Lasers offer good measure of success

By Barbara Matson, Globe Staff  |  August 31, 2008

NORTON - In 1985, Sandy Lyle won the British Open at Royal St. George's with a scrambling bogey on the 18th hole. Lyle missed the green with his approach and had a chip shot of, oh, about 40 feet. He flubbed that, leaving a par putt of about, oh, 30 feet. He two-putted for bogey, but his score was enough to hold off the field by a stroke.

Naturally, Lyle's chip-and-putt sequence was featured first in most newspaper accounts of the tournament. As the reporters worked on their stories in the media tent, none could agree on just how long the putt was. One writer said 20 feet, another swore it was 30. Ultimately, Washington Post writer John Feinstein went out into the night, walked across the dark golf course to the 18th green, and paced off the putt. Thirty feet was the decision.

But in 2008, anyone can find the exact yardage 12 seconds after the ball settles on the green. No guessing, just push a button.

Shot Tracker is the cutting edge of technology for the PGA Tour. Since 2000, the Tour has been using lasers to track play, providing staff with stats as well as all yardage numbers tossed off by television analysts. Now, every shot of every player on every hole is tracked and measured and displayed graphically, and, since last week, it has been available online at www.pgatour.com.

"In the late 1990s, we were trying to change from our paper-trail system to become more of the electronic age," said Matthew Toenjes, coordinator of tournament operations, "and bring whatever we could into the technology part of keeping stats, and getting more real time with all of our information. We got together with some programmers and developed our own system."

The system uses greenside lasers, fairway lasers, and walking scorers with handheld devices.

"When [the walking scorer] enters a shot hit on that device, it sends a signal to our truck," said Toenjes. "The truck sends a signal to that fairway or greenside laser so [the volunteer] knows who's hitting that ball. The ball icon will pop up on their device.

"At that point, they'll tap on that player's name, shoot the ball, and it measures how far that player has hit from the tee to that ball, and how far that ball is to the pin. Greenside lasers are accurate to the centimeter, fairway lasers to the inch."

Of course, it takes a volunteer army of 300-350 people to work the system, but every week, the volunteers show up to man the 32 stations. Many are veterans, returning year after year to "shoot" the tournament.

Brian Walton and his son, Jack, of Foxborough are typical. The pair has been shooting at the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston for three years. Their shift along the fourth fairway lasted about six hours yesterday, and, said Jack, "It didn't seem that long. It went by fast."

"It's a driveable par-4 [298 yards], and we saw three eagles today," said Brian.

There are times when the volunteers can't see the ball - it's behind a mound or buried in the rough.

"Then we shoot the player," said Jack.

"Kindly," added his father.

Videoboards around the course are another component of the system. When a golfer is playing a given hole, the scorer signals the truck and the truck sends signals to the board to project the player's bio and stats, such as distances, or chips and putts at a certain range.

The PGA also compiles something called "The Atlas" - every shot that's taken in a tournament.

"We give it to rules officials, superintendents, golf course designers," said Toenjes, "so they can see how their holes are playing."

Last week in its web debut at The Barclays, the Shot Tracker came into play when Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia had similar putts on the first playoff hole.

"It was like 20.1 and 19.8 feet," said Toenjes, "and they looked up at the tower and they were able to tell them who was furthest out, who putted first. Sergio made that putt and put a lot of pressure on Vijay. Vijay made that putt and they moved on to the next hole."

The system generates 1,500 stats for one hole for one guy, from putts made within certain ranges, shots made within certain ranges, or driving distances. Players can learn what they need to improve.

"It shows if he plays right side of fairway more," said Toenjes, "if he plays the left side more, if he hits rough, his scrambling ability, if he's able to get up-and-down out of bunkers, putts made within 20 feet . . ."

Toenjes took a deep breath. "We have things we haven't thought of," he said.