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'PGA Tour 2K23' will debut on October 11th with Michael Jordan as a playable character
It's the first entry in the series since 2K roped in Tiger Woods as executive director.
'EA Sports PGA Tour' is delayed by a year
Golf fans will have to wait another full year to play EA’s next PGA Tour game
A Netflix PGA Tour docuseries is coming from the producers of 'Drive to Survive'
The men's major championships and top-ranked players like Collin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson are on board.
ESPN+ will offer 4,300 hours of PGA Tour Live golf streaming
ESPN+ has announced that it will offer 4,300 hours of golf coverage across 35 tournaments as part of its PGA Tour Live streaming deal.
EA will return to golf games with a new PGA Tour title
EA is reviving its PGA Tour golf game series with a 'next-gen' title in development.
Tiger Woods signs long-term deal with 2K
Woods will work on 'PGA Tour 2K' games with HB Studios, which the publisher is buying.
Golf fans can see PGA Tour players’ heart rates thanks to new wearable partnership
The PGA Tour will use Whoop fitness straps to show the heart rates and other biometric data of players “during defining moments throughout the season,” it announced.
ESPN+ will be the home of PGA Tour's streaming service in 2022
You might end up paying less to stream live golf tourneys in the future. As part of a larger media deal, PGA Tour Live will be included as part of the ESPN+ base package starting in 2022 -- it'll be the only place you can use it in the US, in fact. The service will grow as part of the arrangement, too, with multiple live streams available for "nearly every week" of the FedExCup season. This includes 36 tourneys, "at least" 28 of which will get four days of coverage. You can also expect the usual on-demand replays, recaps and original programming.
PGA Tour highlight videos are coming to Facebook Watch
You won't have to venture far beyond your Facebook feed to get a pro golf fix this year. The social network has reached a deal with the PGA Tour to bring daily round recaps and player-oriented highlight videos to Facebook Watch in 2020, starting with the Farmers Insurance Open on January 23rd. These will be "expanded" videos with material from both core TV broadcasts as well as the digital-only PGA Tour Live service. You should see coverage from 30-plus events like The Players Championship and FedExCup Playoffs.
PGA Tour's second-screen iPad app bombards you with stats, video
Even the most ardent golf fan would admit that sometimes tournament telecasts aren't exactly action-packed. The PGA Tour is trying to do something about that with its new iPad app, available just in time for this week's World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. The second-screen app compliments the live action, giving you shot-by-shot coverage of players or groups, all overlaid onto a graphic of each hole. On top of all the stats you'd ever want (drive length, distance to hole, etc.) the app even gives predictive stats, showing how likely Rory McIlroy is to make that 25-foot putt he's facing, for instance.
Apple Pay interest high for retailers; PGA Tour to take it starting next week
The Wall Street Journal said in an article yesterday that Apple Pay is "making progress toward a goal that has eluded other mobile wallets: persuading people to use it." At a supermarket near Zion National Park in Utah, a night manager told the Journal that she estimates that 30 percent of all shoppers are now using the service and that a full five times as many customers use Apple Pay than use competing payment service Softcard. As of now, Apple says that over 220,000 locations in the US accept Apple Pay. The Journal noted that Brian Roemmele, a payments consultant, said "I've never seen a bigger adoption of an alternative-payment system," pointing to Bank of America's recent statement that nearly 800,000 of its customers signed up for Apple Pay in the fourth quarter of 2014. Retail point-of-sale supplier Harbortouch Payments LLC said it has seen a jump from 22 to 68 percent of merchants asking for wireless readers, starting in the month after Apple Pay was announced. Visa's Jim McCarthy, the global head of innovations and strategic partnerships said that "Apple Pay will be the 'reference model' for future mobile-payments services." Even Google is reacting to Apple Pay's wild success, apparently in negotiations to acquire Softcard. In other Apple Pay news, MasterCard announced that the PGA Tour will accept Apple Pay starting at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona this week. In a press release on Business Wire this morning, MasterCard stated: The acceptance of easy-to-use contactless payments, fully integrated into concession technology, is just the beginning of how MasterCard and the PGA TOUR are delivering an enhanced experience to golf spectators. MasterCard cardholders who use Apple Pay at supported course concessions during the Waste Management Phoenix Open – which begins Thursday, January 29th on The Golf Channel – may also get a Priceless Surprise! We're sure to find out more about how Apple Pay is faring from Apple's executives, including CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri, during tomorrow's earnings call.
Start the 2014-2015 PGA Tour season with the Golf Channel app
The PGA Tour just held its tour championship event and the Ryder Cup is in late September, but we are only three weeks away from the start of the 2014-2015 PGA season. To get fans off to a good start The Golf Channel has launched a completely redesigned iOS app. The Golf Channel app runs on all your iOS devices with iOS 7.0 or later. The app promises a brand new interface that offers much easier navigation. Users should also find a photo gallery with more and larger pictures plus more videos both in the news area and instructional. The new interface starts with a home page that give you the chance to select all the separate areas. The news section is extensive with articles not only about the PGA Tour but stories from all the other tours as well including the Web.Com Tour, LPGA, PGA European Tour, and the Champions Tour. The app features a separate section for news videos. Some of these are videos from normal Golf Channel on air programming and others are reports done on specific players or events. I found that some of the videos are preceded by a thirty second commercial announcement but most are not. Unfortunately when a commercial did play it was the same one each time. The Golf Channel app offers scoreboards for all the active tournaments. You can see the overall leaderboard and then select specific golfers to see how they played in each round. With the individuals you get a hole by hole breakout of their scores. Users can also select favorite players and with a single tap that golfer's score will appear at the top of the screen so it is easier to find when you check the app for updates. I found the library of Instructional Videos to be quite helpful. They cover just about every aspect of your golf game from fitness to training aids, to proper practice techniques to hitting specific shots on the course. Again, like with the news videos some but not all of the videos are preceded by commercials. If you are like me you are always looking at the newest and latest innovations in golf equipment. Will the new driver get me more distance, keep my tee shots straighter, etc? This new app has a section devoted to just equipment. Some stories detail what the pros are carrying in their bags, others deal with new equipment and a lot of stories are devoted to fashion. If you can't play like a pro at least you can look like one. Overall I found the newest version of the Golf Channel app quite useful and loaded with information. I think once we get back to having tournaments every week it should be even more of a benefit to those who follow the professional golf tours.
Tiger Woods 'in negotiations' with another publisher for video game rights
Since pro golfer Tiger Woods' name and likeness are no longer attached to EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf series, he is free to explore deals with another publisher. That is exactly what Woods' agent Mark Steinberg is doing, as he is currently "in negotiations with another company regarding Woods' video game rights," ESPN reported. EA announced earlier this week that it was parting ways with Woods following a report in April that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15 wasn't happening. The publisher will maintain a licensing partnership with the PGA Tour for future golf games.
Four EA Sports games in 2011 to feature Kinect
Peter Moore just took to the stage at the Microsoft E3 2011 press conference to announce some new Kinect-compatible sports titles. Four upcoming games will sport Kinect functionality -- PGA, Madden, FIFA and "one we'll announce later." Moore did not reveal how Kinect would be utilized in these games, though he did hint at being able to physically call audibles in Madden.
Sony's 2011 PGA Tour event to be shot in 3D
Ok, this isn't quite the 3D sporting event we were expecting next after the BCS Championship and World Cup soccer, but the more we think about it, the more Sony and the PGA's plans to shoot the 2011 Sony Open in 3D makes sense. Golf on an HDTV is an absolutely beautiful sight, and the ability of 3D to let us see from the golfer to the ends of the fairways in Hawaii and keep everything in focus should not be underestimated. Of course, that's more than a year away, and Sony is planning to test out its 3D equipment at the upcoming 2010 event first. We'll see if any networks are ready to broadcast this PGA Tour Stop in the best quality available by that time -- or if the British Open is at least in HD.
PGA pushing HD
One of the major draws for HD content is sports, and even if golf isn't your game, you've got to admire the beauty of some of the courses. PGA Tour Productions wants to make that HDTV of yours seem like a window onto their events, and is renovating one of their Florida production studios to make it happen. Everything in the facility is getting the HD-upgrade, and it's not cheap. But you've got to spend money to make money, and HD investments at the studio have already reaped rewards. For example, production that previously took 18 months to complete was done in 8 weeks on the new video, graphics and audio hardware. The facility's VP and production manager, Clark Fivek, summed up what every HD enthusiast knows in his gut (and wallet) when he said, "You're always in the upgrade process."
Six from EA
Electronic Arts generally releases games for more platforms than we even knew existed. Thus, when they announce support for the Wii, we have trouble acting surprised, even for the benefit of our readers. When they announce that their tried-and-true franchises are being given unique control schemes by a dedicated team, however, we then tend to pay a bit more attention. Everyone knew, of course, that Madden 2007 was getting a specialized Wii treatment. In a press release earlier today, however, they have announced similar plans for five more games: Harry Potter, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods: PGA TOUR, SSX, and The Godfather. Whoa. Need for Speed: Carbon was indeed known to be coming to the Wii, albeit we had no idea what playing it would be like. Chances are, it will utilize a similar control scheme as Excitetruck, the Wiimote aligned horizontally. Tiger Woods will offer a more intense golf simulation over that of the Wii Sports incarnation, Harry Potter will certainly use the controller as a wand for some excellent spell-casting, and SSX will most likely revamp their trick system. And The Godfather? Is anyone else seeing an intense cigar-smoking simulation?[Thanks, John and Cabbage!]
