● The Hero Challenge in Dubai will be the first time an event at a European Tour tournament will be streamed on Twitter
● Twitter will exclusively stream the Hero Challenge to a global audience across European Tour social media channels
The European Tour has announced that the Hero Challenge in Dubai will be exclusive streamed via Twitter to the Tour's global audience on social media.
The coverage will be available globally to Twitter's logged-in and logged-out audience and can be found atlive.twitter.com/herochallengeor via@EuropeanTour.
The stream will be accompanied by a Twitter timeline, featuring related real-time conversation to create a unified experience for viewers to watch, Tweet and view commentary on the Hero Challenge.
The agreement with Twitter is another milestone in the European Tour’s drive to transform global golf through innovation.
Its broadcast distribution strategy aims to develop new, short-form golf entertainment events that make the game more accessible to fans, while exploring new broadcast platforms to bring the stars of the European Tour to wider audiences.
Hosted by Vernon Kay and Kirsty Gallacher, the event will be filmed in Dubai tomorrow evening and then stream on Twitter around the world and on Sky Sports television in the UK, before being edited for playout by the European Tour’s other worldwide broadcast partners.
The third and final Hero Challenge of the European Tour’s 2017 season will introduce another exciting new concept, with players competing in a target golf competition to a floating green off the Nasimi Beach in the iconic Atlantis, The Palm Resort.
Eight European Tour stars – including current Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood and World Number Five Jon Rahm - will take part in an individual head-to-head knockout format, with the winners of the quarter-finals progressing to the semi-finals before the two finalists battle it out for the title.
The players will be faced with a specially-created platform tee and a floating target in the ocean. To add to the entertainment, they will also be surrounded by atmospheric pyrotechnics and smoke, with their target illuminated by a spectacular runway of lights in the ocean.
The event will take place as part of the DP World Tour Championship Beach Party on Tuesday November 14 with the stream lasting one hour, from 1930-2030 UK time.
Rufus Hack, Chief Content Officer at the European Tour said: “We have been working successfully with Twitter through its Amplify and Amplify Open products over the past 18 months and see the Hero Challenge Live Agreement as the next step to expand our relationship. This will be the fourth edition of the Hero Challenge and the third in 2017, so we are excited about the prospect of streaming one of our new, innovative formats to a global audience across the Twitter platform."
The players taking part alongside Fleetwood and Rahm are Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain, Li Haotong of China, Italy’s Francesco Molinari, Sweden’s Alex Noren, Belgium's Thomas Pieters and Englishman Ian Poulter.
