Toshiba technology advancing

Bryce Alderton

The push of a button or the pull of a trigger has replaced the stroke

of a pencil during this week’s Toshiba Senior Classic.

Many golfers at this week’s Champions Tour event at Newport Beach

Country Club, which begins with Friday’s first round, carry clubs

bearing the latest in technology. But the players aren’t the only

ones benefiting with the times.

Scoring at this week’s tournament will be kept for the second

consecutive year using a system, called ShotLink, that relies on

laser beams, satellites and wireless connections to give the latest

and most up-to-date statistics to television commentators and

on-course leaderboards.

Walking scorers will be following each group, keeping track of

each player’s score by punching a button on a hand-held, wireless

device.

Laser operators are positioned along the fairways and behind

greens to track the yardage of a player’s tee shot and the remaining

distance to the green - on a par-4 for example.

Laser operators receive a signal - usually a color - signifying

whose ball it is on a wireless device stationed on a tripod that

houses the box containing the beams. Before the round starts, walking

scorers type in each player’s name and enter color shirt the player

is wearing.

Once a drive comes to rest, a laser operator points the metal at

the ball until it comes into focus. Once the ball is centered through

the lens, the operator pulls the trigger and quickly releases it,

sending a signal to the wireless station set up in the greenside

tower and back to the scoring trailer.

The signals are transmitted via satellite.

Greenside operators have to follow each ball until it falls in the

hole. Another volunteer keeps track of each shot on a hand-held

device and can use a coordinate system to relay a ball’s position if

it lies in the fringe, for instance.

Volunteer Karen Whitaker, laser operations chair, has volunteered

for golf tournaments Hoag Hospital has sponsored since 1982 and is a

member at NBCC. Hoag Hospital is the Toshiba Senior Classic lead

charity.

“The main goal is to generate statistics,” said Whitaker, who

remembers when scorers wrote down numbers and gave the sheets to

runners after every third hole to run back to the scoring tent.

“The benefit is quick access of announcers to television

coverage,” Whitaker said. “The scoring trailer can keep track of

every shot and show where a player is.” Statistics kept include

percentage of fairways hit, greens in regulation, driving and putting

average.

Statistics will be kept for holes 10-18 this week For a fee,

television viewers can subscribe to a service that allows them to

keep track of a favorite player during a round and custom their

signal to provide whatever information they desire.

Tour officials can follow a particular player using laptop

computers in the scoring trailer and within seconds, transmit

pertinent information to television commentators.

Bruce Smith, along with three other volunteers, stood on a tower

above the 15th green Wednesday, watching pro John Bland and his

amateur foursome finish out. Smith has been a volunteer at Toshiba

the last three years.

“It’s an asset to have this technology available,” Smith said.

ShotLink was first introduced on the PGA Tour in the 2001 Buick

Classic and is now used through all 18 holes of an event.

The system creates an ongoing historical archive of statistical

information that tour players can access.

Joyce Lang, a Tustin resident who has volunteered at the Toshiba

Senior Classic for the last eight years, followed pro Jim Albus’

group during Wednesday’s Pro-Am.

She used a pencil’s eraser to record the group’s scores as the

group approached the 18th green.

Things worked a bit differently when she first began scoring.

“On paper, we would count strokes using hash marks and mark each

putt,” Lang said. “We would turn scores in after the ninth hole.”

Albus sank a three-foot putt for birdie on the par-5 18th and Lang

quickly followed the group to the first tee to get scores of the

amateurs.

A player may obtain information following their round, but may not

ask a walking scorer how far a drive traveled.

“They still have to figure out distances,” Whitaker said.