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Conversations with the smartest people in the golf business to get the inside stories and strategies driving the business of golf forward. Hosted by former PGA Tour player Roberto Castro.
Kaitlyn Nelson PGA
[00:00:00] Speaker 2: I'm Roberto Castro, and this is The Course Record Show: the trends, technology, and strategy driving the business of golf.
[00:00:13] Roberto: Just so our studio can see on the left here. All right, we are back on The Course Record Show with a field report from the PGA Championship. Tuesday and Wednesday are in the books. Ton of fun being on the ESPN SportsCenter preview show. Quick recap on the golf tournament: forecast is for cool temperatures, uh, breezy on Thursday and Friday.
I really think the course will show some teeth. Scores will be low, yes, but I think there'll be some separation on Thursday and Friday. It gets warmer on the weekend; could see some lower scores. I think it's gonna be a really exciting tournament. By pure luck, I got to spend a lot of time with Scottie and Gary Woodland's group the first two days in practice rounds.
Scottie looking very relaxed, not working on a lot with Randy Smith, his coach, who was out there. Uh, I think that Thursday slow starts we've seen from Scottie, he could get out to a fast start this week. Definitely the guy to beat, along with Rory. I'll be on featured holes, ESPN+, for the 12 to 3 shift each day, so spend your lunch with me if you feel like it.
All right, let's get to the technology and operations side. Joining me, Kaitlyn Nelson, data engineer at CapTech. She has a great background and a great resume in sports. She's been working closely on the data-driven fan experience platform here at CapTech with the PGA of America, getting ready for a big, big event here in Philly, helping connect data that's allowing the PGA to understand and improve what's happening across the venue in real time.
So Kaitlyn, you've got a couple days. There's been a lot of people on the grounds. Give us an update. What's jumping off the screen?
[00:01:41] Kaitlyn: I think you said it: there's a lot of people on the grounds. We are seeing about 8,000 more fans per day than what we saw last year for the same practice rounds.
And we're seeing those fans are moving around a ton. So we have lower dwell times at every location on the course than what we had in previous years. So it seems like fans are out there, they're enjoying the weather, they're moving around, and it seems like they're having a great time. That's interesting.
[00:02:06] Roberto: And from the business standpoint, Charlotte and Quail Hollow, one of my favorite places, but they have a PGA Tour event every year, right? So the incentive for the community to get out there on a Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday and see the golf course, not as high. Here, they haven't had a big men's professional golf tournament since 2018, in Philadelphia in general.
At Aronimink, you know, their last major was 1962, so you can feel the energy out there. I'm not surprised. 8,000 is a lot, but really interesting stat on moving around a lot. Why do you think that is?
[00:02:37] Kaitlyn: I think it's been really enjoyable weather. Yeah. It's been great to be out here. You know, it is a little bit chilly, but it's honestly quite pleasant relative to what it can be at this time of year, so I think it's been really nice for folks to get out, spend some time on the course, and just enjoy the time outside.
[00:02:53] Roberto: Obviously, TrackWith folks is a ton of location data, but there's a lot more data sources in the platform that you helped build out.
What are some of those other data sources? Which ones are giving you interesting insights? What else is going on beyond people movement?
[00:03:08] Kaitlyn: We're trying to bring in data that touches pretty much anything that the fans interact with. Okay. So we're bringing in ticket scans, merchandise sales, food and beverage.
We've got fan movement around the course, app usage. Anything you can think of, we're bringing in at this point. Two of the things that I think are really interesting this year are we're bringing in restroom feedback and grandstand occupancy, and those may not seem like the coolest or most interesting data points. Yep, but those are things that really impact the fans' experience on the day of the event. And so those have been really cool to see just how we can kind of use that data to make small changes to help improve the fan experience.
[00:03:54] Roberto: That's really cool. I like how you opened that answer, and my brain just went to like, "What data's out there?"
And your answer was, "Let's think about what the fan experience is on their journey, and let's see if there's a data source behind it so that we can learn what the fan is doing on the property and try to serve them better, try to improve their day." Really, really cool. On the same theme, what makes a data source useful versus just interesting?
Is there an example of something you said, "Oh, maybe we don't need to chase this down. It's not really gonna create value. It's not gonna elevate the fan experience at home or on TV." And then what's one that maybe surprised you and said, "Wow, this is impactful"?
[00:04:32] Kaitlyn: Well, I'm a data nerd, so I think all data sources are interesting.
But I would say, truly I think everything is interesting, but it's useful when you have the context for it. Okay. So for us to be able to bring all of these data sources together and see how they interact with each other, that's when it becomes useful. If I know how many drinks were sold on the course, but I don't know how many fans were there, that doesn't mean anything.
Yep. I need to know how many fans are there to then look at beverage sales, merchandise sales, et cetera, and really understand what the impact was. That's when you can start to look at the value for the fans, lifetime value, things like that. Yep, you know, from a marketing perspective and an activation perspective and see where there's some real value.
[00:05:18] Roberto: Yeah, and whether you're a partner of the PGA of America, you're a vendor, you know, Legends runs their merchandise operation, I think there's value in every data source for the right party, right? And I think that's something you guys have done a great job of. All right. Let me get a little over my skis here.
Tell us about the technical side. I mean, you are a really experienced engineer. What is the platform built on? You know, maybe the 30-second layman's version of how this data platform is built, what stack it's on. I'll let you fill in the rest.
[00:05:47] Kaitlyn: Sure. So our platform is currently built on AWS.
We partner with AWS for a lot of things that we do, but it's actually built using a CapTech accelerator called ADEPT that can be built on any tech stack. So it is really, really cool and something that we can port over to anybody, you know, who would find it useful. The ADEPT process makes it really quick and easy to start setting up ingestion processes for new data sources, and so we've been able to pretty quickly onboard these data sources for the PGA and start doing things with them.
Once you've got the data into whatever warehouse you're using-
[00:06:24] Roberto: Yep.
[00:06:24] Kaitlyn: Then you have to actually start doing the things with it that make it interesting. Yeah. So we've got a couple of agents built out on Amazon Bedrock, and we're using that to help drive AI insights and recommendations that we can give to the PGA post-event to help them make each day better.
[00:06:43] Roberto: That's really cool. When you talk about the ADEPT framework and making it easier, faster, cheaper to bring on new data sources, that works in a lot of industries, not just sports, and I know we have some insurance clients that are using it. I think it's just a great example of where our work at CapTech crosses different industries, right?
You can take lessons and frameworks and tech stacks and move them from sports to FinServ and back and forth. So I'm glad you called that out. Okay, your background, your resume included some time in MLB. Colorado Rockies, is that right?
[00:07:15] Kaitlyn: That's correct. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[00:07:16] Roberto: They play 82 games a year in the same venue. Is it Coors Field?
[00:07:21] Kaitlyn: Coors Field, yep. As
[00:07:21] Roberto: A huge Coors Light fan, love that stadium already, and I've not been there. What's different about managing data, managing operations at a fixed venue that hosts 82 games a year and a temporary venue like Aronimink?
[00:07:33] Kaitlyn: I think there's a couple main differences, but it really comes down to the opportunities that you have to make an impact on your fans. The PGA has one main event for the men each year. Right. Right? And so they have one week to make an impact on their fans, and during that week, they don't have a home base.
They're building out everything from scratch. There's a ton of moving parts and details where everything has to be perfect to make the fan experience good. So, you know, we built out a portable smart venue this year in partnership with T-Mobile and deployed a bunch of IoT sensors and cameras and things around the course to help us collect the data that we need to make this whole process smooth.
And that's been really cool because - 'cause all of those devices and things that we've deployed are portable. Yeah. Yeah. So we can take them to any venue. We can take them to Frisco next year for the tournament. We could take it to any NASCAR racetrack. Any outdoor venue, any indoor venue would need some adjustments, but we could make it work. Yeah.
[00:08:37] Roberto: That's really cool. And when you think about temporary venues, my gosh, music festivals, the Dogwood Festival in Atlanta, concerts. There, there's so many, and sometimes the logistics when you bring that many people together in a place that's not used to doing it, not a baseball stadium, football stadium, it can be painful.
And I think this is gonna be really impactful across a number of different things, sports and beyond. Kaitlyn, thanks a ton. All right, back to the golf real quick. Tournament starts today. Who's your pick to win?
[00:09:07] Kaitlyn: I'm taking Scottie. Mm-hmm. You're
[00:09:08] Roberto: Taking the number one? Come on.
[00:09:10] Kaitlyn: I know. But I've been saving him up all year. Okay. Gotta take him this week. Yep, mm-hmm.
[00:09:14] Roberto: Okay. Uh, I'll make my pick right here, too. I'm going Chris Gotterup. He's had two wins before the Masters. He's local-ish.
He's from New Jersey. He's just such a strong player. I think he gets it done here at Aronimink, picks up his first major. So I'm riding with Gotterup. You're taking the chalk, Scottie Scheffler. Thanks a ton. Thanks for sharing what's going on here with data-driven fan experience, CapTech, PGA of America.
Really exciting. Uh, and maybe we'll check back in with you and Ryan later in the week as the tournament starts and get an update.
[00:09:44] Kaitlyn: Sounds good. Thanks, Roberto.
[00:09:47] Roberto: This episode is presented by CapTech. At CapTech, we're building what's next in sports, modernizing and monetizing data, building new sports experiences, and deploying sports AI agents that have real impact.
Reach out to me or our sports practice lead, John Bradway, anytime to talk about the future of sports.