PGA TOUR deploys generative AI to enhance tournament commentary

PGA TOUR is using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance tournament commentary.

In partnership with AWS, a new TOURCAST AI commentary feature provides written context for every shot for every player during PGA TOUR events. It was launched last week at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

TOURCAST allows fans on the PGA TOUR’s app and website to see shot trails and data surrounding every single shot. Now, that information is accompanied by commentary to bring shots to life.

Generative AI scales commentary capabilities

Professional golf presents unique broadcasting challenges with tournaments featuring up to 144 players, competing across 100-150 acres, with 18 holes representing 18 fields of play. Over multiple days this can total over 10,000 shots captured daily.

“Our goal has always been to provide as best we can to make sure every player gets coverage,” said Scott Gutterman, SVP of digital and broadcast technologies at PGA TOUR. “Generative AI is a tool we can use to scale across our events to create content based on the performance of any player at any given point of time.”

The commentary not only describes every shot, but it also provides context for what each shot means for each player based on their current performance and upcoming shot as well as how it relates to the broader competition, 

“It’s really about helping our fans be better informed as they consume our sport in a wide variety of ways,” Gutterman added

Driving fan engagement

The introduction of generative AI commentary in TOURCAST is an outgrowth of the PGA TOUR’s Fan Forward Initiative, which was announced in June to catalyze the sort of innovation that gives golf fans more of what they want. Interestingly, Fan Forward found that the 18-34 demographic has a strong desire for “greater integration of stats and data.” AI commentary in TOURCAST is one response to those findings.

Following the initial rollout of TOURCAST AI shot commentary, PGA TOUR will continue to grow and evolve the feature, giving fans the ability to personalize their own streams. The plan is to grow TOURCAST AI shot commentary into a multi-modal feature with text, voice and video so fans can customize their optimal and personalized viewing experience.

“We want to keep the user engaged, give them context and have them following along,” said Trey Pezzetti, AI product lead at PGA TOUR.

Applying AI’s powerful features

Using AI to enhance the fan experience is nothing new for PGA TOUR. Over the past 10 years, it has leveraged AI and machine learning to enable fans to experience the output from ShotLink powered by CDW, view automatically curated player highlights and round recaps and read post-round articles and notes such as the match recaps that allowed fans to easily follow the results of every match at the 2024 Presidents Cup.

With the 2025 PGA TOUR season in full swing, the TOUR continues to evolve and expand its fan engagement initiatives and offerings as the excitement and drama toward the 2025 FedExCup rolls on. “THE PLAYERS is the PGA TOUR’s marquee event,” Gutterman said. “It is always the place where we roll out our new technologies to kind of set the tone for the rest of the year.”

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