How AI Is Making the Masters Tournament More Accessible for Fans

By Noah Syken, Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Partnerships, IBM

For 90 years, Augusta National Golf Course has awed and delighted players and patrons alike at the annual rite of spring known as the Masters Tournament. It is a course that holds both history and heartbreak, challenging some of the world’s greatest golfers as they chase the most coveted prize in golf: the Green Jacket. 

That’s because Augusta National, undeniably beautiful and impeccably maintained, is deceivingly difficult, with subtle defenses not always obvious to the casual observer. The greens are true but undulating and lightning fast. The fairways are hilly and sloped in ways that produce very few even lies. This is not a course that can simply be overpowered. Winning the Masters requires precision, intelligence, and insight. 

Players gather insight about the course through experience. They walk the course, play practice rounds, study yardage books, and confer with their caddies. But for those of us not lucky enough to step foot inside the ropes, there is another way to unlock the mysteries of Augusta National: AI-powered features in the Masters app.  

To get fans closer to the Masters than ever before, IBM worked with the Masters digital team to infuse generative AI into the 2024 Masters app. Hole Insights with IBM watsonx is a new feature that adds context to every shot, on every hole. The moment a ball comes to rest, the x, y, and z coordinates are captured, analyzed, and compared against eight years of Masters historical data. 

For example, if a player hits their drive to the right side of the fairway on hole 13, the generative AI model might produce the following insight: “From this spot, players make birdie or better 39% of the time, versus 31% from the left side of the fairway.” We’re using similar AI capabilities to add spoken narration, in both English and Spanish, to more than 20,000 video clips of every shot in the tournament.

As I watched this work come together over the last few months, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between winning the Masters and building a great AI experience. Augusta National demands a complete game from tee to green. Long drives certainly help. But without precise iron play and smooth putting, you may not even make the weekend, let alone don the Green Jacket. 

Similarly, it takes more than just a powerful foundation model to build a meaningful AI. First, these models need to be fueled by an organization’s trusted data. They also need to be managed and monitored throughout their lifetime. And don’t forget the user experience. How and when AI-generated content is delivered to an end user is an important factor in determining its value. 

In tech industry circles, there’s a tendency to count parameters or tokens to quantify the power of an AI model. But IBM’s partnership with the Masters is about more than raw power; it’s about trust. The Masters is one of the most valuable brands in the world. Everything about the experience, whether in person, online, and on television, is managed meticulously. Failure is not an option. So when Augusta National Golf Club decides to use AI capabilities in its award-winning app, they need to know the models are going to enhance the fan experience and operate as intended. 

IBM watsonx can carry the Masters into the age of generative AI. We can manage the lifecycle of their AI models, from curating their trusted data, to training open-source foundation models, and managing and monitoring the results. In other words, we’ve used every club in the bag. 

Find out more about IBM at the Masters here. 

This post was created by IBM with Insider Studios.