Tiger Woods and US sports royalty set to play again in high-tech indoor golf league
US Tiger Woods and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy stand on the 18th fairway during the championship celebrations ahead of the 150th British Open at the Old Court of St. Andrews.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy during the 2022 British Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Tiger Woods, Steph Curry, the Williams sisters and a host of other sporting greats are involved in a new high-tech venture that hopes to attract new golf fans – albeit in a completely different format.
The televised TGL Indoor Golf League, produced in partnership with the PGA Tour, is the brainchild of TMRW Sports, a company co-founded by Woods and Rory McIlroy, and will feature 15 of the current top 20 men’s players in the world. The six teams’ ownership groups are who represent excellence and prestige in American sports. Some of the all-time greats from tennis and the NBA join forces with billionaires who have a seat at the tables of the NFL, Premier League and more. Here’s everything you need to know about the contest, which begins on January 9th. What is TGL? First announced in August 2022, TGL aims to attract a younger audience to golf through technology and the SoFi Center, a purpose-built arena at Palm Beach State University in Florida. The 250,000-square-foot venue can accommodate 1,600 spectators on a 350-by-196-foot field slightly smaller than an American football field. Players tee off and approach a 64-by-46-foot screen before moving into a “high-tech” short-game complex, or “green zone,” where they’ll hit shots within 50 yards of the hole. The “Green Zone” contains three virtual greens that can be mechanically altered via 189 actuators and cylinders, allowing organizers to change the slope of each hole.
A rendering of the SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College. TGL Rendering of the SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College. “We all know what it’s like to be in a football stadium or a basketball arena with every game, every moment of the action unfolding right before your eyes,” Woods said in an August 2022 statement press release. “This is something that’s essentially impossible to do in traditional golf and is a defining feature of TGL that will set the game apart and attract a new generation of fans.” »
How it works? Six mic teams (each made up of four PGA Tour players) compete once during the 15-game regular season, but only three of the four members of each team will play in each game. The top four teams advance to a playoff with a single-elimination semi-final to determine the championship series, with the winner determined in a best-of-three match.
Matches are awarded two points for a win and are played over two sessions and 15 holes. Nine holes are played in a 3-on-3 format with teammates taking turns taking shots, and the remaining 6 holes are played in a head-to-head shootout between each player. Each hole is worth one point. If scores are level after 15 holes, a three-on-three closest to the pin competition is staged. A team wins the overtime tiebreaker when they hit two shots closer to the hole than their opponents, who receive one overall point for losing in overtime (but none for a regular time loss). TGL
TGL route configuration visualization. Who will participate? Five of the six teams, each representing a different U.S. city, have been confirmed, but so far only one player has been committed to the team: Two-time major champion Justin Thomas, announced Tuesday as the first signing with Atlanta Drive Golf Club, led by Home Depot co-founder Arthur M. Justin. Blank is the owner of the NFL and MLS franchises Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United.
The group of 24 players, led by the 47-year-old Woods, has won 32 major championships and 224 PGA Tour titles, but their competitive performance has been sporadic since he suffered serious leg injuries in a serious car accident in 2021. With McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark in the field, seven of the men currently ranked in the top 10 in the world will be in the field, excluding world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Brian Harman.
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Rahm tees off at the 2023 Ryder Cup. The lineup is Tom Kim, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Cam Young, Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Thomas, Sahit Tigara, Lucas Glover, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Minwoo Lee, Billy Horschel and Kevin Kisner.
“To approve the four players for each team, TGL worked with the TGL team, players and player administration with the goal that a player’s TGL schedule would significantly complement their PGA TOUR competitive schedule.