IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,691,353
Granted Patent B2
US 12,691,353 · App. 19/309,127 · Granted Jul 28, 2026

Golf play outcome simulation modeling system

Inventors: Michael Vitti (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL); Jacqueline Shelly (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL); Joshua Oskwarek (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL)
Assignee: PGA TOUR Enterprises, LLC
A63B71/0616G06F7/588
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,691,353
App. No.
19/309,127
Filed
Aug 25, 2025
Granted
Jul 28, 2026
Kind
B2
Art Unit
3715
USPC
700/91
Abstract

A golf tournament simulation method may include generating predicted hole scores for each hole of each round of a golf tournament. Historical shot data corresponding to a historical occurrence of one or more hole events may be utilized as weight to generate predicted outcomes of hole events for each hole. A score probability distribution may be assigned to the predicted outcomes to generate predicted hole scores. Simulations may be analyzed for predicted outcome probabilities such as win probability, cutline, or top-10 finish probability. The simulations may be updated during actual play by replacing predicted scores with actual scores. Predicted outcome probabilities may be updated based on the updated simulations updated to include the actual scores.

Claims (41)

1 . A golf tournament simulation system comprising:

a processing unit and memory storing instructions that when executed cause the system to:

generate prediction outcome probabilities for participating players in a golf tournament based on a plurality of tournament simulations, stored in memory for update processing;

store, in memory, for each participating player, per-player in-memory simulation data comprising predicted hole scores for each hole across the plurality of tournament simulations;

update the prediction outcome probabilities at periodic intervals during actual tournament play by, at each interval, processing live scoring data received since a preceding interval, or responsive to receipt of live scoring data, by substituting, across the per-player in-memory simulation data for a player identified in the live scoring data, actual hole scores for corresponding predicted hole scores, computing, for each of the plurality of tournament simulations, predicted round scores and predicted tournament scores for the player, and updating the prediction outcome probabilities based on the computed scores;

associate each updated prediction outcome probability with a player ID and a time-stamp corresponding to the respective outcome probability; and

generate trending display data representative of changes in the prediction outcome probabilities over time configured for consumption by one or more applications comprising television broadcast applications or digital platform applications providing trending probability displays.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the prediction outcome probabilities comprise at least one of win probability, top-10 finish probability, cutline probability, or make-cut probability.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to update the prediction outcome probabilities at the periodic intervals, and wherein the periodic intervals are less than 5.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to update the prediction outcome probabilities at the periodic intervals, and wherein the periodic intervals are less than 10 seconds.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to update the prediction outcome probabilities responsive to the receipt of live scoring data, and wherein the live scoring data comprises a hole score received each time a participating player completes a hole.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the trending display data comprises probability changes over time including most recent probabilities for each player.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more applications comprises a television broadcast application for live television broadcast of the golf tournament.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more applications comprises a digital platform application comprising a betting platform.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to publish to a database a machine-readable record containing the prediction outcome probabilities with player IDs and time-stamps, and wherein the machine-readable record is configured for consumption by one or more end use applications providing trending probability displays.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to track most recent probabilities for each player to enable the trending display data.

11 . A golf tournament simulation system comprising:

a processing unit and memory storing instructions that when executed cause the system to:

execute simulations of a golf event to generate predictions with respect to play of participating players, the simulations being stored in memory as a plurality of tournament simulations for update processing:

store, in memory, for each participating player, per-player in-memory simulation data comprising predicted hole scores for each hole across the plurality of tournament simulations;

replace predicted hole scores with actual hole scores during actual play by, at periodic intervals, processing live scoring data received since a preceding interval, or responsive to receipt of live scoring data, by substituting, across the per-player in-memory simulation data for a player identified in the live scoring data, the actual hole scores for corresponding predicted hole scores and update one or more of the predictions including predicted round scores and predicted tournament scores based on the actual hole scores and remaining predicted hole scores for each of the plurality of tournament simulations;

compute prediction outcome probabilities from the updated predictions, and

output the prediction outcome probabilities for players with a player ID associated with each player and a time-stamp corresponding to the respective outcome probability to track most recent probabilities for each player and generate trending display data representative of changes in the prediction outcome probabilities over time configured for television broadcast or consumption by applications providing trending probability displays.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to generate outcome probabilities comprising at least one of win probability, top-10 finish probability, cutline probability, or make-cut probability.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to update the prediction outcome probabilities at the periodic intervals, and wherein the periodic intervals are less than 15 seconds.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed cause the system to update the prediction outcome probabilities responsive to the receipt of live scoring data, and wherein the live scoring data comprises a hole score received each time a participating player completes a hole.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed cause updating the predictions to comprise:

summing predicted round scores, as updated, for all tournament rounds to generate updated predicted tournament scores for competing players;

summing predicted round scores, as updated, for pre-cut rounds to establish an updated cutline;

including predicted round scores for post-cut rounds in scores of players updated to make cut; and

excluding predicted round scores for post-cut rounds in scores of players updated to not make cut.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the trending display data is configured for consumption by television broadcast applications and digital platform applications.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to establish updated cutlines during actual play and dynamically change players predicted to make cut based on the updated cutlines.

18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to publish to a database machine-readable records create-data files containing the prediction outcome probabilities with player IDs and time-stamps for consumption by end use applications.

19 . A method of generating trending probability displays for a golf tournament with a golf tournament simulation modeling system comprising memory storing instructions and a processing unit that executes the instructions, the method comprising:

generating prediction outcome probabilities for participating players in a golf tournament based on a plurality of tournament simulations, the simulations being stored in memory as a plurality of tournament simulations for update processing:

storing, in the memory, for each participating player, per-player in-memory simulation data comprising predicted hole scores for each hole across the plurality of tournament simulations:

updating the prediction outcome probabilities at periodic intervals during actual tournament play by, at each interval, processing live scoring data received since a preceding interval, or responsive to receipt of live scoring data, by substituting, across the per-player in-memory simulation data for a player identified in the live scoring data, actual hole scores for corresponding predicted hole scores, computing, for each of the plurality of tournament simulations, predicted round scores and predicted tournament scores for the player, and updating the prediction outcome probabilities based on the computed scores;

associating each updated prediction outcome probability with a player ID and a time-stamp corresponding to the respective outcome probability; and

generating trending display data representative of changes in the prediction outcome probabilities over time configured for consumption by one or more applications comprising television broadcast applications or digital platform applications providing trending probability displays.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising publishing to a database a machine-readable record containing the prediction outcome probabilities with player IDs and time-stamps, wherein the machine-readable record is are configured for consumption by one or more end use applications providing trending probability displays.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 1, 2026
From: VITTI, MICHAEL; SHELLY, JACQUELINE; OSKWAREK, JOSHUA
To: PGA TOUR ENTERPRISES, LLC
Reel/Frame 074245/0793 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 18963118 · Nov 27, 2024
Continuation 18414237 · Jan 16, 2024
Continuation 18204551 · Jun 1, 2023
Related Publication 20250387688A1 · Dec 25, 2025
References Cited (65)
US 5740077A · Reeves · 1998 [cited by applicant]
US 6321112B1 · Masuo · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 6321128B1 · Costin, IV et al. · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 8216043B1 · Perrone et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 9460242B2 · Kamino · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9514604B1 · Cioe · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 10478706B2 · O'Connor et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 11607601B1 · Lovell et al. · 2023 [cited by applicant]
US 11745084B1 · Lovell et al. · 2023 [cited by applicant]
US 11872464B1 · Vitti · 2024 [cited by examiner]
US 11948422B2 · Khosla · 2024 [cited by examiner]
US 11986699B1 · Walker et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 11998829B2 · Lovell et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 12161913B2 · Walker et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 12179085B2 · Vitti et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 20070167247A1 · Lindsay · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 20090017944A1 · Savarese et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090036237A1 · Nipper et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090262137A1 · Walker · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20120238380A9 · Marty et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20130166048A1 · Werner et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20140067500A1 · Heineman et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20160220885A1 · Huston et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160350671A1 · Morris, II · 2016 [cited by examiner]
US 20180061173A1 · Khosla · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180120428A1 · Tuxen et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180190077A1 · Hall et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190228290A1 · Ruiz et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20200086200A1 · McCartin · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200164258A1 · Tuxen · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200230501A1 · Schwartz et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200349799A1 · Amaitis et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20210118267A1 · Gupta et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210220718A1 · Tuxen et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210295533A1 · DeLeon et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20220101683A1 · Elliott et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220138969A1 · Forsgren et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220176224A1 · Tuxen · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220196783A1 · Dorris et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220219065A1 · Rankin et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220284628A1 · Tuxen et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220305365A1 · Cunningham-Rhoads · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220347547A1 · Lucey · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220387873A1 · Hall et al. · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20230199295A1 · Jansson et al. · 2023 [cited by applicant]
US 20240033600A1 · Cunningham-Rhoads · 2024 [cited by examiner]
US 20240066355A1 · Seidl · 2024 [cited by examiner]
US 20240298046A1 · Laakkonen · 2024 [cited by examiner]
US 20240316436A1 · Lovell et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 20240325859A1 · Lovell et al. · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 20250099808A1 · Walker et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250155862A1 · Johnson et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250158448A1 · Rabhan et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250170472A1 · Vitti et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250186836A1 · Craven et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250216022A1 · Howell et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250220281A1 · Fegan et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
US 20250249339A1 · Mullen et al. · 2025 [cited by applicant]
U.S. Appl. No. 19/170,473, filed Apr. 4, 2025 entitled Management of Golf Tournament Scoring Data. [cited by applicant]
U.S. Appl. No. 18/813,325, filed Aug. 23, 2024 entitled Golf Event Broadcast Production System. [cited by applicant]
International Search Report issued Apr. 18, 2024 in connection with PCT Application No. PCT/US23/81878. [cited by applicant]
Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority issued Apr. 18, 2024 in connection with PCT Application No. PCT/US23/81878. [cited by applicant]
Stone, “Reference Points, Prospect Theory and Momentum on the PGA Tour,” Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive, Dec. 2015. [cited by applicant]
U.S. Appl. No. 19/087,160, filed Mar. 21, 2025 entitled Golf Cart Tow Link. [cited by applicant]
U.S. Appl. No. 18/999,995, filed Dec. 23, 2024 entitled Golf Tournament Management System. [cited by applicant]