If fans were hoping to track the 2025 Baycurrent Classic in Japan from the comfort of their homes, they were in for a different kind of thrill — watching literally nothing happen. The PGA Tour’s lone stop in Japan, an $8 million event held at Yokohama Country Club, was supposed to bring global fans closer to the action. Instead, the tech united them in the dark, and now, they’re not holding back on X.

A few hours ago, social media lit up with angry posts over the PGA Tour’s malfunctioning shot tracker and broken scoring updates. “The shot tracker for the @Baycurrent_Clsc this week is so tilting. Can’t follow anything at all, so hard to sweat the plays!” one user posted. Another vented, “According to the PGA Tour’s shot tracker, Xander Schauffele is still waiting to tee off on the 1st hole. His tee time was 20 minutes ago…”

The frustration didn’t stop there, with one account declaring, “This shot tracker is absolutely pathetic.” Another account, attempting to follow Danish golfer Rasmus Højgaard, wrote, “2 hours in and Rasmus has played 5 holes surely he has played more than that, but the shot tracker has been a disaster so far this week.” Another fan fired shots brutally— “@PGATOUR @PGATOURComms. What are we even doing here with shot tracker??”

And to be fair, fans have a point. ShotLink, the PGA Tour’s own cutting-edge tracking system, boasts a massive infrastructure. The shot tracker is supposed to provide fans and media across the globe to monitor players’ performance in real time using top-of-the-line servers. When it works, it’s a marvel of sports technology. But when it doesn’t? It turns into an exercise in guesswork, like it did a few hours ago, leaving fans fuming.

And they have a reason to be annoyed. This week’s 78-player, no-cut Baycurrent Classic (formerly ZOZO Championship) features big names like Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, and Xander Schauffele, who’s making his first PGA Tour start since the BMW Championship in August. For many fans, especially those tuning in from the U.S. during odd overnight hours, following the action online was the only real way to stay connected to the tournament. But with shot tracking completely unreliable and live scoring practically frozen, the experience was rather unpleasant.

For an international event carrying an $8 million purse, expectations were high. But with updates crawling in so slowly and with multiple technical glitches, it left fans frustrated. The PGA Tour hasn’t yet responded to the outrage, but if they want to avoid more issues from piling up, they might need a fix soon. With two more days of play still to go, the biggest question now might not be who wins, but whether fans will even be able to catch the action live.

Unfortunately for the PGA Tour, this isn’t the first time tech troubles have hijacked the fan experience.

PGA Tour’s Tech Woes are Becoming a Pattern

Just a few months ago, in April, live coverage of the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans vanished from screens due to a “huge power issue” that struck New Orleans mid-round. Fans barely saw the final group get through the first two holes before coverage blacked out entirely for over an hour.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, the defending champions trying to make history, had already played four holes before the Golf Channel and CBS Sports feeds went dark. The PGA Tour’s update came far too late, and by the time the broadcast came back, lightning had suspended play altogether. The PGA Tour of Communications ultimately posted that “the issue is currently being addressed.”

But these issues take us back to March, when concerns about the PGA Tour’s broadcast quality were already front and center. In response to years of fan complaints about TV coverage, the Tour launched its Fan Forward program — a sweeping initiative aimed at revamping how golf is shown on TV. The goal? More live shots and more behind-the-scenes moments with players and caddies.

Still, even with a roadmap in place, fans are seeing more glitches than progress. For a tour trying to modernize and appeal to younger, tech-savvy viewers, repeated technical failures, from broadcast blackouts to broken shot trackers, aren’t just bumps in the road. They’re beginning to feel like a pattern. And if there’s no fix, the tour is at risk of alienating the very audience they are trying to win over.