CBS All In On Technology At The 2017 PGA

If you listened to this week's ShackHouse, you know we're excited to learn from guest Amanda Balionis that CBS is emptying the bucket and giving us lots of technology on this week's PGA Championship telecast.

Martin Kaufmann explains at Golfweek.com what to expect, including this:

For the first time CBS will have Trackman on all 18 holes, cranking out data such as ball speed and curvature, and wireless Toptracer technology to track approach shots.

“I’m most excited that we can use the technology on all 18 holes,” Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, said during a conference call last week.

CBS also plans to use: ARL Virtual Eye, which shows Trackman tracing of ball flight over a hole graphic adjacent to live shots of players hitting tee shots; bunker cameras; a cable-mounted camera tracking action on the practice range and 4K coverage on DirecTV of the final three holes.

This is clearly a response to good feedback the network has received to its efforts this year, and even if some of the technology is useful only to a hardcore fan, the high-tech look helps modernize the telecast. It's also no coincidence that CBS's contract for the PGA is up after the 2019 event at Bethpage, and discussions about the next deal are expected to start later this year.