Winner’s Bag: Chris Stroud

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR and TrackMan announced today they are expanding golf’s most advanced club and ball tracking and tracing solution. By combining TrackMan’s cutting-edge Doppler Radar and club and ball tracking technology, TOUR events will have tracing capabilities for every golf shot hit during the season. This will significantly enhance how fans experience the world’s best golfers by providing more detail for television, OTT and digital platforms. This agreement will double previous ball-in-motion tracing capabilities on the golf course, allowing nearly every shot to be traced and automatically shared with television and OTT partners and across TOUR digital platforms such as PGATOUR.COM and the PGA TOUR app. The arrangement with TrackMan begins in 2022 for PGA TOUR LIVE and TOUR digital platforms, while the domestic television partner agreement begins in 2023. This expansion will immediately offer fan enhancements such as the visualization of ball flight paths for shots inbound to the green in TOURCast. “We’re excited to increase the volume and depth of tracking and tracing for every shot on the PGA TOUR,” said Ken Lovell, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President Golf Technologies. “TrackMan’s sensors will substantially increase content available for analysis and initiate the development of new insights, while creating the opportunity for us to develop innovative visualizations for fans to view all the incredible shots on TOUR.” Fans will see more information beginning in 2022 on how and why the ball moves and arrives at a certain position. This is achieved by using TrackMan technology to capture club speed, ball speed, curve, landing spin, launch angle, spin rate, spin axis, apex, carry and more. The advanced aerodynamic models can also determine the effects of wind, weather, and altitude on a shot so that fans can understand how a shot was impacted by environmental factors. In addition to doubling the collection of radar and tracing information, the new system will substantially increase the range and sensitivity of the content that will now be layered with video for use on any TOUR media platform. Klaus Eldrup-Jorgensen, co-founder and CEO of TrackMan, commented “We have been working closely with the PGA TOUR for more than 15 years, to accurately measure and report data on club delivery, ball launch, ball flight, and tracers for the best players in the world. We are proud to be chosen to implement our new solutions with the PGA TOUR, which will ultimately include all shots for all players. The future of golf will be told in new and innovative ways, the fan experience will elevate to a new level, and the stories about how good these guys play is just beginning.” The club and ball tracking and tracing solution has become a valuable element to “ShotLink powered by CDW,” the TOUR’s real-time data collection and scoring system. As the TOUR and CDW continue to innovate the acclaimed scoring system that has benefited tournaments, broadcast partners, players and fans in countless ways over the years, the TrackMan system contributes to the automated data collection efforts by allowing ShotLink to auto-trigger on shots without input from a person. The new technology being deployed expands tracking capabilities from tee boxes only to shots hit from the fairway and around the green, where the system determines the exact 3D position of the ball at any point in its flight. The TrackMan technology has the ability to lock onto a ball that starts behind the trees and only becomes visible to the radar halfway through its flight. It’s able to accurately track balls up to 400 yards in any conditions; rain, fog, sunrise, and sunset. For a typical TOUR event, around 40 units are placed around the course to track shots with advanced radar and camera units on tee boxes and greens to capture final resting position. TrackMan also recently developed a mobile system that will be used for the capture of radar and tracing information from the fairway and will automatically integrate into TOUR media platforms, which is aided by AWS, the TOUR’s Official Cloud Provider. There are no cables or connections with the mobile system, which adds very little weight for the operator. The TOUR is testing the mobile system for expanded future use on PGA TOUR Champions, the Korn Ferry Tour and in other executions. The club and ball tracking and tracing system will utilize AWS Fargate, Media Services, and numerous other AWS products to process and deliver radar and tracing on every shot in nearly real-time. The full suite of AWS products will allow TrackMan to reduce their onsite footprint and allow fast and easy access to the devices and information from anywhere around the world.

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LAS VEGAS — Bryson DeChambeau birdied four of the last six holes Saturday for a share of the lead with Peter Uihlein in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. DeChambeau shot a 6-under 66 to match Uihlein at 16-under 197 at TPC Summerlin. “Definitely nice to be able to ball strike it as well as I have the past three days,” DeChambeau said. “Nice to be able to take two weeks — or three, four weeks off. I don’t know how many weeks I was off. It’s nice to not know essentially coming into an event and still be able to perform. That’s something I’ll take with me moving forward.” The leader after each of the first two rounds, Uihlein had a 68. He’s winless on the PGA TOUR. DeChambeau has four PGA TOUR victories, winning three times last season. “Still not seeing the line as well as I would like to,” DeChambeau said. “It’s all visual. If I start seeing it really well, watch out. But if I don’t see it well it’s a struggle. I’m going to go work on that and try and make that better for tomorrow.” Lucas Glover was a stroke back after a 61 that he capped with his second eagle of the day. He eagled the par-5 13th on his opening nine, and closed with another eagle on the par-5 ninth. “Made some putts,” Glover said. “I started out with a bogey on 10, actually. Hit a good putt, just misread a 4-foot slider. Made everything else, that’s for sure. Couple eagles on the par-5s. Holed it like a bucket. One of those days.” Glover matched his career best and was a stroke off the course record set by J.J. Henry in 2014 and matched by Rod Pampling in 2017. Chip Beck shot a tournament-record 59 in 1991 at Sunrise. “I like playing here,” Glover said. “It’s kind of target golf, but I’ve always enjoyed coming here.” Defending champion Patrick Cantlay had a 63 to join Robert Streb (68) at 14 under. Jordan Spieth remained 8 under in his season debut, shooting even-par 71.

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HAMILTON, Ontario – There are not many people in golf, let alone on the PGA TOUR, who could rely on past experience when they get close to shooting a 59, golf’s magic number. But Brandt Snedeker is one of those people. Snedeker, who won the RBC Canadian Open in 2013, shot a 10-under-par 60 on Friday at Hamilton Golf and Country Club and was flirting with 59, again, late in his round. The former FedExCup champion shot a 59 to open last year’s Wyndham Championship. He’d go on to win that week, his first TOUR win in two years. “When I did it at Wyndham I wasn’t feeling very good about my game at all; today I was feeling good,â€� said Snedeker of the differences between the two days. “I knew I could get something going early, make a putt early, I was rolling it really good on the putting green so I felt like I was there. “You get one those days every once in a while, and so I did the best I could taking advantage of it. I tried to make sure I made every putt today.â€� Snedeker made 136 feet of putts on Friday, his best of the season after making 112 feet of putts at the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge. Snedeker and Carl Pettersson, who won in 2010 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club, are the only golfers to shoot 60 at the event. Greg Norman also had a round of 10-under, a 62, at Glen Abbey Golf Club in in 1986. Snedeker tied the best 36-hole score at the Canadian Open with 129 after he opened with a 1-under 69.   “I made a small adjustment in my setup this week and it kind of clicked and felt great on the range. I think I missed one fairway with my driver, and you do that around here you’re going to set yourself up for success,â€� he said. “I just kept feeding on it, feeding on it, didn’t really think about (the score) too much until… 17 is the first time kind of popped in my head. Like, ‘oh, if I finish birdie-birdie I can shoot 59 again.’â€� As the afternoon wave was just getting started Friday, Snedeker was leading by two shots. Snedeker was grouped with Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas – another past FedExCup champion – and combined the trio shot 19-under on Friday. “It was fun to watch. It was exciting for sure. He made it look really easy,â€� said Koepka of Snedeker’s round. “I felt like I didn’t play very well playing with him,â€� echoed Thomas, with a laugh. “I mean, man that guy can putt. It was unbelievable.â€� Snedeker said the golf course sets up well for him since it’s not a layout for bombers. “You’ve got to put the ball in the fairway and give yourself plenty of opportunities. Sounds boring, but that’s the way this golf course is meant to be played,â€� he said. “That’s why I love it. I love old-school golf courses.â€� Although Snedeker has had two top-10 finishes this year, including at THE PLAYERS Championship, he classified his season to this point as “mediocre,â€� admitting he’s had trouble stringing four good rounds together. He said he usually plays well at events he’s won before – indeed, he’s won twice at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Farmers Insurance Open, and the Wyndham Championship – and even though he’s playing the Canadian Open this week at a different course than when he won in 2013, he’s still feeling good heading into the weekend. “I hold this tournament up a little bit more just because of what it means to me being a past champion,â€� said Snedeker. “I’ve only won RBC (Canadian Open) once, so would be find of a fitting way to top this one off.â€�

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