meant that golf broadcasters haven't always had a 'splashing' time.
Despite all these constraints, broadcasting companies have worked tirelessly to ensure that viewers enjoy the experience. In recent years, major tournaments have strived to improve the experience for live viewers by implementing shot tracking and live visualisation technology. They have also worked on ensuring that viewers can catch up on the highlights after the round via their mobile apps and websites. All of this is done in real-time with some incredibly intelligent and cutting-edge technology.
Live Broadcasting
One way to improve the live viewing experience is to provide context for every situation, making the viewer feel like they are there in person. This has historically been done by providing regular leaderboard updates, as well as segments such as ‘Ken on the Course’ which give more detail on the course design and layout. Nowadays this has been advanced with shot-tracing technology. This was created by Protracer, and it uses a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor to detect a golf ball as it moves. Another technology is called Trackman which uses Doppler radar to monitor a golf ball as it launches. Finally, Shotlink helps to collect and spread scoring and statistical data on each player in real time.
Automated Highlights
In the 2019 Masters, every single shot was made available to fans via their website and mobile app with the use of 110 cameras. Given the amount of footage, shots were not directed or sent to technicians, instead they were transmitted to IBM for automatic posting. Within 5 minutes of the end of a round, the highlights of each player’s round was posted. These highlights were compiled by IBM’s Watson AI which identified cues such as player celebrations and crowd reactions to select certain shots. The factors used by Watson were described as ‘Golf Context’. The 2020 Players’ Championship was hoping to launch the first every service where every shot would be broadcast live, although the tournament was cut short due to concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak.
Speaking about the future of broadcasting, a representative of IBM, Noah Syken said that “the ability to integrate that data and apply AI to it and create other experiences is almost infinite.” The future of golf will involve many more technologies that will help to improve the viewing experience, something which I'm sure will be celebrated by golf fans around the world.
Jack O'Donoghue
References:
Comments