PGA's new service wades into live streaming

Steve DiMeglio | USA TODAY Sports

The PGA Tour is going where it’s never gone before, taking golf fans along for the new adventure.

Beginning with Thursday’s first round of the Quicken Loans National, the Tour, in collaboration with MLB Advance Media (MLBAM), will broadcast exclusive live action of two marquee groups in the first two rounds of tournaments throughout the season.

Rickie Fowler will kick off the Tour’s new exposure on Thursday. Fowler, who won The Players Championship and Scottish Open this year, will play with Ben Crane and Northern Trust winner James Hahn. Also on Thursday, the group of K.J. Choi, Danny Lee and John Senden will be featured.

Friday’s featured group will be headlined by Tiger Woods, alongside Bill Haas and Nick Watney. All three have won the Quicken Loans. A second featured group in the first round includes Justin Rose, Jimmy Walker and David Lingmerth, all with at least one victory this season.

The production will be sent out on all digital devices — mobile phone, desktop, laptop and tablet. Called Over-the-Top (OTT), the subscription service will feature live coverage of selected marquee groups on Thursday and Friday of more than 30 Tour events per season.

The service, which leads up to the afternoon Golf Channel broadcast, will be available in the United States, Canada and select international markets. Cost is $4.99 per month.

“Bringing this content to the fan is something we really have to do as we move into the new world of digital services,” Ty Votaw, executive vice president of the PGA Tour, said. “We are taking advantage of content that is out there that no one has been able to see because it hasn’t been produced.”

The Tour has live-streamed early action of tournaments on Saturdays and Sundays, but those broadcasts have featured players in the back of the pack. Now the game’s biggest stars will be highlighted.

For instance, earlier this year when Jordan Spieth played in the RBC Heritage four days after winning the Masters, he shot 74 in the first round. The following day, playing in the morning, he fired a 62. If OTT had been around, fans would have been able to see the entire round.

Just as they would have when Phil Mickelson came within an eyelash of shooting 59 in the morning wave of the first round of the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

The PGA Tour will determine the groups to be televised. After the Quicken Loans National, there will be five more tournaments providing this service this year, including all four events of the FedExCup Playoffs. A full slate of more than 30 events will start in 2015.

MLBAM is a New York-based technology company that will provide its video infrastructure services, including cross-platform application development and broadcast engineering operations.

“There is a lot of golf that goes on that no one sees, so we developed this product that addresses that footage issue,” Votaw said. “This will be attractive to people who love golf.”