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CNN Saturday Morning News

Golf Fans Can Follow the PGA on the Web

Aired August 18, 2001 - 07:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: While it may not be quite the -- or quite like following the players along the course in person, some of the most comprehensive PGA coverage this year is on the Web.

CNN Interactive correspondent Allison Tom has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON TOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wish you could have attended the 83rd PGA championship this weekend but just couldn't find the time or the tickets or the bucks? If seeing Tiger tee off in person is just not an option this year, how about a little cyber- Tiger? Log onto PGA.com, you can still see how your favorite players are doing on the course in real time, thanks to the markup language called XML, a more flexible evolution of HTML.

TRAVIS SMITH, PROJECT MANAGER FOR PGA: XML stands for extensible markup language, which is a bit confusing, but XML is a good way to handle large files of data.

TOM: XML helps Web sites transmit huge amounts of data faster than ever. The PGA is looking to keep the millions of fans that can't attend events tuned in online as the action unfolds.

SMITH: Just speed and ease of transfer. You're looking at live scores coming in from the course, and, you know, it is real-time data coming in from IBM on the course, and you're looking at, I would say, nine to 10 seconds later, it's on the Web. So it's very quick.

TOM: Live TV broadcasts are often only able to cover the top few players throughout the day, but PGA.com has all the scoring and profile information on the tour pros available any time.

SMITH: We have an IBM scoring unit on each green. A walking scorer walks with each group, so you have a Woods, Duval and Goosen group on Thursday, and as soon as they hit "enter" and send those scores, it goes back to our scoring server on site and is immediately transmitted out to the Internet.

TOM: And you can hit these links. Click on the Champion's Charge tab to see a full-feature section devoted to Tiger Woods' attempt at winning a third straight PGA championship. Audio, video, and other multimedia features are scattered throughout the site as well. (on camera): The next best thing to being here might just be logging on. By mixing the celebrity power of golf's rising stars with the latest Internet technology, PGA.com is bringing the tournament experience home.

(voice-over): Still, the old-timers say nothing compares to watching a PGA major event in person.

REES JONES, PGA COURSE DESIGNER: You can get out in the field like we did here at the Atlanta Athletic Club and make the changes really based on how the game is played. The computer really doesn't know how the game is played. The people out on the course do, so when the bulldozer operators are really artists, so if we gave them a computer drawing, it might become too engineered instead of artistic and have a flow to it.

TOM: Allison Tom, CNN, at the PGA championship.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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