A golf league touted as innovative with high aspirations to grow the game.
Four-player teams with names and logos.
Stadium atmosphere.
Looks familiar?
Yes, TGL, the tech-infused golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, shares some themes with LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed tour that debuted last year and poached several PGA stars Round. But as McIlroy pointed out Monday during a press conference at Boston’s Fenway Park to unveil the TGL’s first team, Boston Common GC, which includes New England native Keegan Bradley, Tyrrell Hatton and Adam Scott, There is a major distinction between TGL and LIV.
“This is intended to be complementary. This is not meant to be disruptive in any way,” McIlroy said during his media tour. “So whenever Mike McCarley presented this idea to Tiger and I, I think one of the first things we said, ‘Well, if you’re going to do this, we’re going to have to try to partner with the PGA in a way and I’m really trying to make it complementary. So I think that was the first thing. It wasn’t contradictory at all. It was about asking, “How can we contribute to the system as a whole?”
LIV signed many of its players to lucrative multi-year contracts and required them to participate in all league events, even if they conflicted with the PGA Tour schedule, and the Tour responded with suspensions . Legal action by both sides was quickly launched against the other, and it was not until a framework agreement was announced in June that these disputes ended.
The TGL has also attracted the Tour’s biggest stars, including Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. However, the TGL also enjoys the support of the PGA Tour and has scheduled its season to run from January to March with competitions held on Monday or Tuesday evenings in a 2,000-person indoor arena in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which will house a product that will include a massive golf simulator, real course surfaces to hit on and a green designed to mimic the breaks of any virtual hole played. Matches will last 15 holes, last two hours and be broadcast live on ESPN while players are on the microphone and put on a shot clock – all while fans are seated nearby.
McIlroy on Monday compared the concept of TGL not to anything else in golf but rather to professional basketball.
“I think when you call it simulator golf, that does it a disservice,” McIlroy said. “It’s going to be much more than that. … We’re trying to bring golf into the 21st century. I think a lot of people will relate to the fact that we play inside. It won’t look anything like traditional golf. I hope it feels more like an NBA game. I’m kind of trying to give people in the arena that field experience.
Regarding LIV, McIlroy added: “I don’t want to sit here and talk about LIV, but I think you can make the case that they haven’t innovated enough in terms of what golf is. traditional, or that they have innovated. it’s too much for it not to be traditional golf. They’re sort of stuck in no man’s land. Where (TGL) is so far removed from what we know about golf.
Although McIlroy didn’t seem too happy to discuss LIV on Monday at Fenway, he went on to discuss ongoing discussions between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund — and apparently other private investors, including Fenway Sports Group, whose president, Tom Werner joined McIlroy for the CNBC interview in which the subject was discussed.
“I feel like we have a fractured competitive landscape right now, and I would prefer if everyone got back in the same boat,” McIlroy told CNBC. “I think it’s the best thing for golf. So, you know, I hope that when we go through this process, the PIFs will be the ones that are involved in the framework agreement. Obviously, other suitors were involved and offered their services and assistance.
“But I hope that when all this is said and done, I sincerely hope that the PIF will be involved and we can bring golf together again.”
