When old meets New

This morning, in Augusta Georgia, William Porter “Billy” Payne

The face of progress?

, the 6th chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, in took the opportunity to address the media about the upcoming 75th Masters Golf Tournament.

When you think of The Masters, you generally have images of deep south tradition, an “Old Boys club”, unspoiled, restrictive, and the feeling of exclusivity. What you generally don’t think of are things like “Internet, Smartphone, IPad, and New Media”. Well, today, Mr. Payne focused his message on how Augusta National, yes, the Wonder of the World on Magnolia Lane, is embracing technology, and their leadership group says they may actually be the leader among the major golf championships with regards to allowing fans at home to “capture the essence of being at Augusta”.

The Masters will be providing access to tournament coverage in a variety of emerging mediums that will have a distinctly social element to it.

They don’t just have a site --> They have a great site powered by IBM. Checking out their site, you immediately get taken for an HD ride down historic 18, I got shivers, I can’t wait to send to my Dad, this thing is going to suck up hours of his life he'll never get back.  And, what's exciting for us normal folk, for the first time in the tournaments history, tickets for tournament play will be available  online (for the 2012 tournament).

Is there an app for that? Yup. Billy (who is a southerner through and through, and pronounces amateur with a southern drole “Amatoor”) says the mandate comes from the concept of the original founders that events do not stand still, but either get better or worse. Thus the decision to take the Masters mobile. So if you have a Sunday afternoon lunch or you’re caught at some event that takes you away from the TV, you can still tap into the 9 live video streams. Billy even said Android, and called it an “immersive experience".

And then there’s the Ipad App. With streaming video, interviews, live leaderboard, live updates and more, this captures what Payne says was their attempt to integrate the simplicity of Augusta and the “messiness” of the internet, into something that is uncluttered, yet Immense in substance and beauty”

Just when I thought ol’ Billy had done all we could to impress me, he spoke about the decision to allow for Augusta to be included in video games for the first time. “Video games are a popular form of entertainment, and our involvement just may, inspire greater appreciation to golf, and further participation”.

Couple all of this with the fact that leading golf journalists from Robert Thompson, to Alan Shipnuck, to Lorne Rubenstein will be blogging, tweeting and keeping us engaged through social media and it adds up to the Masters, yes the Master’s, as the potential to push the frontier of how the casual golf fans experiences a major tournament,

In 2011, even the quintessential, unchanging tradition of the Masters recognizes that digital, social and mobile media is to be embraced, and that with an integrative approach can be done well, not just done big and loud.  To quote the Chairman, I think all of these developments signal a direction for the tournament that “ Is pretty doggone good”.