In a 250,000-square-foot building nestled in Palm Beach, Florida, the latest chapter in professional golf is set to unfold tomorrow. Here, golf is going indoors and primetime.
On the ‘tech-infused’ stage of SoFi Center, a new attempt to breathe life back into a declining, civil war-torn sport will begin its quest. This is Tomorrow’s Golf League and it promises to be the future of golf.
A year behind schedule, TGL will finally make its debut on Tuesday when Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele take on Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Shane Lowry.
But the latest venture to revolutionise the world of golf presents an unholy sight for the traditional, buttoned-up, country clubber. Yet, that could just be the key to its success.
Instead of rolling fairways and manicured greens, 24 of the PGA Tour’s best will hit to a screen, 64 feet wide and 53 feet high.
Spectators won’t have to flock the fairways. Instead, they will have a $160 front-row view in the 1,500-seat venue.
Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) will make its debut on January 7 in Palm Beach, Florida
The ‘tech-infused’ venture is the brainchild of Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods’ company
TGL has vowed to appeal to both new audiences and existing fans with its innovation
An array of gadgets and screens will light up the arena like Times Square, transforming it into a spectacle Billy Horschel has likened to the London Stadium, home of his beloved West Ham.
From the first glimpses of TGL, the concept appears so antithetical to the tradition of golf, that it’s easy to forget that it’s the dream of professional golf’s biggest names: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Masterminded by Woods and McIlroy’s TMRW Sports company, TGL has vowed to appeal to both a new audience and traditionalists, by providing a unique way of seeing some of golf’s stars.
Backed by a star-studded fleet of investors, including Serena Williams, NBA star Steph Curry and Liverpool chiefs Fenway Sports Group, the six teams – Atlanta Drive, New York, Los Angeles, The Bay, Boston Common and Jupiter Links – will battle it out across fast-paced, three-on-three, two-hour matches.
Professionals, including Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas alongside Woods and McIlroy, will be put to the test across a distinctive blend of virtual golf and reality with three from the four-man teams competing over 15 holes.
They will fire from pads of grass or sand, the same as Augusta National’s, to the simulator screen which will register their distance and position.
After reaching the green zone, they will switch to the short game area. Roughly the size of four basketball courts, the green swivels like a turntable to alter the slope and angles to ensure no two holes are the same.
Each hole is worth one point and the 15 team matches will culminate in a best-of-three final for the SoFi Cup – and a $21million prize purse – on March 24 and 25.
24 of the PGA Tour’s best will hit to a screen, 64 feet wide and 53 feet high inside SoFi Center
They will fire from pads of grass or sand, the same as Augusta National’s, to the simulator
State-of-the-art innovation, power broker backers and major champions may dazzle fans at first. But all that doesn’t answer the burning question: Will it succeed?
TGL’s top honchos have made their aim clear. Woods, who will headline Jupiter Links, revealed at the PNC Championship in December that the intention is to attract the younger generation.
Well, according to Horschel, that goal rests on the players.
‘If the players are not entertaining, engaging and talking, it’s not going to be successful,’ Horschel, of Atlanta Drive, said at TGL’s Media Day. ‘We have to be entertainers. We have to take ourselves away from what we are inside the ropes on the PGA Tour and we have to be different. We have to show more of ourselves.’
Every player will wear a microphone, providing an insight into interactions, strategies and emotions that a PGA Tour tournament can’t deliver.
Electronic boards either side of the simulator will feature score, yardages and, most revolutionary, a shot clock.
Players will only have 40 seconds to confer with their teammates and play their shot, providing the simplest solution to golf’s most-infuriating gripe: Slow play. Patrick Cantlay, take note.
‘The world of sports and entertainment is constantly exploring new avenues to appeal to, not only your existing audience, but also a new one,’ Drew McCarthy, a partnership and marketing manager with experience in sports, told Mail Sport.
The professionals will then switch to the short game area to finish out the holes
Roughly the size of four basketball courts, the green rotates to alter the slopes and angles
‘With TGL in particular, they’re taking a concept that normally takes a significant amount of time and space, and they’re making it an accessible spectacle that happens within an arena.’
Horschel and Clark hope that arena can rival the atmosphere of an NFL or NBA game.
‘If it’s a country club in here, we’re failing,’ Horschel insisted. ‘I want it to be exciting. I want the fans to be involved. I want them to be pulling for one team or another. We’re going to have music.’
Initially, it sounds an awful lot like the schtick LIV Golf’s roster has consistently spewed out, but TGL may already be succeeding where the rebel circuit has failed.
TGL is launching with a foundation of partnerships under its belt, the big names signed on and, crucially, TV deals on both sides of the Atlantic – Sky Sports in the UK and ESPN in the US – locked down.
The elimination of slow play combined with a unique access to some of the world’s fan favourites creates a fast-paced, primetime showdown. It’s a TV show, not a mere golf round.
Fans no longer have to sit through hours of broadcast coverage. They no longer have to race their fellow patrons for a fleeting glimpse of Woods or McIlroy. They will have front-row, uninterrupted access to their favourite pros and their insider commentary.
Billy Horschel, who will play for Atlanta Drive, insisted the players needed to entertaining
Wyndham Clark said he hoped SoFi Center can replicate the atmosphere of an NBA arena
‘The challenge with golf is that people are farther away but this is really intimate. People are going to see our personalities,’ Clark said.
Most importantly, it’s an entirely new concept. LIV may have pushed the boat out with its shorts and shotgun starts but it hasn’t dared stray from the orthodox 18-hole rounds. Cutting down from the PGA Tour’s four to three can’t exactly be deemed revolutionary.
TGL has the potential to provide a fresh, innovative twist to a game existing golf fans already know and love, as well as a chance to rebrand it into the 21st century and repackage it as a high-energy, captivating sport that a new demographic could open up to.
With TGL, no one’s really sure what to expect. Not even the pros. But it’s the unknown that, for now, gives TGL the most promise.
