The TGL, a virtual golf competition backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will make its delayed launch in January 2025 in prime time.
The league was originally supposed to debut in January 2024 but had to be pushed back due to a roof collapse at its Florida facility in November.
The TGL’s first three matches will take place on the first three Tuesdays in January 2025 — Jan. 1, 14 and 21 — airing live on ESPN from the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The remainder of the schedule will be announced later this year.
“January is a tremendous time of year for fans looking for prime time sports and TGL’s launch will complement the start of the PGA TOUR season and take advantage of ESPN’s promotional machine across their coverage of the NFL and college football playoffs,” TMRW Sports founder and CEO Mike McCarley said in a news release Monday.
The indoor TGL facility covers about 250,000 square feet under an air-supported dome, which collapsed following a power outage on Nov. 14. No injuries occurred in the accident.
Other PGA Tour stars committed to join Woods and McIlroy in TGL competition include Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
Three-man teams will compete on a virtual course that includes real grass tee boxes, with seating for 1,500 fans wrapped around a field of play that is roughly the size of a football field.
Players will hit tee shots into a 64-by-46-foot screen. Once they are inside 50 yards, players transition to live action inside the GreenZone, a 22,475-square-foot short-game complex that physically transforms between holes.
“The GreenZone will use advanced technology to make each hole a unique challenge for the teams, including its 41-yard-wide turntable that rotates the green and three bunkers to change approach angles and using nearly 600 motorized actuators as part of Full Swing’s Virtual Green technology embedded under the synthetic putting surface to morph its topography,” the league said in a news release Monday.
The TGL also announced that there will be a 40-seccond shot clock and that all players will be “mic’d up” during the competition.
Six teams are set to compete in the TGL: Los Angeles Golf Club, Atlanta Drive Golf Club, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club, TGL New York and TGL San Francisco.
Woods will compete for Jupiter Links, while McIlroy will play for Boston Common.
–Field Level Media
