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Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s high-tech indoor golf league has officially gone live.
TGL had its first match at its dedicated SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Florida on January 7th, and The Bay Golf Club ended up defeating New York Golf Club 9-2. Its live prime-time telecast on ESPN averaged 919,000 viewers, according to the network.
The team-centric league is a creation TMRW Sportsa company founded by Woods, McIlroy and former NBC Sports executive Mike McCarley. It was developed in cooperation with PGA Tour.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 7: Rory McIlroy of Boston Common Golf and Tiger Woods of Jupiter Links Golf Club watch before the TGL presented by SoFi match between New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club at the SoFi Center on January 7 , (Mike Ehrmann/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images/Getty Images)
During the league’s launch process, TGL highlighted a number of major partners, including luxury car maker Genesis, consultancy Businessolver and consumer electronics retailer Best Buy as “founding partners”. In total, it has a dozen official partners, according to a recent press release.
His matches “feature three players competing on each team in a two-hour team golf competitionoffering a fresh approach to the sport with a focus on technology, innovation and fan engagement,” TGL explained on its website. Two of the league’s six teams play against each other in the match.
The TGL regular season consists of 15 matches, all of which are played indoors at the So-Fi Center, named after the digital finance company that signed a multi-year deal to be its current sponsor.
The space spans nearly 250,000 square feet. Inside, competitors – all the big names in golf – play their way through 15 holes in a high-tech area “about the size of a football field” that includes a “ScreenZone” and a “GreenZone”.
Palm Beach Garden (Mike Ehrmann/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Huge Simulator screen size 64 x 53 feet created Full Swing plays a key role in the match in “ScreenZone.”
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 07: Shane Lowry of The Bay Golf Club tees off on the seventh hole during their TGL match presented by SoFi vs. New York Golf Club at the SoFi Center on January 07, 2025 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Ph (Mike Ehrmann/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the “GreenZone” serves as a dedicated short game area, with a massive rotating green table that uses hundreds of drivers to “change the slope of the green, creating varied play on every hole,” TGL said.
The league uses a nine-hole triple format and a six-hole singles format. About 1,500 people can watch in person at the SoFi Center from seats around the course, according to the high-tech golf league.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 7: A general view of players from New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club on the green during their TGL match presented by SoFi Match at the SoFi Center on January 7, 2025 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawk (Cliff Hawkins/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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TGL’s first season was scheduled to take place in 2024. However, in November 2023, “a failure of the temporary power system and backup systems caused the dome to deflate” and resulted in some damage, forcing the league to change the start to this year, according to a TGL statement from that time.
Now, with one game behind them, the TGL will hold the rest of their regular season games over the next few months, followed by two rounds of the postseason. The team that wins the league title will receive $9 million out of a total of $21 million in prize money for the season, according to Golf.com.
The six four-player teams include Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank’s Atlanta Drive GC; Avenue Sports Fund and NBA star Stephen Curry’s The Bay Golf Club; Boston Common Golf Fenway Sports Group; TGR Ventures and Jupiter Links Golf Club of businessman David Blitzer; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and former tennis star Serena Venus Williams’ Los Angeles Golf Club; and hedge fund founder Steven Cohen’s New York Golf Club, according to TGL.
THE COMPANY AIMES TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE OUTDATED WOMEN’S GOLF APPAREL INDUSTRY
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