Cutting edge tech at the Open: AI digital humans, private 5G, giant screens – and owls

City A.M. goes behind the scenes at the Open Championship with NTT Data to hear why golf majors work for sponsors — and how owls keep the high-tech digital operation working.

Where can you find the best men’s golfers playing against each other? It’s an increasingly relevant puzzle for sponsors, broadcasters and fans of the sport following the disruption and fragmentation of the professional game in the last few years.

The PGA Tour can boast some of the top guys, such as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and new Open champion Xander Schauffele. LIV Golf, meanwhile, has Jon Rahm, US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. Rarely do they come together, however.

All of which means that the four men’s majors have taken on even greater significance, at least until the long-running talks between the PGA Tour and LIV backers the Saudi Public Investment Fund eventually result in a reunification of the elite game.

For the time being, then, commercial partners are getting more bang for their buck, admits Gregor McQuattie, UK head of media at long-standing Open sponsor NTT Data. 

“Golf is in an interesting place,” he told City A.M. at Royal Troon last week. “The majors are, to a certain degree, immune. Yes in terms of entrants, but from a viewer perspective because all those best golfers are here.”

Partnering with golf tournaments is not just about brand recognition and visibility, however; it is also a chance to showcase work to clients.

For NTT Data at the Open, this meant its private 5G installation and a generative AI-powered “digital human” named Lottie, which uses ChatGPT to interact with guests and even tell bad golf jokes.

Said Mona Charif, NTT Data Inc’s global chief marketing officer: “If we’ve got a manufacturer on site and we take them to see our private 5G installation, that’s where the conversation begins in terms of, ‘if I put this into a manufacturing shop floor, I could get information to my forklift drivers faster and get products in or out of the warehouse faster.”

Golf fans who have attended the Open, meanwhile, may be familiar with the huge, 20m x 5m NTT Data Wall which dominates the spectator village.

A surprising chunk of paying punters seem happy to lounge on bean bags taking in the display, which is split between a broadcast feed and up-to-the-second data visualisation – and takes three weeks to build.

It’s also another calling card for potential NTT Data clients, said Charif. “They start thinking about ‘how can I apply that… in healthcare systems, to manufacturing, to public sector, to financial services?’.”

Before the Open, NTT Data sent drones over Troon to map the course, and during play cameras at each green triangulated ball position for its ShotView tracker.

But for all that bleeding-edge technology, a very analogue deterrent is needed to keep the Data Wall safe from the menace of seagulls all too ready to peck out a cable or two: owls. 

“They’re there for the whole of the [fan] village,” said McQuattie. “They walk around in the morning, you see them all the time. And that’s why if you have fish and chips in front of our wall, you’ll have all the fish and chips. It does very much help our wall.”

NTT Data is keen to stress that the birds of prey belong to Open organisers the R&A. “They’re not our owls,” said Charif. Then a tongue-in-cheek brainwave: “Could we put sensors on the owls? Why am I paying for drones when I could put sensors on owls for free?”. Watch this space.