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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The code name was "Project Buggles," a nod to the band that played the very first song on MTV, and Tiger Woods had never seen anything like it.
In cutting-edge Studio 1A at the new PGA TOUR Studios, the 82-time PGA TOUR winner Woods participated in an immersive virtual reflection of his career, adding insights and texture that will be new to even his most dedicated fans. With his jaw-dropping shots and fierce upper-cuts coming to life in a whole new way – fans appear to be coming out of the floor at the 2018 TOUR Championship at East Lake, for example – Woods soaked it all in and smiled.
“Our team wanted to plant a flag to commemorate the first creative content ever produced in Studios,” said Michael Riceman, senior vice president, content and production, PGA TOUR. “That meant giving our fans a unique rollout of content as we discover how we will create and produce inside Studios. This is a new beginning.”
The resulting 18-minute piece, which goes live across PGA TOUR channels Jan. 1, is part of the launch of Studios, a state-of-the-art, 165,000-square-foot production space that officially comes online for the 2025 season, helping to redefine how the TOUR tells its story.
‘Hello, new world.’ Tiger Woods relives best moments in career at PGA TOUR Studios
Meanwhile, fans will get a bird’s eye view of Studios with the latest installment of the TOUR’s FPV (First Person View) Drone series featuring Jay “JayByrd” Christensen. In their fifth installment of the series, the drone takes flight at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass’s Stadium Course and buzzes throughout the TOUR campus, touching down inside PGA TOUR Studios. Appearances by Ludvig Åberg and Billy Horschel, plus PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan and his predecessors, Tim Finchem and Deane Beman, are featured throughout the tour of the new facility.
All in all, you’d have to say the new building is off to a flying start.
“PGA TOUR Studios is a landmark step in golf media, signaling a tangible investment to more deeply connect with our fans through energetic, compelling content that brings them further inside the ropes and closer to their favorite stars,” Monahan said. “Every new technology and forward-thinking innovation we introduce is about serving our fans and meeting them where they are, and the creative capabilities of PGA TOUR Studios will help us further that mission while showcasing the beauty of our sport.”
PGA TOUR Studios building at the PGA TOUR Global Home campus in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, features state-of-the-art broadcast studios. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR)
Seven years in the making, Studios brings the TOUR’s creative content hub from St. Augustine, Florida, 15 miles away, to Ponte Vedra Beach, occupying a purpose-built, modernist office next to PGA TOUR Headquarters. The buildings look alike (same architect) but are very different.
Studios is an engineering marvel for PGA TOUR media operations. This week marks its launch with Round 1 of PGA TOUR LIVE of The Sentry on ESPN+, produced from Studios, plus the content with Woods, who was reflective about his career and impressed with the new building.
That’s been a common sentiment.
PGA TOUR Studios features eight production rooms, eight audio control rooms and seven LED-outfitted studios, including a 270-degree LED display in Studio 1A.
The previous building only had one studio and one production control room.
“It enables us to do all of our ESPN+ live feeds, which we couldn’t do in our other building,” said Luis Goicouria, senior vice president, media, PGA TOUR. “More than anything, it enables us to provide the best possible content for our fans wherever they want to consume it. It gives us abilities not just for live production but also original programming.
“We’ll be producing content here for our social platforms, digital platforms, network partners, and sponsors,” he added. “We can do far more customized production than the other building could.”
At THE PLAYERS Championship in March, the TOUR will launch a new World Feed that will transform and enhance how international fans experience the tournament. The new feed will, for the first time, have its own dedicated graphics package, announce team, director and producer, and a half dozen dedicated cameras to focus on international players.
John Honeycutt of Sandy Valley Media, a media tech pioneer and strategic consultant for the PGA TOUR, made more than 20 visits to Ponte Vedra Beach during the construction of Studios. He called the building a game-changer in the sports media space.
“It’s consequential for our industry,” Honeycutt said. “Buildings like this don’t get built very often, just because of the scale and scope and capability of it.”
The Sentry will mark the first tournament to be broadcast out of the new PGA TOUR Studios building will broadcast it. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR)
Studios can monitor and display thousands of video and audio feeds, capturing action from up to 144 cameras or live feeds. There’s a custom-built video review center with access to camera feeds for live, on-air rulings, a 34-seat theater to screen TOUR content projects, studio-specific booths for podcasts and, coming in 2026, PGA TOUR Radio.
PGA TOUR Studios also houses Pro Shop, the PGA TOUR’s preferred partner in Hollywood, California, dedicated to creating premium content at the intersection of golf and culture.
“Thinking that went into this was about serving the players, as well.” Honeycutt said. “There’s a lot of video-capture capabilities, analysis capabilities, rules capabilities, that didn’t exist, and now it’s there. It shows that the TOUR is expanding their services as a media organization.”
Partners, broadcasters, on-air talent and others have been touring Studios for weeks, and their reactions, while all slightly different, can be distilled into three letters: WOW.
“This is right there with any facility that a major broadcaster would have,” Honeycutt said, “or any other league or federation, and in a lot of places exceeds it because it’s later generation.”
Studios, he added, will complement PGA TOUR Fleet, the nine state-of-the-art production trucks that were unveiled at the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2024. Fleet is a collaboration between the TOUR and its media partners (CBS/Paramount+, NBC/Golf Channel/Peacock and ESPN+) that serves as the production hub for seven live shows, including the network broadcast, four PGA TOUR LIVE streams on ESPN+ and two live streams for IMG Arena.
“This is the other side of the Lego to production trucks in the field,” Honeycutt said, “and how this all ties together as one giant system. That interconnectivity between the two – flexibility, scalability and the IP network and switches and all that vital technology, it’s all one connected environment.
“It’s a game-changer,” he added. “It’s a very, very powerful building.”
Cameron Morfit is a Staff Writer for the PGA TOUR. He has covered rodeo, arm-wrestling, and snowmobile hill climb in addition to a lot of golf. Follow Cameron Morfit on Twitter.
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