On The Open Championship’s driving range in July, Tiger Woods set up a tee shot, turned 45 degrees to the left, and blasted a drive straight into the water.
Woods hadn’t cracked under pressure, instead he was testing out Toptracer‘s tracking technology. The company’s system has been on the road this season, stopping at major PGA Tour events so that pros can use it during their warmups and spectators have a new way to track shots. Last weekend it was on show at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., for the PGA Championship.
At The Open, Woods was trying to trick Toptracer by intentionally hitting off course. But the tech wasn’t fooled and the ball can be seen flying to the left before it disappears into the ocean.
That time @TigerWoods aimed for the ocean during practice at #TheOpen… and we traced it all the waaaaaaaay.
pic.twitter.com/Mz8ds5wqeE
— Toptracer (@Toptracer_Golf) July 21, 2018
The Toptracer technology, originally known as Protracer before it was acquired by Topgolf in 2016, should be familiar to golf fans. In addition to being used at Topgolf centers and other independent ranges—spanning 70 facilities and nine countries—the company provides shot tracking on the TV broadcasts of major golf events.
“[The Toptracer range] has been received really, really well,” said Ani Mehta, the VP of corporate development at Topgolf. “It makes the experience for the viewers a lot more exciting. It makes the experience even more fun for the pros who are practicing. We have so many videos of pros hitting shots and immediately turning to the left to view the shot trace.”
The technology uses cameras positioned around the range to track every single ball hit. At tournaments, the data is relayed to portable servers, and Toptracer staff then render it into graphics for spectators on a screen. The staff can focus in on specific players and also put two players on the board side-by-side for comparisons. In addition, the screen includes leaderboards for statistics like longest drive, highest loft, and accuracy.
For spectators, Toptracer creates an added level of depth. In the past, fans watched players drive into the distance and were left to debate who was hitting well and who wasn’t. Toptracer takes the subjectivity out of that experience.
The data can also help pros, especially in rough conditions. “[At The Open] on Wednesday the weather was rough, the rain was coming down and we heard from many players that the launch marker was less than reliable so they were relying on the Toptracer to track distances,” Mehta said.
And Woods wasn’t the only player trying to test the system. According to Toptracer founder Daniel Forsgren, some pros alternated between hitting five-foot-high stingers and 200-foot loft shots, just to see if Toptracer stayed accurate at the extremes.