Leishman sets tourney mark with BMW win

THE OVERVIEW There are plenty of reasons to watch Ian Poulter. Maybe you love his chest-thumping passionate antics. Maybe you get rubbed the wrong way by this animated Englishman. Whatever end of the spectrum you fit, you cannot look away. At 42, Poulter might be getting closer to the veteran stage, but he’s got just as much passion if not more than any of the young stars coming through the ranks. His Houston Open victory last season, the third PGA TOUR title to go with his 10 European Tour wins, was inspiring stuff. Told the week before that he had earned a Masters berth before recalculations showed that he actually had not, Poulter left nothing to chance in Houston. He rebounded from an opening 73 to win in a playoff and punch his ticket to Augusta. Bottom line – if you fire this guy up, he will produce. Poulter competes with heart as much as anything else. His Strokes Gained stats all sat in reasonable spots last season without being spectacular but importantly he limited his weaknesses. As long as he maintains that base line, he can will himself to another level of competition when the whips are cracking. — By Ben Everill Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS How Ian Poulter ranked in Strokes Gained statistics during his last full season on the PGA TOUR: FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 59th Playoff appearances: 11 TOUR Championship appearances: 0 Best FedExCup result: 31st in 2009. SHOTLINK FUN FACT No player on the PGA TOUR last season putted better from 6 feet than Ian Poulter, who made 41 of 45 attempts for a 90.24 percent success rate. That’s the best-ever percentage from that distance in the ShotLink era. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Ian Poulter in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Poulter can certainly polarize the golf public but I, for one, think he’s great for the sport. It wasn’t that long ago he appeared to be heading towards the golfing wilderness but he climbed off the scrapheap to win again and lengthen an already impressive career. If the Englishman can find a villain in his mind on a handful of occasions this season, there’s nothing to suggest he can’t win again. — By Ben Everill FANTASY INSIDER: While he’ll turn 43 in January, because of his profile as a grinder and a clutch putter, his game will age well on most tracks. As it correlates to our world, his limited schedule always has been a problem. It’s relegated him to a complementary role in full-season leagues in which you can’t roster more than a couple like him due to limited opportunities to score. However, that reality multiplies his value in weekly games, especially on the biggest stages on which he’s thrived. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Poulter, like many other golfers in 2018, is currently using a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange shaft, which has a counter-balanced design with an extremely stiff tip. As for the driver head, Poulter employs the new Titleist TS3 (9.5 degrees). While Poulter used to play combo sets of CB-MB irons when he first joined Titleist’s staff in the mid-2010s, Poulter now plays Titleist’s 718 AP2 irons, and a 716 T-MB 4 iron. With 13 Titleist clubs in the bag, Poulter uses an Odyssey #7 model putter. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: Best known for bold and colorful Tartans, Ian Poulter has toned down his wardrobe recently. Since shuttering his apparel company, he has stuck with simple and classic setups with modern fits. Although he remains one of the best dressed in the game, I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that old Poulter flair return in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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The PGA TOUR announced today that it is creating a first-of-its-kind augmented reality (AR) experience on mobile devices for fans attending the three FedExCup Playoff events from August 19-September 5, 2021. Powered by Quintar’s (www.quintar.ai) Q.reality live sports and entertainment AR platform, the PGA TOUR AR app for iPhone is made exclusively for fans attending any of the rounds at THE NORTHERN TRUST, BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship. The app is designed to amplify their live tournament experience through the power of AR using data provided by ShotLink powered by CDW over one signature hole at each tournament. The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free exclusively in the App Store. Users will be instructed to turn their phones sideways once they open the app, which will take the device into AR mode and link it to the course. Whether they are sitting in the stands or standing greenside, fans simply point their iPhone to the tee box or green and interact with the action. “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for fans who wish to take their on-site experience to a whole new level,” said the PGA TOUR’s Senior Vice President of Digital Operations, Scott Gutterman. “Providing an AR experience for fans has been our goal and we couldn’t be happier to launch this app with Quintar. Our aim is to make the sport of golf more immersive and we believe this is just another step in the right direction.” The live AR experience will be available on the three par-3 signature holes: No. 14 at Liberty National Golf Club for THE NORTHERN TRUST; No. 17 at Caves Valley Golf Course at the BMW Championship; and No. 15 at East Lake Golf Club for the season-ending TOUR Championship. The app’s live and fan controlled replay experience will feature AR tee-shot trails with apex indicator, ball and player indicator cards, distance to pin measurements, and interactive 3D models of the greens displaying topography so fans can spin around each shot to see the different angles and the challenge each player faces with every putt. Fans can capture the AR blended action and share with their friends on social. “Imagine watching shot trail graphics for tee shots fly through the air and putt trails speed across the green, providing fans in attendance with an unprecedented almost video game-like experience of the real life tournament playing out in front of them,” said Buddy Scott, Quintar’s Senior Vice President of Product and Experiences. “With our patent-pending spatial registration platform, we seamlessly link mobile phones to physical playing surfaces over distance, time and fan movement. This allows for live AR data to be accurately placed and viewed by fans no matter where they are located around the hole.” In addition to the live shot tracking, the app includes a live “pick ‘em” style game, called the ‘Par-3 Player Picks,’ where participants select one player from each grouping before they play the signature hole at each FedExCup Playoffs event. Points are won and lost depending on how each selected player does on the hole. A fan leaderboard will be tracked and displayed with the top three eligible participants from each round winning prizes. The development of the PGA TOUR AR app is aided by existing data gathered by ShotLink, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system. ShotLink, in utilizing technology from CDW, captures and reports real-time vital information on every shot, by every player, during tournament competition. Every shot is translated into thousands of statistics, changing the way fans watch – and now interact with – the PGA TOUR, bringing them closer to the action. “

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