Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at The Northern Trust in 2020. | Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
TGL, the new indoor golf league created in part by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, provided an update on its operations.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL league did not get off to a good start—a deflating one, in fact.
But the new league—postponed a year because of a dome collapse—will officially kick off on Jan. 7, 2025, the first Tuesday of the year.
ESPN will televise the league’s first match, which will be held two days after the conclusion of the NFL’s regular season.
A week later, ESPN will air TGL’s second match on Jan. 14, 2025, one night after the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ airs its Monday night NFL playoff game.
Then, on Jan. 21, 2025, the night after college football’s national championship game, ESPN will telecast TGL’s third match of the season. The remainder of the 15-game schedule will be announced later this year.
“As we plan the 2025 launch of TGL presented by SoFi, we now have the first three Tuesdays in January circled to introduce sports fans to this new form of team golf,” said Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, in a statement.
“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.”
The PGA Tour typically begins its season in Hawaii at The Sentry and the Sony Open during the first two weeks of January. However, that could all change in 2025, depending on whether the tour changes its structure, thanks to a possible deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
But if those two events remain on the golfing calendar next year, which is the most likely scenario, a travel snafu for some players could emerge.
With The Sentry penciled in to finish on Sunday, Jan. 5, some TGL players would have to fly back to South Florida from Maui for the inaugural match two nights later.
TGL
A rendering of the new SoFi Center.
TGL will host its events at the newly updated SoFi Center, a steel-supported structure located on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
More information about the intricacies of the SoFi Center follows below:
SoFi Center is an unprecedented, tech-infused arena for golf and will create an intimate and unique “greenside” experience for fans with 1,500 seats wrapping around TGL’s field of play, which is similar to the size of a football field at 97-yards long and 50-yards wide.
TGL matches will start with teams teeing off from real grass tee boxes to play custom-designed, virtual holes projected onto a 3,000-square-foot screen (64’x46’), more than 20 times larger than a standard golf simulator screen (144 square feet, 16’x9’).
Once teams are inside approximately 50 yards they will transition to live action and finish each hole within TGL’s GreenZone, a 22,475-square-foot short game complex that transforms between holes.
Six TGL teams will compete during the league’s inaugural season, which are listed below:
Atlanta Drive GC
Justin Thomas
Patrick Cantlay
Billy Horschel
Lucas Glover
Boston Common Golf
Rory McIlroy
Adam Scott
Keegan Bradley
TBD (formerly Tyrrell Hatton, since joined LIV Golf)
Jupiter Links Golf Club
Tiger Woods
Three players TBD
Los Angeles Golf Club
Collin Morikawa
Justin Rose
Sahith Theegala
Tommy Fleetwood
TGL New York
Four players TBD
TGL San Francisco
Four players TBD
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
