Parel takes 1-shot lead in SAS Championship

There will be one extra player on the 17th tee at this year’s The PLAYERS. He’s actually a resident of TPC Sawgrass, but he’s never taken a full swing. THE PLAYERS’ Tiffany & Co. trophy – a three-dimensional depiction of the tournament’s gold swinging man logo — will hop off his stand and come to life on the broadcast this week. The PGA TOUR, working closely with NBC and creative agency The Famous Group, will become the first golf organization to incorporate mixed reality into its broadcast, as the trophy will digitally appear on the 17th hole. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds, making physical and digital objects co-exist in real time. For THE PLAYERS, the technology will be used to show the trophy taking aim at TPC Sawgrass’ famed Island Green. His shots will be illustrated with a golden trail. Honoring the 40th anniversary of the first PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, the trophy’s swing is an amalgamation of the action from past PLAYERS champions. Two interstitial moments will be used as part of the transition process between shots on the 17th hole. Another two animations will spotlight iconic moments in The PLAYERS Championship history. On Saturday, the trophy will reimagine Tiger Woods’ “Better than most” putt from his 2001 title (complete with Tiger’s fist pump). On Sunday, the trophy will reenact Rickie Fowler’s 2015 tee shot from his playoff win. Along with the trophy’s mannerisms, broadcast audio overlay will narrate the trophy’s depiction of each moment. “I think as we head into The PLAYERS every year, we’re always looking for the new way we can push technology. It’s usually a point in our schedule where we try to stretch the limits,” says Anne Detlefsen, Senior Director, Digital Content, PGA TOUR. “We thought about a way we could not just do it for the sake of throwing mixed reality into our broadcast, but really add some extra layers of storytelling to it.” Fans may recognize The Famous Group’s work from other instances of mixed reality. The Famous Group incorporated digital slime into the NFL’s Nickelodeon Wild Card Game and commemorated famous Los Angeles venues during the Super Bowl pregame show in February. Last September, the company formulated a mixed-reality panther for the Carolina Panthers’ home opener against the New York Jets. While the panther did not harm any season ticket holders, he did rip down a Jets flag and his presence on social media went viral. The partnership generated more earned media for the Panthers than any other activation in the last decade. Part of what makes mixed reality so impressive is the ability to animate while not changing weather conditions. Whether TPC Sawgrass is sunny and warm or if it is cold and rainy, the trophy will take his swing in the present setting. While the animation is prerecorded, its merging with the outside world is not. The PLAYERS Championship TV broadcast will use two cameras to capture multiple angles of this sequence in real-time. Details down to the reflection of the trophy’s gold exterior matching the existing position of the sun will be evident as this mixed reality comes to life. The current real-life The PLAYERS Championship trophy debuted in 2019, glistening with both sterling silver and 24k gold vermeil. Like the mixed reality 3D animation, the real-life trophy’s swing and form is combination of past PLAYERS champions, going back to Jack Nicklaus’ win in the first PLAYERS in 1974. Fans can expect to see mixed reality shots throughout the week on both NBC/Golf Channel and PGA TOUR LIVE broadcasts. Sure, you’ve watched the highlight of Woods’ “Better than most” putt over and over again, but have you seen it physically happen at No. 17 in the 21 years since? No. But you will see it in mixed reality form this week.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – The Honda Classic beckoned Sunday morning with the potential to be a runaway, with Daniel Berger, a local boy, in the lead by five. That’s a pretty commanding advantage at most places. The Champion Course at PGA National, though, stands as a brutish bouncer at the door. It simply wouldn’t allow such a thing. RELATED: Full leaderboard | What’s in Straka’s bag? Instead, we got drama – heaps of it, in fact – and a late rain shower, an uncharacteristic off-day from Berger (74) and a first-time winner in Sepp Straka. Straka, a Georgia Bulldog by way of Austria – how many Austrians do you know with a Southern drawl? – started terribly with a missed 2-footer for par at the first hole, but finished brilliantly. He made birdies on three of his last five holes, played the Bear Trap in 1 under, shot 4-under 66 and became the first Austrian-born player to win on the PGA TOUR. Oh, and now a Masters invitation beckons, as well. It was a lot to take in for a 28-year-old who moved to Valdosta, Georgia, at age 14 and later became a Georgia Bulldog. “It’s crazy,” Straka said. “It’s a lifelong dream of mine just to be heading to Augusta in a month or so. It’s still surreal. I’m sure it’ll sink in here before long, but yeah, it’s just crazy.” Tied with Shane Lowry as he arrived at the par-5 18th hole in the day’s penultimate group, Straka ripped a 334-yard bullet off the tee, hit 6-iron from 192 yards safely onto the putting surface in a sudden downpour, and cozied his 48-foot putt for eagle just 9 inches short of the hole. He tapped in for birdie to finish at 10-under 270. Behind him in the wet left-side rough stood Lowry, the gritty Irishman who captured the 2019 Open Championship at Portrush. He had done so much good all day, played so well, but Lowry struggled in the rain, a poor third shot leaving him 43 feet to try to force extra holes. The birdie putt drifted off short. Lowry shot a bogey-free 67. Afterward, he accepted his ill-timed fate, chalking it up to that lottery we know as golf. But he did say having to play the entire 72nd hole in a driving rain – there was no electricity in the storm, so golfers played on – was “as bad a break as I’ve got in a while.” Lowry turned in a beautiful card – 15 pars and three birdies on a golf course where danger lurks at every corner – but in the end he failed to make birdie over his final seven holes, and therein was the difference. In the end, it was hard to figure out who was happier: Straka, the first-time winner in his fourth TOUR season, or all of his fellow Bulldogs who stuck around to watch him win. “I think it validates a lot for him,” said fellow Bulldog Chris Kirk, who is Straka’s standing partner in Tuesday practice games on TOUR. Kirk was in the mix until he was derailed by a triple bogey at the 15th hole, the start of PGA National’s Bear Trap. He tied for seventh. “Obviously, he knows how great of a player he is – we all know how great of a player he is – but getting that first win, it’s unreal, for sure. Making it to the PGA TOUR is one thing. Winning out here is a completely different story. It’s incredible.” Kirk said Straka is one of the best driver and 3-wood players that he knows, and winning was just a matter of time. Straka tied for 10th at the Olympic Men’s Golf Competition last summer, representing Austria, where his father is from, and hoped to ride some momentum out of that. But his fall wasn’t very good. He started working with instructor John Tillery in December, just to “fine-tune” some things. And his play of late has been much better. Starting five shots back on Sunday did little to slow him. “This course is crazy,” Straka said. “There are no gimme holes at all. … You want to stand on that 15th tee with a chance to win, and we were there.” Straka would birdie the par-4 16th (19 feet) to tie for the lead, and he then made one final birdie at the last. He led the Honda field in driving accuracy (47 of 56 fairways), hit 15 greens on Sunday, and when he missed, scrambled well all week (13 of 17, which ranked third). Berger’s five-shot cushion heading into Sunday was the largest 54-hole lead in tournament history. By the time he and Lowry stood on the sixth tee, they were tied. Lowry got there with birdies on the first and fourth holes, and Berger got there with a double bogey at the par-5 third and bogeys at the fifth and sixth. The goal for Lowry was to slowly cut into Berger’s big lead. When Berger played his first six in 4 over, Lowry was a co-leader. It came a lot sooner than he had expected. “I was ready for anything out there today,” Lowry said. “I feel like mentally, I’m very good at the minute. And yeah, before I knew it, I was leading the golf tournament. It was great. I really enjoyed it. Quite nerve-wracking.” Berger can be tougher than sandpaper, too, a competitor who loves the arena, much like Lowry. He holed a bunker shot for birdie at the par-3 seventh and, as hard as he fought, he would not make another until he holed a 28-foot chip at the par-4 14th. He went down swinging, hitting 3-wood right into the water guarding the par-5 18th, which led to bogey and a fourth-place finish. It was Berger’s third top-four at his hometown TOUR event. “I didn’t play well, so I didn’t win the golf tournament,” Berger said. “That’s unfortunate, but I actually felt good. I just didn’t hit the shots that I needed to at the right time. “That’s the way golf goes. There are plenty of guys that hit great shots today, and that’s why they’re winning golf tournaments.”

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