When Is ShotLink Coming To The Majors?

Among the revelations in David Barrett's feature is the extensive use of ShotLink by the USGA to determine various scenarios with distance, with the research and testing gurus even writing their own software to further work the ShotLink data culled during a season on the PGA Tour.

Which begs the question, after signing a new TV deal with Fox for three times their current deal, how can they are resist adding ShotLink to the U.S. Open? The cost is $500k for the week.

Anyway, Barrett writes about the future in his Golf World cover story on stats, and it's going to become more of an absurdity each year the Masters, R&A, PGA Of America and USGA resist ShotLink:

What does the future hold for ShotLink and statistical analysis? One possibility, as the tour's laser equipment is nearing the end of its life, is a change to a video-camera system that would be able to capture the final trajectory of the shot and where the ball hits the ground as well as where it ultimately finishes.

Ideally, we would see ShotLink technology installed at the four major championships, all run by organizations other than the PGA Tour. That seems unlikely to happen soon, though responses to inquiries about the possibility from the PGA of America (PGA Championship) and the Masters at least offered some degree of hope. It's an unfortunate situation when there is less information about the game's most important tournaments than there is about regular events.
"All tour players are guessing about what they do or don't do well at the majors," says Goss. "This year I'm trying to come up with a homemade method for the majors and the European Tour events Luke plays in."

Broadie foresees more application of ShotLink data to course strategy, further development of strokes gained, more incorporation of additional information like the lie of the ball and the contours of the green, perhaps even connecting ShotLink data to TrackMan ball-flight data in a more direct link to coaching.