Spoiler Alert: Akshay Bhatia parred the 11th hole at the Valero Texas Open on Thursday—maybe you saw it, maybe you didn’t. One of the more impressive holes at TPC San Antonio, the 11th features a chance for a glorious tee shot if you can get within range, a cross bunker waiting for your ball like quicksand and a tricky green ready to ruin your round.
If you were watching on TV, you saw a shot or two and then Bhatia sink a putt and move on, but I was on the fairway right next to the two-time PGA Tour winner, watching his approach shot flutter through the wind. No, I didn’t run out onto the course—I probably wouldn’t be writing this if I did. I was testing out the PGA Tour’s Apple Vision Pro app, which lets you see the game like the pros … just without the talent.
Since early 2024, the PGA Tour has been on the cutting edge when it comes to viewing 3D models of its courses and following along with its pros during rounds through this VR/AR headset. After some futzing around with straps and a walkthrough on how to actually use the technology—you don’t need to insert a phone, it’s essentially a wearable computer in the form of over-the-eyes headset—I got to check out the Valero Texas Open all the way from Tribeca, N.Y.
”The week leading up to the event, we fly drones over every hole,” said Matt Mullen, a Senior Product Manager at the PGA Tour and a key member of the Apple Vision Pro team. “And those drones are capturing imagery and map out the specific locations of specific features on every hole.
“ You get a feel for when we go from the Waste Management that’s out in the desert and what that feels like off to the cliffs of California at Pebble Beach and down to our beautiful water and fairways right here at TPC Sawgrass. You get a true sense for what each golf course looks like.”
Testing it out, it’s pretty clear how much care is put into the technology in the app. You can see balls bouncing off various greens, rolling down fairways and finding their way into water hazards. All of those functions are relatively recent updates to the program, and Mullen made sure to note that every PGA Tour event in 2025 can be watched through the app, along with highlights popping up and a constantly-updating scoreboard—all visible through the screen in the headset. Sure, you’re not at the event, but you at least don’t have to wait in lines. And you can just make your own sandwich from the comfort of your kitchen.
PGA Tour
PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The app comes packaged in the Apple Vision Pro, and is one of many sports-centric ones that you have to see to believe, from the MLB’s behind-home-plate data visualizations to the NBA’s ability to watch five games at once along with every stat you need. It’s a sports fan and/or mathematician’s paradise, but it’s easy to navigate, as long as you have a little patience to get over any initial hurdles.
One thing we need to mention is that the Apple Vision Pro is, umm, around $3,500, so hopefully, you do well in your upcoming Masters Pool. Or maybe you have a friend who has one that you can “borrow.”
Because you can’t go a second right now without bringing up the Masters, we do need to inform you that Augusta National has its own Apple Vision Pro app as well, which emphasizes Enhanced Hole Insights with historical breakdowns of the course and AI Narration. Something to keep in mind in future years if you’re not heading down to Georgia.
The Masters on the Apple Vision Pro 🔥
(via @GratefulKeg)pic.twitter.com/30Nm6DynqK
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) April 13, 2024
With a decade-plus backlog of data and an emphasis on collecting everything possible for golf fanatics, the PGA Tour was more than ready when the Apple Vision Pro came to market. The team then worked with Apple on the user interface using the Apple Vision Pro gestures that had already been created.
The next frontier is to potentially work with players and caddies, most notably younger pros who can have a chance to walk through a new course before even getting on the plane. These golfers can look at different types of shots they’ve attempted (or at other pros they’re trying to replicate) and get a better feel for the course, and which club to use in certain situations.
“Think about your PGA Tour rookie who’s never played a course before, and they’re intimidated by TPC Sawgrass or some other thing that they’re trying to show up to for the very first time,” Mullen said. “This gives them a chance to check out that hole and try to plot it out. How they’re gonna play it, the angles that they may want to take or landing spots that they want to try to identify down the fairway.
“A player and a caddie can also go back and view their round retroactively and say, ‘You know, we really got into trouble over here on the right-hand side. Maybe tomorrow when we play that hole, let’s try to aim on the other side of the fairway. Keep away from that brutal bunker.’ It allows them to kind of visualize and see that course unlike ever before.”
MORE: The fascinating focus trick Tiger Woods and other pros use before shots
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
