The last time Oak Hill Country Club held a Major golf tournament was in 2013. A lot has changed in the golf world since then including the way technology allows fans to take in the sport.
Kevin Horey is the General Chairman of the 2019 Senior PGA Championship.
“Over the years, cell phones had been forbidden but now they’re encouraged,” said Horey.
KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Director Bryan Karns says, “It’s almost a ya can’t beat ’em join em kinda situation.”
Thanks to today’s smartphones and social media, the goal of this year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship is to connect fans to the game and bring them as close as possible to the golfers.
“More and more people are becoming more and more attached to their phone. It’s an integral part of what they’re doing. Ten years ago we had phone banks set up. So if you wanted to make a call you could go into a phone bank and make a call,” said Karns.
“It used to be there was a cell phone police patrol telling people not to use their cell phones but now you can’t watch a golf tournament without people taking videos of players hitting their shots,” said Horey.
“People want to share their experience and that shared experience turns into hey if I see someone’s post on Instagram or SnapChat or Twitter and they were out there on Wednesday then maybe I wanna go out there. It helps raise awareness for the players. It helps raise awareness for the championship. If you wanna take a photo, if you wanna document your time at Oak Hill that week then, by all means, do it and please share it,” said Karns.
Kevin Horey says the number of videos that will be taken in May at Oak Hill will be astronomical.
Dan Fetes, Oak Hill Country Club.
