Tiger Woods to make TGL indoor
league debut the 2nd week of the season after NFL wild-card weekend
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[October 22, 2024]
By DOUG FERGUSON
Tiger Woods makes his debut in the second week of the indoor TMRW
Golf League, part of a schedule released Monday that has the six
teams wrapping up the inaugural season on ESPN two weeks before the
Masters.
Rory McIlroy, among the owners with Woods of TMRW Sports, won’t play
until the fourth week after he gets back from playing on the
European tour in Dubai.
The TGL debuts on Tuesday, Jan. 7, from the SoFi Center in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida, an arena roughly the size of a football
field that can hold about 1,500 spectators.
Three players from the four-man teams compete in 15-hole matches
that blend virtual and real-time golf. The longer shots will be hit
into a 3,400-square-foot screen, roughly 24 times the size of a
standard golf simulator. From about 50 yards and in, there will be
actual shots to a 41-yard turntable green that can provide a variety
of shots.
The first match is between New York Golf Club, led by Xander
Schauffele, against The Bay Golf Club in San Francisco, headed by
Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark. It is scheduled for 9 p.m. following
a college basketball game.
Woods and his Jupiter Golf Club play the second week, the night
after the sixth and final NFL wild card playoff game on Monday
night.
Key to this hi-tech indoor league is being on the ESPN platforms,
with the opening six weeks of TGL held right after a weekend of
football. TMRW Sports, the sports and entertainment venture that
created the indoor golf league, is counting on promotion during the
college football and NFL telecasts.
There have been weekday golf exhibitions for years, going as far
back as the “Showdown at Sherwood” featuring Woods and David Duval
when they were Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, and most recently the
December match in Las Vegas featuring PGA Tour stars (Scottie
Scheffler and McIlroy) against LIV Golf’s biggest draws (Bryson
DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka).
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Host Erin Andrews, center, introduces golfers Tiger Woods, right,
and Rory McIlroy during a news conference announcing the future home
of TGL, a new tech-infused, team golf league, Tuesday, Feb. 21,
2023, on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach
Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
TGL is a new concept but figures to have a faster
pace with nine holes of alternating shots among three players and
six holes of singles play. There will be a 40-second shot clock,
allowing for matches to easily fit into the two-hour window.
Mike McCarley, the former Golf Channel executive who is CEO and
founder of TMRW Sports, described it as a “live, courtside
experience for golf on an unprecedented scale.”
He said TGL would complement the PGA Tour as a fast-paced team
competition. The regular season ends March 4, followed by the
semifinals March 17 and 18 — after The Players Championship — and
the best-of-three final on March 24-25.
Each of the teams will play five times during the regular season.
The schedule was built around feedback from the 24 players and where
they plan to play on tour. McIlroy is the defending champion at the
Dubai Desert Classic, for example, which is why his Boston Common
Golf does not start until Jan. 27.
Hideki Matsuyama also plays for Boston and plays the first two weeks
in Hawaii.
Five players in the opening TGL match will be going to Florida from
The Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season opener at Kapalua on Maui.
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