How the men’s & women’s Opens are staying on the fairway

The 152nd Open’s broadcast showed no signs of its age in 2024, with new tech such as Mindfly AI-powered bodycams and data innovations such as Top Tracer and Hawkeye brought in by the R&A and IMG keeping the famous golf tournament firmly in the present.

“Bringing the audience inside the championship,” was the aim for R&A head of content and production Paul Sutcliffe. “Bringing out the players’ personalities and little nuggets.”

It wasn’t always the obvious places where this kind of content could be found. For example, while the Mindfly bodycam attached to Rickie Fowler during the men’s competition gave a first-person view of being a player, Sutcliffe actually, “preferred the camera following it, and the interactions between the player wearing the vest and other players it showed.”

Other efforts to bring viewers closer to the tournament included the continually evolving Live At The Range, a more entertainment-focused show where players, coaches and celebrities are interviewed while warming up their golf swings. Remote produced from IMG’s Stockley Park facility for the first time this year, the agency’s VP of sport management, Malcolm Booth, explained that the show was just one part of an, “influencer-led strategy”.

““The neat thing about golf is this silent network of people wouldn’t expect to be in it,” he revealed, adding that parent company Endeavor’s network of talent had also come in useful when trying to add some stardust to proceedings – as well as the success of Netflix behind-the-scenes docuseries Full Swing.

Sutcliffe was aiming for an, “F1 pit lane vibe,” for the show, which went out on Sky Sports on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament, as well as R&A TV, which was launched this year and powered by Endeavor Streaming, and YouTube. In addition to new talent, the show also featured interviews with players while they played their shots, produced using AirPods, where they gave tips on playing the game.

R&A TV had an even larger role when it came to the women’s tournament, streaming the entire event live. Sutcliffe explained the decision, “We want to grow platform and live golf is most effective way to do that.” It was also shown through Sky Sports.

Many of the same innovations were used across both tournaments, although Sutcliffe believes they should be treated as separate events. “It’s a Championship in its own right, and shouldn’t be compared to the men’s.”

All of this came in addition to the live broadcasts, which were produced by the R&A, IMG, and the European Tour. Russell Dawson, IMG’s executive producer, studios, who ran the production on the women’s tournament, stated his aim as, “first and foremost, storytelling.”

Data was used extensively to provide this, with NTT Data and IMG Arena both involved in providing the raw numbers needed for new graphics and insights. There were also Hawkeye replays available for every shot, with the only difficulty being, “fitting them into the programme,” according to Dawson.

The R&A realised there was so much data not making it into the TV broadcasts, that is launched a “Golf Nerds” Instagram channel, which saw over 5,000 sign ups during the men’s tournament – despite showing no live action and only data from the competition.

Fellow tracking technology Toptracer was also in use on every hole for the first time, but it was a more traditional tool that Dawson pointed to, “The commentary is your greatest enhancement – they bring that balance [between appealing to new and existing viewers.”

With all of these new broadcast and other innovations keeping The Open up with the present, the future was also in the mind of the production. The Women’s Open was the first to be powered entirely by green hydrogen, a technology that results in zero CO2 or particulate emissions, with water being the only by-product.