USGA Installs 7-Foot AI Rules Screens at 2026 U.S. Open

U.S. , over the weekend of June 20-21, 2026. U.S. Golf Association installed interactive 7-foot-tall AI-generated rules-official screens in a pavilion beside the third hole.

Deloitte employees staffed the screens, which answered visitor questions with citations to the USGA rulebook after a few seconds of processing. Rules AI entered a pilot phase in late May 2026 and was available through USGA mobile apps at select golf clubs. The system was trained on more than 25,000 real question-and-answer pairs from prior USGA phone and email services.

Anthony Santora, the USGA’s managing director for IT and leader of the development team, said the human data formed the system’s core strength. “Those 25,000 question-and-answer pairs, they’re our magic, our superpower,” Santora said. The USGA plans to roll out Rules AI nationwide by spring 2027.

Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director for the rules of golf, said the tool aims to give golfers answers as good or better than those from human experts. The USGA comprises 55 local golf associations in the United States and, with the governing body in the United Kingdom, establishes the core rules of golf.

The organization already uses radar guns to track every shot, clips and uploads highlights in real time, and supplies text descriptions of each shot.

Dave Giancola, the USGA’s senior director of global media, said the volume reaches 30,000 shots across 72 holes from 156 players. ShotCast, which provides shot-by-shot graphic visualizations and AI-generated text summaries, debuted in 2025. U.S. Women’s Open a few weeks before June 21, 2026.

The USGA website and app also introduced AI-generated player-round summaries that update dynamically during play. Joe Couhig, a Lewis University golf team member attending to support friend Vaughn Harber, said he wished he had a dedicated USGA expert for difficult rulings.