Rory McIlroy believes the PGA Tour has discussed a major change that could alter the landscape of professional golf

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR announced that PGA TOUR AR, an augmented reality (AR) app that rolled out in 2018, will add a “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience on holes No. 1 and 18 on Pebble Beach Golf Links at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The experience will bring live AR and 360° tournament coverage to life for fans in the United States on their Apple device. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will also showcase live featured hole AR coverage on the PGA TOUR AR app from holes 1, 7 and 18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The AR experience will begin in conjunction with the opening round of the tournament on Thursday, February 7. The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free, exclusively in the App Store. After selecting the 360° Tee Box within the app, fans will be directed to scan the floor and tap to start the experience. Once they tap to start, an AR green with the Pebble Beach flag will appear and direct fans to walk toward the green. Once fans walk onto the virtual green, the 360° video from either the 1st or 18th tee box will appear, and they can move their phones around to view the video. The experience will go live one hour before the first tee time Thursday-Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “The AT&T 360° Tee Box in the PGA TOUR AR app offers fans a unique and exclusive view of Pebble Beach Golf Links,� said Devon Fox, PGA TOUR Director, Digital Platform Innovation. “Fans will be able to see holes No. 1 and 18 in an entirely new way, getting them closer to the action than ever before. Collaborating with AT&T to bring fans this exclusive experience represents a new way for the TOUR to add value for sponsors and partners in the future.� PGA TOUR AR allows fans to interact with 3D featured holes and live 3D shot trails on any flat surface right in front of them. On featured holes throughout the season, fans will be able to select their favorite player on the golf course, compare shot trails from each round and compare the shots of different players. The 360° Tee Box presented by AT&T experience will only be available for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am from February 7-10. The PGA TOUR AR app is available on iPhone 7 and above and iOS 11.3 and above and on iPad Pro. The “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience will only be visible to users on the iPhone/iOS versions listed above. The 360° Tee Box experience was developed jointly by the PGA TOUR, AT&T, The Marketing Arm and Trigger Global. The development of the PGA TOUR AR app in collaboration with POSSIBLE Mobile, part of the creative agency POSSIBLE, was aided by existing data gathered by ShotLink powered by CDW, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system. ShotLink through CDW technology 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. ShotLink and CDW’s vision is to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into entertainment. The upgraded PGA TOUR AR app was built using the latest versions of ARKit and Unity to provide fans with faster, more accurate surface detection and the ability to choose where they want to place the models.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – South Africa’s Branden Grace wasn’t sure what to expect in his first start at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but he couldn’t have expected this. In one of the wildest scoring lines on the PGA TOUR so far this season, Grace’s topsy-turvy second round on Friday included two eagles, including a hole-in-one at the 194-yard, par-3 seventh hole; a double bogey at 11; and five birdies for a 7-under 64. That put him in the lead at 11 under after the morning wave. “I just felt like the putter was on a roll today,â€� he said. The winner of the 2016 RBC Heritage, Grace, 30, was dialed in Friday, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. He needed just 25 putts and was helped especially at the par-3 seventh hole, where he needed zero putts. It was the third ace of his career, his first outside of China. His caddie had to talk him out of a 7-iron and into an 8-iron. “The guys behind the hole actually started jumping up before the ball actually went in,â€� Grace said with a laugh. “When people start jumping, you know it’s there, or thereabouts.â€� The eight-time European Tour winner also enjoyed a highlight at the course’s more famous par-3 hole, the 155-yard 16th. After making par there in the first round, Grace rolled in a birdie putt from just over 14 1/2 feet Friday, setting off a sonic boom amongst the stadium full of crazies. Asked about the hole, he shook his head and smiled. “I think obviously being part of three Presidents Cups helps,â€� he said, “because there is nothing like the 16th, yeah, I must say. There’s no event that gets close. Even the majors—obviously, there’s a big hype, but people are a little bit more on the safe side, if I can call it that, with how much noise they make and how crazy they get. “But I think it’s been awesome,â€� he added. “… I thought it can’t be that bad today. This morning, when I was warming up, 7 o’clock when those gates opened, the guys were running and running to that 16th, screaming and going crazy already. I mean you knew it was going to be a loud one today. And obviously making a birdie there was pretty awesome and everybody going nuts.â€�

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