After years of waiting, the high-tech indoor golf league led by two of modern sport’s greats is finally ready to get underway Tuesday night.
Led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TGL will debut at their custom-built venue in Florida, the SoFi Center, and will be broadcast on ESPN when it was originally scheduled to begin two years ago.
The virtual nature and the 1,500-seat stadium in which it will take place aim to attract a younger audience. The company is the brainchild of TMRW Sports, a company co-founded by Woods and McIlroy.
The opening match of the new league sees the trio of Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele from New York Golf Club take on Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Åberg from Bay Golf Club.
Before Tuesday’s opener, McIlroy described it as “golf, but it’s reinvented, sort of trying to bring golf into the 21st century.”
“We have teams, obviously, there’s a lot of technology involved, trying to bring it into the digital age,” he said. told ESPN. “A lot of things we borrowed from other sports, like a shot clock, a timeout, things you don’t see in regular golf. (We) are trying to attract a wider sports audience.
McIlroy also added that he and Woods had been extremely involved during the period of organizing their new tournament.
“Tiger and I have been a part of it since day one and every time you see the concepts and the renderings you think, ‘Yeah, that looks really cool,'” McIlroy told ESPN. “But until you actually get here (at the SoFi Center) and see what they were able to do, I think the magnitude of it is what blows my mind.
“Every time I come in here, I’m blown away by the size of the screen, that we can put something that looks like golf on a stage like this. It’s really cool and we’re obviously very excited about it in the golf world. I think a lot of other people outside of the game are going to see this and hopefully be excited about it as well.
What is the format?
Tuesday night, six teams comprised of 24 PGA Tour stars will compete in a 15-match regular season at the 1,500-seat Palm Beach Gardens arena before the start of the playoffs, culminating in a best-of – three final series matchups for the SoFi Cup on March 24.
Golfers on each four-player team will tee off and make approach shots in a 64-by-53-foot simulator before moving on to the GreenZone; a green that can be rotated and tilted uniquely on each hole thanks to a turntable and actuators located beneath its surface.
“The playing surfaces are very realistic,” McIlroy explained. “Every time you hit from a bad shot, you have to wonder if you’re going to get a flyer (or) if it’s going to come out soft. Lots of things to think about on a real golf course.
A single match is played over two sessions, with each match pitting three players from each team against each other over 15 specially designed holes and two different formats – nine triples holes and six singles holes.
Triples see the three players on a team alternating hitting shots and taking turns getting the start. In the singles format, players compete directly against an opponent, with each player on the team of three playing two singles holes.
Each hole is worth one point, a tied hole is worth no points and the team with the most points at the end of the match wins. If scores are tied after 15 holes, the closest competition to the bowling competition will decide the winner.
An additional plot element is the “Hammer”, which allows teams to double the value of a hole. If accepted by the opposition, a hole is worth two points. The opposing team could choose to play the “Hammer” on the same hole, which would earn them three points, but could also use it later in the match.
If a team refuses the use of the “hammer” by its opponents, it concedes the hole and the points offered.
The makeup of the teams’ various ownership groups constitutes a who’s who of sports heavyweights, with tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams, NBA stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Steph Curry, and the owners of Liverpool Football Club , Fenway Sports Group (FSG), among the backers.
Many major winners are scattered among the players involved in TGL, with Woods and McIlroy also participating.
TGL teams
Atlanta Drive GC
Justin Thomas (United States), Patrick Cantlay (United States), Billy Horschel (United States), Lucas Glover (United States)
Boston Common Golf
Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Keegan Bradley (United States), Adam Scott (Australia)
Jupiter Links Golf Club
Tiger Woods (United States), Max Homa (United States), Tom Kim (South Korea), Kevin Kisner (United States)
Los Angeles Golf Club
Collin Morikawa (USA), Sahith Theegala (USA), Justin Rose (England), Tommy Fleetwood (England)
New York Golf Club
Matt Fitzpatrick (England), Rickie Fowler (USA), Xander Schauffele (USA), Cameron Young (USA)
The Bay Golf Club
Ludvig Åberg (Sweden), Wyndham Clark (United States), Min Woo Lee (Australia), Shane Lowry (Ireland)
TGL timetable
Regular season
January 7: New York GC vs. The Bay GC
January 14: Los Angeles GC vs. Jupiter Links GC
January 21: New York GC vs. Atlanta Drive GC
January 27: Jupiter Links GC vs. Boston Common GC
February 4: Boston Common GC vs. Los Angeles GC
February 17: Atlanta Drive GC vs. Los Angeles GC, Atlanta Drive GC vs. The Bay GC, The Bay GC vs. Boston Common GC
February 18: Jupiter Links GC vs. New York GC
February 24: Los Angeles GC vs. New York GC, Boston Common GC vs. Atlanta Drive GC
February 25: The Bay GC vs. Jupiter Links GC
March 3: The Bay GC vs. Los Angeles GC, New York GC vs.
Boston Common GC
March 4: Jupiter Links GC vs. Atlanta Drive GC
Post-season
Semi-finals: March 17, March 18
Final series: March 24, March 25
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