The PGA Championship golf contest looked set to be the latest tournament to gain a 5G edge, with T-Mobile US announcing various initiatives to boost fan experience, including a close-up of the unluckiest hole on the course.

T-Mobile will supply PGA of America with a portable private 5G network to boost the quality of broadcasts using compatible cameras, along with offering exclusive imagery in pre-championship coverage.

Broadcaster CBS Sports is set to access T-Mobile’s private 5G set-up to offer in-depth coverage on the “iconic” 13th hole of the Valhalla Golf Club’s course in the state of Kentucky, an arrangement the operator stated would be the first time the mobile technology was “implemented into a live broadcast”.

Compatible cameras will also provide an “exclusive” point-of-view experience to fans during pre-event coverage, backed by expert insight into player preparations and details of ball trajectory.

T-Mobile noted its private 5G network removes “thousands of feet of wiring and cabling” traditionally used to connect cameras and can deliver full 4K resolution.

The operator stated the Sony PDT-FP1 portable data transmitters, and ultra-low-latency encoders and decoders “are getting a glass-to-glass latency averaging under 100 milliseconds”.

T-Mobile will also employ network slicing to “optimise performance and increase the reliability” of on-site retailers’ payment terminals along with ticket scanners.

The golf tournament company took a lead in employing mobile technology in 2018, when it pressed for permission to test a private LTE set-up from Ruckus Wireless.

Private 5G, meanwhile, also garnered attention from golf contest The Ryder Cup, the US National Football League and organisers of the 2024 Summer Olympics, among other sports.