Playing for the Long Haul: How the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is Driving Technological Innovation

At this year’s Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club, veteran Amy Young won her first tournament title, An achievement she worked for her whole life. .

This was not the only first in this event.

Providing real-time, stroke-level data, AI-powered predictive analytics, and T-Mobile 5G solutions, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is the most statistically advanced tournament on the LPGA Tour and the most 5G-connected tournament in history.

These developments not only enhance the game of golf for players and fans, but are steps towards greater gender equality in the sport.

Real-time insights are changing the game.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship’s decade-long history is filled with technological advancements. This includes KPMG Performance Insights, introduced in 2021 to provide players, coaches, staff, media and fans with access to player performance statistics. Each year, KPMG improves the system, introducing new capabilities, such as a dedicated digital portal for each athlete, introduced in 2022, and a website It was launched in 2023 to make the data publicly accessible as well.

The most significant event this year was the addition of real-time capabilities made possible by the integration of ShotLink Pro 2.0 and KPMG CHAMPCAST ​​technology provided by T-Mobile.

“KPMG Performance Insights was a great tool that we put in place three years ago, but it needed to be enhanced with better technology because it wasn’t real-time and didn’t have the same technology built into it that the men on the PGA TOUR have,” said Paul Knopp, chairman and CEO of KPMG.

By partnering with T-Mobile to provide 5G connectivity and with the PGA of America and PGA TOUR to implement ShotLink Pro 2.0 — a shot tracking system with centimeter-accuracy that truly makes golf better for male athletes — KPMG is making advanced, real-time statistics a reality in women’s golf. Players have instant access to their data for the first time ever, enabling them to analyze what’s working and what’s not. Knopp calls this a huge improvement, noting that KPMG’s performance data system previously required manual input from caddies.

However, at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, once LPGA players finished their round, they were immediately able to view their KPMG Performance Insights player dashboard to see advanced statistics and analytics from the round and compare them to their performance throughout the season. These insights helped identify areas to work on before the next round, such as driving accuracy or short play. For a player, this can be the difference between not qualifying and competing for the championship.

“This is real-time data for the first time ever. [on the LPGA Tour]“We are really proud to bring this technology to women’s golf,” says Knopp.

Technology improves the fan experience

Technology is also enhancing the fan experience. ShotLink Pro 2.0 technology is integrated into KPMG CHAMPCAST ​​presented by T-Mobile, thanks to T-Mobile’s advanced 5G network. Fans can watch KPMG CHAMPCAST ​​presented by T-Mobile via the new PGA Championship app, which features 3D graphics, shot paths and green views, among other features. So fans at 14^D Green can still watch, for example, Nelly Korda’s shot on the 10.^D Tea box live.

“This is a live video you’re watching,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “This trail is filled with some of the largest, most beautiful trees you’ve ever seen, and that makes it really difficult to provide great wireless service. We see this as an opportunity to showcase what we can do with the most advanced aspects of network technology.”

Fans also enjoyed AI-powered information through live TV coverage on Golf Channel and NBC Sports, as well as live streaming on Peacock. Broadcast staff used AI prediction technology built into KPMG Performance Insights to predict player performance, improving commentary on the show.

Promoting the status of women on and off the field

Knopp says technological advancements are important because they not only improve the game, but can also promote equality between the LPGA Tour and the PGA Tour. Each year, in conjunction with the tournament, KPMG runs KPMG Women’s Leadership Summitan initiative focused on moving more women into senior management positions. Sievert describes it as one of the most important events of its kind. T-Mobile has sent executives to the summit since its inception in 2015.

“Some of these executives later became their direct reports and took on the biggest jobs in our company, such as our business group president, our head of communications and community engagement, and our head of human resources,” Seifert says.

“We’re really trying to elevate the status of women in business, and we definitely want to elevate women’s golf to the point where we hope we can achieve more equality,” Knopp says.

The PGA of America and KPMG plan to test additional ways to use T-Mobile 5G solutions to improve women’s golf. For more information, visit KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Page.