This piece of technology will make U.S. Women’s Open first of its kind

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The 78th U.S. Women’s Open is about to be a historic championship.

For the first time within the historical past of the ladies’s recreation, the USGA is bringing its flagship occasion to Pebble Beach Golf Links. There are few programs as well-known as Pebble Beach within the United States, so contesting the U.S. Women’s Open on this stage holds huge significance.

“I think this is a dream-changer,” mentioned USGA CEO Mike Whan. “I think this really matters to the people playing, but the real impact of this is the girls that are thinking about playing or aren’t really sure what they think about golf.”

But simply enjoying at Pebble Beach received’t be the one factor that makes this week a historic one. The USGA will additionally use ShotLink technology all through the course, permitting for dwell shot monitoring all through the championship. This marks the first time ShotLink knowledge will be utilized at a girls’s skilled occasion.

“I think it’s really big for the women’s game,” mentioned USGA Chief Commercial Officer Jon Podany. “We’ve never been able to offer that before, nor has anybody before. So to be able to offer that depth of statistics is gonna be really cool.”

The shot-tracking system, known as USGA ShotCast powered by Cisco, will make the most of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system, which is used every week on the lads’s skilled circuit. USGA ShotCast was beforehand featured on the 123rd U.S. Open, hosted at Los Angeles Country Club final month.

“When we first started talking about using ShotLink for the U.S. Open, we felt that we needed to make the commitment to also do it for the women,” Podany mentioned. “Fortunately [the PGA Tour] was willing to work with us to figure out a solution so we were able to do that.”

Fans will have the ability to entry USGA ShotCast on-line and by way of the USGA app, which will function radar knowledge, shot trails, inexperienced views and video highlights for every participant within the subject. It will additionally function 3D imagery of every gap.

Additionally, ShotCast will archive each televised shot, permitting followers to atone for all of the motion they miss all through the championship.

This knowledge is accessible weekly on the PGA Tour, however such superior stats will not be usually accessible within the girls’s recreation. Rudimentary strokes-gained knowledge is accessible on the LPGA Tour via KPMG Performance Insights, however with caddies logging the info by hand, it’s removed from an ideal science. This additionally means there isn’t a means to trace gamers across the course in real-time.

That all adjustments at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com the place he spends his days running a blog, producing and enhancing. Prior to becoming a member of the workforce at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas adopted by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all issues instruction and covers beginner and girls’s golf. He might be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.