The inaugural match of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new TGL golf league took place on Tuesday night.
The new innovative, prime time indoor golf competition kicked off with New York Golf Club taking on The Bay Golf Club at the state-of-the-art SoFi Center in Florida.
Both Woods and McIlroy in attendance and an extensive part of the coverage with the Northern Irishman wasting no time in taking a dig as his Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry on the opening tee shot.
Fans were hugely impressed with the show, which played out in front of a live audience and was the opening night of a competition worth $21million in prize money, with the winners sharing a $9million jackpot.
The event featured players moving around the arena to play shots off the tee and fairway, out of sand when they landed in the bunkers and then greens that changed contour as the holes changed.
Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg of The Bay claimed the first ever victory, beating New York’s Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele 9-2 in the 15-hole match.
Woods is not in action until next week, when his Jupiter Links Golf Club make their debut on January 14 against Tommy Fleetwood and Collin Morikawa’s Los Angeles Golf Club.
Jupiter’s four-man team is made up of Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner and Homa is all to aware of how he and Kim may need to carry his team.
Six-time PGA Tour winner Homa was part of the ‘No Laying Up’ podcast after The Bay’s victory to reflect on the opening night of the league while previewing his own team’s first matchup.
“Having an owner who’s also also playing on the team ala semi-pro… is pretty sick,” he laughed about teammate Woods.
“My team is very interesting,” Homa went on, before taking a lighthearted shot at teammate Kisner.
“Currently two of us play full time,” he joked, referencing Kisner’s recent foray into the world of broadcasting.
Homa then revealed that during a practice round with Woods at the US Open last year, he cheekily suggested booting a below-par Kisner – who is featuring more and more as part of the broadcast coverage of the game – off the team.
“At the time Kis was struggling and I was like, ‘at what point do we talk about this team?’” Homa joked to Woods.
“And he [Woods] said I was being a d***.”
“And I said, ‘Kevin would say the exact same thing about me’, so I feel like we need to have an open discussion,” he added as the podcast burst into laughter.
The 40-year-old Kisner is a four-time PGA Tour champion and two-time U.S. Team participant in the Presidents Cup.
He has long been considered one of the top short-game players and top overall personalities in the game, but has recently stepped into broadcasting and TV work, appearing as an analyst on several recent NBC Sports PGA Tour broadcasts.
“I feel very privileged to have played in the Tiger Era. Having the opportunity to compete against and alongside the GOAT has been one of the things I’ll remember most at the end of my career,” Kisner said of joining Woods’ Jupiter team.
“While I know we will have a lot of fun as a team with me, Tiger, Max and Tom, I also know when Tiger’s competitive fire kicks in, we are going to be ready to play and win. This is the perfect team to bring both fun and competition together at the same time. Can’t wait.”
TGL features 24 players — six teams of four — and the top four teams advance to the playoffs with a best-of-three championship series two weeks before the Masters.
Each team activates three players for a match, and the 15-hole competitions finish in about two hours.
The new league, which Woods and McIlroy have envisioned for years, and has enjoyed its fir share is being shown on ESPN platforms, often in prime time.
Woods watched the first match inside the 250,000-square-foot facility at Palm Beach State College on Tuesday, and said: “This was just a dream conjured up.
“Rory and I were talking about it; it’s hard to believe that dream came into reality and we were able to take golf into another stratosphere, really.”
Woods’ debut is expected to be next Tuesday while McIlroy’s Boston Common debut could be on January 27 against Tiger’s Jupiter Links.
What is TGL?
Simply put, TGL is an indoor simulator golf league featuring the game’s top players.
It will take place at a super high-tech arena called the SoFi Centre in Florida with a live crowd of around 1,500 people.
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were the ones who came up with it, with the help of a guy called Mike McCarley, as part of their TMWR Sports venture.
It’s got a bunch of big-name investors, like Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton, and Fenway Sports Group – who own Liverpool. ESPN and Sky Sports are signed up to broadcast it.
How do they compete?
There’s six teams of four, all franchises based on US cities, and all featuring top PGA Tour players. No LIV Golfers.
There is one head-to-head match each week lasting just two hours for a primetime TV slot in the States.
There will also be a 40-second shot clock and timeouts and referees to enforce the rules. All of the players are mic’d up to ensure maximum entertainment value.
How does it work?
For shots longer than 50 yards, players will hit into this enormous screen, which is 53 foot tall and 64 foot wide.
That’s about 24 times the size of your normal golf simulator. They play off real grass, the rough and the fairways will be reflected on the surface, and it even moves to reflect the slope.
The green complex has 600 motorised sensors underneath it and 360 degree rotation to simulate the exact real life scenario facing the players.
The bunkers have the same sand as Augusta National, and they’ve even thought about the direction of the grain around the greens.
Format
Each team picks three players, they play 15 holes. The first nine holes are ‘Trebles’ – three-on-three matchplay, with each player taking turns to hit the shots.
The final six holes are ‘Singles’ – one-on-one matchplay with each player playing 2 holes.
If it’s all square after 15, they go to overtime and play closest to the pin.
Teams get two points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss.
There will be Play-Offs in March with semi-finals and a final to determine the league’s overall winner – with a $21million purse to be divided among players.
Teams
Atlanta Drive GC
• Patrick Cantlay
• Lucas Glover
• Billy Horschel
• Justin Thomas
Boston Common Golf
• Keegan Bradley
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Rory McIlroy
• Adam Scott
The Bay Golf Club
• Ludvig Aberg
• Wyndham Clark
• Shane Lowry
• Min Woo Lee
Jupiter Links Golf Club
• Max Homa
• Tom Kim
• Kevin Kisner
• Tiger Woods
Los Angeles Golf Club
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Collin Morikawa
• Justin Rose
• Sahith Theegala
New York Golf Club
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Rickie Fowler
• Xander Schauffele
• Cameron Young