SBJ Tech: Behind the PGA Tour’s drive to engage fans

My last trip down to the greater Charlotte area (for a behind-the-scenes look at the NASCAR production hub) was so enjoyable that I quickly found another reason to scurry down to SBJ’s home base.

I spent Tuesday exploring the Golfweek Tech Lab, held in Uptown while the PGA Championship settles in at Quail Hollow Club. Wanted to send out a quick thank you to the Underdog Venture Team (the event partner) for the invite and all the startup founders who talked with me.

Now, let’s dive into some takeaways from the day.

When Scott Gutterman looks at new technology or innovation, he ponders the fan perspective: mainly, is this making their experience, wherever they may be, better?

Gutterman, the PGA Tour’s SVP/digital and broadcast technologies, described a robust system of feedback to see just how new features might land during a fireside chat at Tuesday’s Golfweek Tech Lab in Charlotte. In its second year, the event featured T-Mobile for Business as presenting partner and Underdog Venture Team as event partner.

He shared that through the PGA Tour’s Fan Forward initiative, which started last year, survey responses from roughly 50,000 fans and a fan council of approximately 15,000 (the council preceded the initiative) have provided valuable insight into the tour’s outreach. Gutterman has been with the PGA Tour for nearly 20 years and said those fan connections have boosted so much of what’s being offered now.

“When I first arrived at the tour, the goal was to get people to watch three hours of golf every single day and get engaged with the website -- that was really what it was at the time,” Gutterman said to Roberto Castro, a former pro golfer and managing director at CapTech Consulting. “Now really our stance is how do we bring fans to the PGA Tour in any way? ... One of the big cultural shifts internally over the last five or six years is let’s meet the fans where they are.”

Two pieces of tech that continue to build traction, Gutterman said, are narrative commentary and drone shot-tracking. The Tour rolled out generative AI for commentary at the Players Championship and has deployed it every week since. Covering every shot by every player provides a massive lift in the scalability of storytelling. The drone tracking, which was a finalist at this year’s SBA: Tech for Best Technology Collaboration of the Year, uses ShotLink data to follow ball flights and give fans viewing angles they’ve never seen before.

Those two components are part of various initiatives that have helped the tour cover nearly 30% more golf shots so far this season, Gutterman shared.

There are also opportunities to take inspiration from outside the tour ecosystem, like some of the new experiences provided by TGL, which enjoyed a successful first season with many PGA Tour stars in tow. The SmartPin Cam, which has 360-degree capabilities, provided a novel look for both new and old fans alike. New ideas pursued by partners like TGL spark conversations about how the PGA Tour can maybe implement something similar in the future, too.

Gutterman’s point on improved viewer experience is one barreling toward the hyper-personalized world the industry is chasing for fans. And the PGA Tour specifically, with its massive deployment of cameras on a weekly basis (for both broadcast and ShotLink usage), sees a wide fairway when it comes to providing experiences that are only achievable with the constant push toward innovation.

“If you look back across the history of the sport, the sport has always evolved, the sport has always changed” at the start,” Gutterman said. “... We will always uphold the tradition of the game, but we want to be looking forward. We want to be looking forward to what does golf mean to new and developing demographics.”

Former NHL marketing exec and current Underdog Advisory CEO Alysse Soll led an investor panel at Golfweek Tech Lab on Tuesday with three firm reps in the golf and larger sports tech sector: Keith Bank, founder of KB Partners; Heath Butler, partner at Mercury Fund; and Evan Roosevelt, managing partner of Old Tom Capital.

During the conversation, Soll asked the group what they wished more founders asked during conversations about potential financial backing.

Their answers revealed some insightful guidance that I wanted to pass along, since so many vendors are jockeying for a spot in this industry.

Keith Bank: “I’m always surprised that entrepreneurs don’t do the reverse diligence of the people they’re taking the money from that we do on them. You’re going to live together for five, six, seven, eight years. You’re going to be in a lot of board meetings. You’re going to be in a lot of tough situations. You’re going to have a lot of heart-to-heart talks. And not only the firm that you’re taking money from, but the person within that firm that you’re going to be working with ... it’s a relationship. It’s like a marriage, and you’ve got to like the people you get in bed with and trust the people you get in bed with.”

Heath Butler: “It’d have to be them wanting to understand how we think about profitability and burn rate and some of these things. Most founders are so focused on the tech and the customer and selling me on why I should invest, and they’re not really thinking about the things I’m really thinking about -- which is how much money do you need to get to that sort of inflection point you’re trying to get to, and how much risk is in that. ... The capital efficiency nature of your journey tells me a lot about the business.”

Evan Roosevelt: “‘What can you do for us?’ is the big one. We offer that up to a lot of founders, and it’s kind of in our DNA, but more founders could be well served by pushing us. It goes back to being picky. It goes back to having optionality, which comes from being profitable at the end of the day. Because if you need a check, then you’re less likely to [carry out] due diligence, you’re less likely to care about what your investor thinks about your burden, and you’re more likely to take a check because it helps you survive.”

Golfweek Tech Lab featured a heavy dose of demos and showcases. There were three breakout sessions (labeled in the program as the Front Nine, the Turn and the Back Nine) for the 18 startups (really hammering home the golf angle here) attending to talk about their tech.

Here are a few of my notes from those windows throughout the day.

Mobii’s in the mix

Mobii’s tech is quite innovative. The company has products that touch on both broadcasts and in-venue video. But in this ever-growing world of DTC platforms, Mobii’s Dynamic Cloud Mixer offers serious optimization for the sports that have a heavy camera presence.

Mobii’s Shane Cole, director/sales for North America, ran me through the offering, which LIV Golf and NASCAR use for the multiview experiences they help to create for fans through their broadcast rightsholders. The company has worked with approximately 10 sports partners and was a member of the 2024 cohort of the Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech program.

The Dynamic Cloud Mixer uses AI to automate camera-switching and graphic overlays in cloud production and does so with low latency. Cole’s demo displayed footage from a LIV Golf competition, showing a multiview experience that enabled viewers to watch the play of all four Range Goats GC golfers at once. I’m imagining a day where I can follow different athletes of my choice in a multiview experience and looking forward to it.

LetzChat’s speaking a different language

LetzChat (also a former SportsTech participant) shared a compelling startup story, starting first as an audio transcription tool before shifting to a web and app translation. LetzChat uses AI to translate a website to any language based off device language preferences. CEO/co-founder Jordan Orlick said that companies that work with LetzChat see an ROI within five days from the transactions that come in thanks to the multilingual presentation and the data insights the tech gleans.

Its first client was the NFL, and it also works with MLS and the Mavericks, among others in the sports industry. For fun, I got them to translate the SBJ homepage into Japanese, which you can see above.

On a related note: 読んでいただきありがとうございます (this says “thank you for reading” according to Google Translate. If incorrect, please call me out).

Wicket’s growing presence

I was welcomed quite hurriedly into the event by Wicket (this is a joke about how fast the experience was to check in with a quick scan). The facial-recognition company has become a sports industry fixture and was also recognized as the 2025 SBA: Tech winner for Best In Venue and Franchise Operations Technology.

Wicket created a unique deployment last year for the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens -- a day pass program that enabled fans to leave and re-enter the venue. That’s a feature that should work for any golf event featuring multiday competitions. The company has 40-plus sports venue connections at this point, working at the league level with the NFL for credentialing. Wicket also saw its first collegiate deployment last year around Florida’s football stadium. The initial partnership went so smoothly that the university has rolled out the feature for baseball and softball this spring, with hopes to also deploy for basketball and gymnastics next school year.

• My SBJ colleague Mollie Cahillane takes an in-depth look at the platform that so many in the industry are discussing: ESPN’s new DTC product.
• Springbok Analytics, a 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies honoree by SBJ in 2024, netted its first WNBA client by signing the Liberty.
• It’s official! Google will stream its first exclusive NFL game this season, bringing audiences, bringing audiences the Week 1 game from Brazil free on YouTube and to existing YouTube TV subscribers, my SBJ colleagues Ben Fischer and Austin Karp report.
• Sportradar reported a record revenue in its Q1 report. My fellow SBJ Tech reporter Rob Schaefer has the details.
• Daktronics began the installation of an LED display in the north end zone of Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium.
• Tradable Bits inked a league-wide deal with Canada’s Northern Super League, the company’s seventh league-wide client.