There is a bit of irony that the last golf tournament (and, generally, one of the last places anywhere) to prohibit phones on its grounds has also created a tremendous technological experience for mobile users, but the two ideas actually work in concert. The lack of phones at the Masters forces patrons to focus on the golf, the course and the experience of stepping foot on those hallowed grounds. For viewers at home, it’s viewing experience that brings them closer to all of those things.
The Masters developed its app as part of a far-reaching partnership with IBM as the team housed in the sprawling content center at Augusta National works year-round to develop new features that help bring fans at home closer to the action than ever before. The general goal is simple: allow fans to follow action on the course from anywhere. The methods of achieving that goal have grown tremendously over the last decade with a recent focus on providing more detailed information and a more customizable experience.
For 2025, the big advancement is the continued expansion of their “Hole Insights” feature, which debuted in 2024. Hole Insights use IBM’s watsonx to analyze nine years of shot data and provide both instant historical context along with information about each shot happening on the course in the Track feature.
IBM
To do this, they had to not only individually track all 180,000 shots from the past nine Masters — with 30 different elements tracked for each one — but plot them on a digital twin of Augusta National to identify trends and determine probabilities of scores from different locations on each hole. That involved an aerial survey of the course to create as exact a replica as possible, capturing every undulation and movement, so they can pinpoint where shots land and what conditions they’ll be playing from in real time.
This year, IBM added more than 1,800 new zones to provide greater accuracy for the insights, narrowing the focus for the information acquired from each shot. The goal for IBM and the Masters is not to create a predictive tool but give fans even more context and appreciation for the decisions players have to make and shots they try to pull off.
For example, Rory McIlroy’s incredible shot from the pine straw on the 13th hole on Friday to set up eagle could end up being one of the biggest shots not only of this year’s tournament but Masters history if he goes on to finally win a green jacket and complete the career grand slam. After McIlroy hit his drive into the pine straw, Hole Insights pointed out that — from that area and distance — he had a 43.6% chance of making birdie or better.
Hole Insights called for a “defensive layup” to set up that birdie opportunity, leaning on the historical data of what players had done in the past from a similar spot. McIlroy, of course, opted for the more aggressive option of going for it and hit a 4 iron to inside 10 feet, a conversion that could live in Masters lore forever.
That historical context provides data to back up what our eyes saw, which was an incredible, gutsy (and yes, a bit lucky) shot that was better than most anyone else could produce. From that point, it’s effectively even odds on birdie or better or making par (with just a 7% chance of bogey or worse). To make eagle required something spectacular — taking on that risk. In the position he found himself at that time, trying to claw his way back into contention, McIlroy had little to lose and everything to gain. That led to a more aggressive call than most would make from that spot, and he was rewarded for it.
Inside the content center, one gets a chance to see what the raw data looks like — the above spray chart of all 180,000 shots, which can be sorted by player and year. That data, and that ability to pick it apart and find trends, is perhaps the most exciting potential future element of the Masters viewing experience. Right now, that information remains proprietary and available only in the content center and to watsonx, but discussions are ongoing about how to provide that to so viewers and even players can create custom comparisons and view a decade of Masters shots however they choose.
That kind of historical access to shot data, even limited to the last decade, would offer some incredible opportunities to gain a better understanding of how the best players see the course. For example, with that data, you could sort every shot hit by every Masters champion of the last nine years to find the similarities and differences on each hole for how they plotted their way around Augusta National.
Part of the magic of the Masters and Augusta National is the familiarity we all have with the course, even fans who have only ever seen it on TV. We know these holes better than any other course we see in a major or on Tour, but there is also an insatiable desire for more information and a better understanding of how to play them. That is what IBM and the Masters are trying to provide with Hole Insights.
Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, more of the data used to create those insights will be provided to us to tool around with ourselves. For now, that information stays within the walls of the content center. It guides the data we get to see in the app.
That is, after all, part of the allure of Augusta National and the Masters. We get a glimpse at golf’s hallowed grounds for one week a year, seeing what we’re allowed wanted to see, before the curtain is drawn closed once again, always leaving us wanting just a little more.
