What it had to solve
PGA TOUR already had rich shot data, but most digital viewing still sat inside flat screens. Apple Vision Pro created a launch-window chance to show golf as spatial information.
The idea
Use spatial computing to turn live golf data into 3D holes, shot trails, leaderboards, and video arranged around the viewer.
How it works
The app launched with Pebble Beach's seventh hole, then expanded toward all 18 holes for THE PLAYERS Championship. It combined Virtual Eye 3D models, ShotLink data, AWS infrastructure, leaderboards, highlights, and CBS live video.
What it did
Red Dot named PGA TOUR Vision a 2024 Best of the Best winner, and Work & Co framed it as one of the first public spatial-computing sports apps.
Background
PGA TOUR's creative problem was not a shortage of information. It had live scores, ShotLink data, video, and course context; the challenge was making that density feel closer to being on the course.
For Apple Vision Pro's U.S. launch, PGA TOUR Vision arranged golf around the viewer. Fans could inspect 3D-rendered holes, follow real-time shot trails, keep leaderboards and scorecards in 2D windows, and stream tournament video inside the same spatial scene.
The first release focused on Pebble Beach's par-3 seventh hole and was planned to expand hole by hole before THE PLAYERS Championship. Red Dot later gave the experience a Best of the Best distinction in Brands & Communication Design.
Why it lands
It used golf's real-time shot data as the raw material for interface design.
The launch timing made the app feel native to Vision Pro rather than adapted after the fact.
The 3D hole model made distance, apex, speed, and position easier to read than a flat tracker.
It turned a sports companion app into a branded proof of what spatial viewing could do.
What you can take
A new device matters more when a brand maps an existing proprietary asset into the device's native grammar instead of porting a flat interface.
Since then
The project became part of PGA TOUR's broader digital-platform overhaul with Work & Co. Red Dot's award page preserved it as a Best of the Best example of breaking away from flat surfaces to blend physical space with live digital content.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE