Turner Sports and the PGA TOUR Debut PGA TOUR Shot Tracker

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Turner Sports and the PGA TOUR announced today the debut of PGA TOUR Shot Tracker, a free, graphical live-scoring application that represents the next generation of online golf coverage with access to the most comprehensive and up-to-the second tournament coverage that is offered online, available on PGATOUR.COM. PGA TOUR Shot Tracker takes fans inside the ropes with unrivaled visuals that indicate real-time scores, shot trails, exact ball location and performance of each golfer for every PGA TOUR tournament.

PGA TOUR Shot Tracker will debut on PGATOUR.COM on Thursday, August 21 for the opening round of The Barclays, the first tournament of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, and will be available for the remainder of the Playoffs – the Deutsche Bank Championship (Aug. 29-Sept. 1), the BMW Championship (Sept. 4-7) and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola (Sept. 25-28) – as well as for all future PGA TOUR tournaments. PGA TOUR Shot Tracker is the latest innovative feature in the wide-ranging digital portfolio of PGATOUR.COM, the official Web site of the PGA TOUR.

“PGA TOUR Shot Tracker is truly a revolutionary application that gives fans incredible access to PGA TOUR events and allows them to track the performances of their favorite golfers online,” said Lenny Daniels, Turner Sports senior vice president of new media. “Turner Sports and our partners at the PGA TOUR are committed to providing the most technologically advanced applications and Shot Tracker is the latest development in a long line of innovations.”

“PGATOUR.COM is a leader in golf coverage, and for fans using it either as a complement to the telecast or as a standalone online coverage tool, PGA TOUR Shot Tracker provides them with customized, engaging content,” said Paul Johnson, PGA TOUR senior vice president of new media. “With PGA TOUR Shot Tracker, fans are in control of their golf experience.”

The new PGA TOUR Shot Tracker application gives fans a live update on the performance of golfers by providing an instant leaderboard that is in synch with every drive, chip and putt in real time. PGA TOUR Shot Tracker utilizes the PGA TOUR’s proprietary ShotLink scoring system providing in-depth coverage that tracks the distance, direction and positioning of the ball at all times and relays the information instantly to PGATOUR.COM, which in turn renders the data online to Shot Tracker. This level of detail and coverage was previously available only to the media and paying subscribers of PGATOUR.COM’s TOURCast service, but is now available for free to all golf fans.

Key features of the PGA TOUR Shot Tracker:

• Customizable content allows fans to decide which players they want to follow, how they want to follow them and what they want to see live, putting the online experience in their hands.
• Live shot trails, ball locations and hole graphics indicate where players hit their balls and provide the ability to zoom into the greens to see daily pin positions.
• Real-time statistics provide up-to-the-minute coverage along with predictive stats to determine what a player will do the next shot, based on each player’s in-round performance.
• Replay features ensure golf fans never miss a shot, by allowing fans to look back to see how players performed on previous holes.

In addition to enhanced features, PGA TOUR Shot Tracker also provides three unique views to follow golfers. Players View is displayed in a traditional leaderboard format and lists all players entered in the tournament with a new Shot Bar feature visually depicting their performance on each hole. Group View arranges all groupings/pairings by tee time for the round, allowing fans to follow the player-to-player dynamics that may affect the outcome of the tournament. Custom View allows fans to hand-pick their favorite players for a customized experience; as they navigate the different pages the data on their selected players will always be present at the top of each page. PGATOUR.COM editorial staff will also select key players to watch daily.

PGA TOUR Shot Tracker is the latest addition to the PGATOUR.COM’s digital portfolio. Paired with the site’s live leaderboard, LIVE@ series and award-winning editorial coverage, PGATOUR.COM provides golf fans with an immersive, interactive experience unrivaled in golf. In partnership with Turner Sports, PGATOUR.COM continues to grow with 2 billion annual page views and 3.5 million average monthly uniques through July 2008.

The official Web site of the PGA TOUR, PGATOUR.COM was launched in 1997 to serve the growing needs of golf fans. In 2007, the PGA TOUR partnered with Turner Sports to co-produce the site. With an international fan base following the action of the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour, PGATOUR.COM is the number one site in golf. PGATOUR.COM features official real-time scoring, world-class editorial content, exclusive LIVE@ multimedia coverage and its complete PGA TOUR archive of stats.

Turner Sports, Inc., a Time Warner company, presents some of the best and most popular sporting events worldwide and is a leader in televised and online sports programming. With events airing on TBS and TNT, Turner Sports’ line-up includes NASCAR and NASCAR.COM, the NBA, Major League Baseball, professional golf, PGATOUR.COM and PGA.com. Turner Sports also manages operations for NBA Digital, which includes NBA TV, NBA.com, WNBA.com, NBADLeague.com and NBA League Pass.