PGA Tour and Quintar expand augmented reality relationship

Golf suffered from reduced viewership during the years of the pandemic. Attendance is now increasing at live events. The PGA Tour hopes to keep that growing with a new augmented reality project with Quintar.

The PGA Tour is modernizing the golf experience. It is leveraging the latest in technology to make the most interactive experiences its viewers have seen. Conditions on the tour are resorting to the new normal. The Tour knows that it needs to increase the immersion for those in attendance. This will maintain the momentum in that trend.

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In that vein, the PGA partnered with Quintar. The company is a leader in augmented reality (AR) for Sports Entertainment. The partnership will bring AR as a viewing enhancement on mobile devices for attendees of live events. The Tour will offer a mobile app via Apple’s App Store {so iOS only for now). Placing a phone in landscape with the app open activates the AR mode. The app provides additional interactions with the course, providing enhanced information and stats.

Sophisticated telemetry for an immersive experience

Scott Gutterman, PGA Tour Senior Vice President of Digital Operations says “The PGA TOUR is excited to expand our relationship with Quintar with a goal of creating a more immersive and engaging tournament experience for fans. We have seen positive interaction and growth with our previous Quintar AR engagements and look forward to building on the momentum.”

The technology that powers this AR experience is Q.reality, a live sports and entertainment platform. The app is only usable by those attending specific PGA Tour events. Data for the app is provided by ShotLink, which is in turn provisioned by CDW. ShotLink is an infrastructure system installed on many golf courses that provides telemetry in three dimensions. It accomplishes this via multiple lasers emplaced on golf holes that track shots in three dimensions. Radar on some holes provides additional data, such as swing speeds, ball speeds and spin rates.

The app will provide real-time information on every shot by every player during tournament competition. It will feature social aspects as well. Tools geared toward fans will allow the group to select player replays. AR will apply overlays that indicate tee-shot trails and trajectory, ball-speed at apex, scoring, distances, and other vital stats. Users can then blend these with imagery and share them with friends over social media.

The organization is focusing its efforts on live event experiences and hopes that this enhancement will encourage more people to get back to the links. This should enhance the overall experience of attending a PGA Tour event in person. Video game fans, however, will still have to wait for their turn to experience their own augmented reality of PGA events.