Cricket and Golf continued to dominate our calendar in February, with concurrent PGA Tour and European Tour events starting things off - The AT&T Pebble Beach received our support in California at the same time as the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the UAE. The Waste Management Phoenix Open provided one of our graphical highlights of the month, while the Ras Al Khaimah Classic on the European Tour was simultaneously supported by our remote operations teams. At the same time our remote ops were delivering graphics to the first and second T20 matches between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The third T20 between Australia and Sri Lanka took place at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, while the fourth and fifth were at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The final two sports events for us in February were the Genesis Invitational in California and the Honda Classic at the PGA National Resort in Florida.
Above: At the Waste Management Phoenix Open, we were asked to track the celebratory response of the crowd to Carlos Ortiz' repeat of Sam Ryder's hole-in-one on the 16th the previous day (the first in 7 years)... sadly, there wasn't time to broadcast it - so we've put it up here.
Our Golf and Cricket Operations teams merged over the Summer, swapping codes as needed to supply as many event graphics as possible. The start of December had our Remote Ops covering the Hero World Challenge and QBE Shark Shootout on the PGA Tour, while the 1st Ashes Test between hosts Australia and England in Brisbane shared the limelight with the first 3 Big Bash League games in Sydney and Melbourne - with coverage of all 4 fixtures enhanced by Virtual Eye graphics. The 2nd Ashes Test was in Adelaide, with the 3rd Ashes Test in Melbourne bookended by 6 Big Bash League matches in Adelaide, Hobart, Sydney, Coffs Harbour and Melbourne.
Above: A sample of Virtual Eye graphics broadcast by FOX during the 2021-22 Ashes Series - A Nathan Lyon build-up during the 2nd Test, James Anderson's tactics against Marcus Harris during the 3rd Test and a DRS for Stuart Broad against Cameron Green during the 5th Test.
Early in the new year Virtual Eye covered the 4th Ashes Test in Sydney and 4 more Big Bash League matches in Sydney and Melbourne, and also resumed our work on the PGA Tour with the Sentry Tournament at Kapalua resort and the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club. The 5th Ashes Test took place in Hobart at the Bellerive Oval, with Virtual Eye in remote attendance supplying our graphics. Another 3 Big Bash League matches in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne kept the operators busy, with concurrent tournaments on both the PGA and European Tours seeing out January and meaning some very late nights for the team. The American Express tournament on the PGA Tour was supported alongside the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the European Tour, the same holding true for The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates GC.
