• Watching the live action on television via my SlingBox
• The new PGATour.com Tournament Central Dashboard that provides the status of all the play currently underway -
  • hole-by-hole, each player's location at Tee, Fairway or Green.
  • more detailed information about a selected player such as current Score, Position on leaderboard and a description of his last shot (in this case I was following fellow Canadian Stephen Ames who is near the top of the leaderboard)
  • a thumbnail picture of the selected player's currently played hole (can be opened into a larger view in a separate window for more detail)
• Just add a Skypecast for spontaneous discussion amongst up to 100 geographically disbursed friends as the action happens.
• The limitation: No beer, wine or other beverages of choice served, unfortunately.

A case of "Content is King" driving convergence for golf geeks and fans. Give it a try as the Bank of America Colonial is played this weekend. And what does this bode for the future?

• Webcams along every hole to deliver video of each player's action (maybe even picked up via Skype video).
• Skype connections for dial-a-player to provide hole-by-hole interviews that can be communicated via a Bluetooth earpiece.

Well, we can speculate.....

Notes:

• Click on the graphic to open a new Flickr window with the full picture. It comes from a dual 1650 x 1080 display setup so will pan out best on wide screens.
• At the Masters one could also watch via a videocast all the action in Amen Corner as the players played through the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National. A great complement to the telecast via SlingBox.
• As I finish this (12:33 p.m. EDT, May 19), Stephen Ames is on the Tee of the 12th hole, -3 for the day, -8 for the tournament, tied for the lead, The 12th hole is 417 yards, par 4 with a dog leg left; traps at mid fairway and protecting the green.

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