TourCast: The New Way To Second Screen

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Getting the full second screen experience

TourCast - The PGA Tour's online tool built alongside the Virtual Eye is enabling the organisation to take full advantage of golf’s massive surge in popularity around the world in the last decade.

The R&A who manages golf subscriptions outside of The US and Mexico found that that the sport had grown by a whopping 44% in on-course players outside of that American region since 2016.

But, proving to be one of sports most complicated broadcast products, the appetite was clear for a second screen option that would allow viewers - especially outside of the US - to follow their favorite local players, competing against the world’s best being shown on the conventional linear TV.

Ben Taylor, Virtual Eye’s head of Sport, knows the difficulty of broadcasting a golf tournament that can see up to 14 balls in motion at any one time.

“What that means is that some players don't make the coverage and this gave space for an opportunity to be able to tell those stories that aren't always shown on the broadcast”.

Shining A Light On Every Player

A supplementary viewing option was critical to leverage the dramatic growth of the sport and TourCast was created. Integrating with the PGA Tour’s data providers allows the Virtual Eye online system to show trajectory, speed, apex, carry and position of every ball position on every hole of a tournament - try showing that in a four hour broadcast window.

“We have the data of all 150 players coming into our engine and we've always been able to see that. What TourCast is, is being able to give that power to everyone. So through their phones, computers and browser, or in app anyone can go to any hole on the golf course and they can see what live golf is happening now.”

Putting Control In The Fans Hands

The platform allows viewers to control their own 3D environment of golf courses featured across the PGA Tour and not only follow the favourite players, but analyse and assess play by play with accurate 3D modeled courses. This is paried with video highlights across the course to provide the full content experience for users at home.

This breakthrough means fans around the world have the opportunity to follow who they want during, before and after a standard broadcast window.

“What we've seen is a big uptake in Asia where there's a lot of really good golfers who don't always make the broadcast because they're not top 20, we also see that with the Scandinavian golfers and the traffic that is generated on this website from those two regions is quite significant”, says Taylor.

But don’t be fooled, this is far from a broadcast replacement tool. With technical LiDAR measured greens, this product is also a standalone second screen option for the keenest golf fans out there. We’ve taken highly detailed scans to show undulation and slopes to explain the trickiest of putts so supporters can also follow the best athletes in the world alongside the broadcast coverage.