We live in a day and age of content.
Odds are you have a number of applications on your phone to help you do this. You read an article, watch a video, maybe one of those is a short one like a reel or TikTok post… and this is how you go about your day. Your interests and preferences are well-adjusted to by the algorithms of each property and you get what you need.
The PGA Tour is doing what they can to find you there. On Wednesday they announced an innovation alongside their media partners in ‘Rapid Rounds’ which is a way to absorb rounds from your favorite golfers (shocker here) quickly.
It all starts this week with the 3M Open and will continue in the coming weeks:
Starting this week at the 3M Open, ESPN, Golf Channel, CBS Sports and the PGA TOUR will release select rapid-fire versions of full player rounds featured within each day’s telecasts and streams, available to fans in the hours after play has been completed for the day. The first new uploads of “Rapid Rounds” videos will be available via ESPN and TOUR platforms this Thursday from the 3M Open. First-round main feed coverage, which also is available to stream on ESPN on Disney+, begins earlier that day. Fans can also expect additional “Rapid Rounds” from CBS Sports digital platforms featuring the biggest names at the top of the leaderboard competing this weekend at TPC Twin Cities. NBC Sports platforms will post “Rapid Rounds” in August with the FedEx St. Jude Championship as well the final two FedExCup Playoffs events.
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“Rapid Rounds” – in test phase through the remainder of 2025 – is the most recent example of the TOUR’s Fan Forward initiative, which launched last year in an effort to accelerate innovations that increase fan connections with the PGA TOUR and the game of golf. Fan Forward is an ongoing initiative, and outreach continues as new innovations are tested and implemented to create the best version of the PGA TOUR.
This sounds awesome. We will have to wait until Thursday’s round to see it fully in action, but to make up an example it seems as if the media properties relative to the event in question will put together a quicker way to absorb the rounds of notable players in the field, the Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas’ of the world.
Sports fans are starting to see a lot of examples of this thanks to innovations in technology. Using another example… Major League Baseball does a great job with this. Their technology curates “stories” for games or highlights of players you select as your favorites. If that is the world that we are on our way to in golf… it will absolutely rule.
Let’s see what happens on Thursday!
