'TIKs' offer on-course up-to-date info

By JONATHAN ATHENS
Dublin News Reporter

Suppose you want to know which hole Tiger Woods is playing the minute he's playing it. Suppose you want to watch Bob Tway make that third birdie. Or maybe you just want to know the score.

That's what the Tournament Information Kiosk does, said Steven Suttman. Although he just came up with the term "TIK" as he was explaining the concept to the Dublin News, Suttman said he expects kiosks to be a mainstay at tournaments and events across the country in the near future.

Costing $6,000 each, there were 32 TIKs situated throughout the Muirfield Village Golf Club during the Memorial Toumament. Suttman said the units are the first of its kind for the tournament and the first to be licensed by the Professional Golf Association Tour.

The deal with the PGA was finalized in February after seven months negotiation, but the real work in creating the kiosk and the proprietary sofiware was about one year in the making, Suttman said.

Using a touch screen, a spectator can select from five options to check the leaderboard, follow tee times and pairings, look at the course layout, review each player's profile and see real-time video clip highlights of the game as it happens. "The reaction we've got-ten has been phenomenal," Suttman said. "We literally had people lined up three and four deep to see and use the kiosks."

The idea originated with a computerized way of tracking golf handicap scores known as the Golf Handicap Information Network, he said.

Suttman's Colorado-based company, Event Hospitality Network, had partnered with another company to develop the program for the U.S. Golf Association. More than 70 clubs throughout Central Ohio and nearly 500 others nationwide use the system, he said.

"The concept of an information kiosk grew out of that," he said, adding he intends to have the kiosks at eight to ten events each year. The content, provided by the PGA, is transmitted on a wireless radio frequency from a control center to the kiosks and to 42-inch flat panel screens.

The flat panel screens, located in the club's media room, the pro shop, locker room and cotporate hospitality tents, allow viewers to see split-screen covetage of the event. Viewers can watch minute-by-minute play and read a tickertape information scrolling at the bottom of the screen.

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