Professional golf embarks on a new frontier on Tuesday when the TGL tees off at the SoFi Center in Florida. Some of the PGA Tour's biggest names are involved in this mix of virtual and real golf and Ireland's Shane Lowry will be playing a starring role on the opening night.
TGL stands for Tomorrow's Golf League. TGL co-owners Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods will be providing commentary, and all players will be mic'ed up, which should be entertaining in Lowry's case. It will be broadcast in primetime on ESPN (and in Ireland and the UK on Sky Sports) to a national American audience. There'll be a shot clock, a live DJ and crowd noise: not professional golf as we know it, basically.
Each hole combines simulation from the drivers and fairway with real play around an indoor green with real grass. The playing format team and individual play, and there's even overtime to break draws.
Shane Lowry has been drafted into a prominent role for the maiden event. Lowry plays with 'The Bay Golf Club' and will be flanked by teammates Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg on opening night. On Tuesday. they'll take on the 'New York Golf Club', which features Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Lowry tweeted about the experience on Monday and revealed he'd have the honour - and the pressure - of teeing off first.
If hitting the first ever shot in @TGL history tomorrow night wasn’t nerve-racking enough, imagine if I miss the 60ft screen 🙈😂 pic.twitter.com/WDw26k8Q5B
— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) January 6, 2025
Whether TGL crashes and burns or becomes the biggest thing in golf, the history books will record that Lowry was the first golfer to drive into that massive screen.
It'll be fascinating to see how he gets on. We've seen Lowry thrive in team environments and we think the format will suit him.
The TGL run until late March, and there's plenty of money and influence involved in the launch of this (for example, NBA star Steph Curry is the owner of Lowry's 'franchise') to make it a success. Whether it will make for compelling sport is anyone's guess.
After the launch of the LIV Tour, the PGA Tour were desperate to introduce some kind of "team" competition that could attract the interest of casual sport fans.
TGL is what they came up with. The challenge McIlroy and Woods face is the exact same that Greg Norman and his LIV cronies confronted a few years back: how do you make people really care about sport when there's no tradition and nothing beyond the financial at stake?
The guys from the Foreplay podcast were given behind-the-scenes access to the course last week. The technology is pretty impressive.
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