Hi-tech Transformation

In the mid-1990s, statistics-gathering on the PGA Tour involved volunteers taking notes on how often a player found the fairway and the green and how many putts they took. It was Stone Age technology that fell drastically short of what was happening in the NBA, MLB and NFL. In 2000, the PGA Tour introduced ‘Shotlink’, though it wouldn’t become a part of every event until 2003. Since then it has revolutionised the way players track and analyse their performance in every department of the game. Complementing Shotlink has been Columbia University Professor Mark Broadie’s ‘Strokes Gained’ system, which shows how each player’s performance compares with that of other players in that week’s field and over the season. Strokes Gained Putting was first used in 2011, but was extended to other categories in 2016.