IBM Debuts New AI Enabled Digital Experiences for the 90th Masters Tournament
New generative AI and agentic capabilities help fans explore 50+ years of Masters history and gain deeper insight into every shot during the Tournament
ARMONK, N.Y., March 23, 2026 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Masters Tournament today announced new and enhanced digital fan features now available on the award-winning Masters digital platforms. The watsonx AI-powered capabilities – the latest in a 30-year collaboration between IBM and the Masters – are designed to bring the rich history and on-course excitement of the Tournament to life for millions of golf fans around the world.
Introducing Masters Vault Search with watsonx
The Masters Vault video archive has been transformed into an interactive experience, enabling fans worldwide to explore over 50 years of Masters Tournament final round broadcasts through simple, conversation-style prompts. A system of AI agents – powered by specialized solutions, including IBM's Granite small language models (SLM) and agentic AI platform watsonx Orchestrate – built to instantly find precise clips within full-length replays, making it easy and fun to find your favorites or relive the Tournament's greatest, most iconic moments.
Masters Vault Search is built with optical character recognition, speech-to-text transcription of broadcast commentary and scene detection to analyze footage. The Masters' vast historical database is utilized to deliver metadata on each clip, including results dating back to 1968, as well as individual stroke data starting in 2015.
Newly Enhanced 'Hole Insights'
Returning for its third year, AI-powered Hole Insights will provide fans with more insights for greater accuracy around every shot taken by every player on every hole during the Masters. The newly enhanced feature combines on-course visuals with data-driven insights – such as historical scoring probabilities and contextual performance trends – helping fans better understand how each shot, position and decision impacts outcomes. Legendary caddie and commentator Jim 'Bones' Mackay advised the team behind the solution, lending his deep expertise and firsthand knowledge of one of golf's most complex courses to help deliver more accurate, context-rich analysis.
The moment a ball comes to rest, its exact coordinates are captured and compared against historical data for the hole location. Watsonx then calculates the probabilities of making an eagle, birdie, par, bogey or more and generates an insight based on that analysis. (e.g. "Historically, from this spot, players across the field have a 12.5% chance of making birdie and an 81.25% chance of making par.") Users will see a different insight for a golfer at the same position, depending on what shot they are taking.
"The Masters Tournament and IBM have continually raised the bar on unique digital experiences that blend cutting-edge technology with the timelessness of Augusta National Golf Club," said Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at IBM. "The introduction of Masters Vault Search and updates to Hole Insights show how generative and agentic AI can transform vast amounts of data into meaningful insights – whether you're a golf fan who wants to understand the implications of a single shot in real time, or a financial institution using AI to analyze millions of transactions to identify patterns and inform decisions."
For 30 years, the Masters Tournament and IBM have pioneered the use of emerging technology to redefine fan experience. These new integrations join an already impressive suite of AI-enabled fan features on Masters digital platforms, including AI Highlights, Round in Three Minutes, My Group and the Masters app on Apple Vision Pro. IBM's partnerships with the Masters and other iconic sports and entertainment organizations – Scuderia Ferrari HP, Wimbledon, the US Open, ESPN Fantasy Football, Grammys and UFC – are powered by the same AI hybrid cloud solutions used by IBM clients across industries to reach new levels of productivity, create better customer care experiences and make their business smarter.
The 90th Masters Tournament will be held from April 9 – 12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Check out all the IBM watsonx technologies in action by visiting Masters.com or the Masters app available on mobile devices, the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
Media contact:
Paul Pettas, IBM
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SOURCE IBM
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