PGA Tour's patent-pending technology wins Sports Emmy for Technical Achievement

The PGA Tour's Drone AR technology has won big at the 46th Annual Sports Emmy Awards. The patent-pending technology, which has been used since last year, won in the "The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award" category.

The technology which blends aerial drone footage with real-time Augmented Reality graphics, was recognised for its contribution to sports broadcasting. The technology is considered a breakthrough in golf as the broadcasters have always struggled to show ball flight clearly on TV after the ball flies off-screen.

Announcing the win, the PGA Tour took to LinkedIn and wrote:

"A TOUR-owned patent-pending technology, Drone AR was developed through a collaborative effort between six partners—the PGA TOUR, Bolt6, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Virtual Eye, and Kaze Aerial Production. The cutting-edge innovation allows fans to watch towering drives like never before, as the augmented reality experience combines live aerial video with real-time analytics."

Along with the drone footage, the real-time AR graphics show ball flight, apex, distance and roll using ShotLink and TrackMan data. The innovators of the technology are Dr. John Duesler, Jon Freedman, James Japhet, Brian Kaufmann, Joe Martin, Steve Milton, Tommy Roy, Sellers Shy, Ben Taylor and Alex Turnbull.

In a recent podcast, A guy with a scarf, Scott Gutterman, SVP of Broadcast and Digital Technologies at PGA Tour, talked about the innovations of the broadcast group and said:

"One of the really fascinating innovations that they've had over the last year is, uh, what we call Drone AR, which is using a drone, uh, live to present live, uh, shot trails at an event as they're happening.

"It's a really fant—like, if you ever see it in the golf broadcast, it just looks really cool, um, and you see the stroke trail going. But that's a combination of us working with a company called ARIRL and our drone team here, um, and a couple of our network partners, and so that's the kind of thing that we continue to try." (36:59-37:23)

Scottie Scheffler's documentary, Scottie 24, which reflected on the World No.1's previous season, was also nominated for the 46th Annual Sports Emmy Awards. LIV Golf's "Any Shot Any Time" technology was also nominated but did not win. Charles Barkley, who is often seen in golf broadcasts, won in the Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst category.

---

2025 Sports Emmys Winners List

Here's a complete list of winners at the 46th Annual Sports Emmy Awards:

• Outstanding Live Special – Championship Event: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Live Special – Non-Championship Event: Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues (FOX)
• Outstanding Live Series: SEC on ABC (ABC | ESPN+)
• Outstanding Playoff Coverage: NFL Playoffs (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Edited Event Coverage: NFL Draft: The Pick is In (The Roku Channel)
• Outstanding Edited Special: SC Special: The Harbaugh Brothers (ESPN)
• Outstanding Hosted Edited Series: E60 (ESPN)
• Outstanding Esports Championship Coverage: VALORANT Champions 2024 Grand Final (Valorant Esports | Riot Games)
• Outstanding Short Documentary: The Turnaround (Netflix)
• Outstanding Long Documentary: Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (Netflix)
• Outstanding Documentary Series: The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox (Netflix)
• Outstanding Documentary Series – Serialized: Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix)
• Outstanding Studio Show – Weekly: College GameDay (ESPN)
• Outstanding Studio Show – Daily: NFL Live (ESPN | ESPN2)
• Outstanding Studio Show – Limited Run: FOX MLB: The Postseason (FOX | FS1)
• Outstanding Journalism: The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses (FX | Hulu)
• Outstanding Short Feature: Caeleb & The Critic (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Long Feature: SC Featured: The 6-Year Plan (ESPN)
• Outstanding Open/Tease: Land of Stories (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Interactive Experience: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Digital Innovation: FOX Sports | COSM (FOX | FOX Sports Digital)
• Outstanding Personality/Studio Host: Ernie Johnson (TNT | tbs)
• Outstanding Personality/Play-by-Play: Joe Davis (FOX | FS1)
• Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst: Charles Barkley (TNT | tbs)
• Outstanding Personality/Event Analyst: Peyton Manning (ESPN2)
• Outstanding Personality/Sideline Reporter: Tracy Wolfson (CBS | TNT)
• Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air Talent: Nick Saban (ESPN)
• Outstanding Technical Team – Event: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Technical Team – Studio: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Camera Work – Short Form: Shots of the Year – NFL Films Presents (FS1)
• Outstanding Camera Work – Long Form: Anytime (Red Bull TV)
• Outstanding Editing – Short Form: Land of Stories (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Editing – Long Form: Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience (ESPN | ESPN+)
• The Dick Schaap Writing Award – Short Form: Land of Stories (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Writing – Long Form: In Season with the AFC North – Hard Knocks (HBO | Max)
• Outstanding Music Direction: Hold My Hand – Super Bowl LIX (FOX)
• Outstanding Audio/Sound – Live Event: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock)
• Outstanding Audio/Sound – Post-Produced: In the Arena: Serena Williams (ESPN | ESPN+)
• Outstanding Graphic Design – Event/Show: Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (NBC | Peacock and networks)
• Outstanding Graphic Design – Specialty: For Mexico, For All Time – Noche UFC (ESPN+)
• Outstanding Studio or Production Design/Art Direction: Noche UFC (ESPN+)
• The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award: 2024 PGA Tour Drone AR (CBS | NBC | PGA TOUR)
• Outstanding Promotional Announcement: Usyk Vs Fury Reignited (TNT | DAZN)
• Outstanding Public Service Content: Somebody – NFC Championship (FOX)
• Outstanding Studio Show in Spanish: Fútbol Central (Univision | TUDN)
• Outstanding Feature Story in Spanish: San Francisco – Greenland (ESPN Deportes)
• Outstanding On-Air Personality in Spanish: Miguel Gurwitz (Telemundo | Universo | Peacock)