Proof of the Pudding Scores With ‘Just Walk Out’ Tech at PGA Event

Last month’s PGA The American Express event in La Quinta, California, had an air of familiarity on the course, as No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler rolled to his 20th career Tour win, all in the past four years.

That’s not to say everything at the Stadium Course at PGA West was status quo.

The event marked the debut of Amazon Web Service’s Just Walk Out technology at the tour stop, with hospitality and catering led by Proof of the Pudding, which had made the first use of JWO at an outdoor sporting event at last year’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The technology enables users to pay quickly and seamlessly, and the results were as impressive as Scheffler’s performance. At the 17th hole JWO Market, belly-up wait times during peak service were reduced from close to 10 minutes in 2025 to under 15 seconds this year, especially notable considering the average shopping cart value was $23.26.

While Just Walk Out has become more common at indoor arenas where cameras are more easily utilized, at an outdoor event like a golf tournament, Jeremy Campbell, Proof’s executive vice president of operations, said, “We needed to come up with different tech.”

The solution was to tag every item with radio-frequency identification (RFID) capabilities, which included a battery, radio component and antenna. As customers approached the gate, it would flag what they had. Customers would then tap the card to open the gate.

“Logistically it’s not all that difficult,” Campbell said. “What you need is flat ground so each tent has a wood floor and then a strong connection whether land or Wi-Fi. It took us a year and a half to get where it’s mobile and could be deployed anywhere.”

The impact on throughput was immediate: There were the 2,935 checkouts at the 17th hole location over the course of 29.5 hours, with a maximum of 287 transactions in a one-hour time period.

There was also a JWO concert location for the musical events that took place at night during the tournament. That location completed 1,042 checkouts over roughly 6.5 hours and delivered a 30% revenue increase compared to the year before.

The menu gave customers more options than had been available at the Tour Championship, where the initial JWO offering was Michelob Ultra and water and brought it about $30,000. When Proof then brought the tech to Formula 1’s Circuit of the Americas in October it did $150,000 in revenue.

“If there’s a line you tend to skip that line,” Campbell said. “If there’s no line you’re going to buy that extra water, that extra hot dog.”

While it’s unclear how many events will adopt this technology in 2026, Campbell said it’s clear that the impact on the food and beverage space is already seismic.

“If you’re not doing it now, you’re late to the party,” he said. “If you’re not thinking, ‘What can I do with this to make my business better?’ you’re just going to fall behind.”