Rory McIlroy believes the brand new Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL), beginning this week and reside on Sky Sports activities, is “golf reimagined for the 21st century”.
The identify of the indoor simulator league stems from TMRW Sports activities, the corporate based by McIlroy, Tiger Woods and former NBC golf govt Mike McCarley to deal with producing “technology-based ventures” on the earth of sports activities and leisure.
Woods and McIlroy should not concerned within the opening match of the inaugural season, the place New York Golf Membership tackle The Bay Golf Membership over 15 holes – in entrance of 1,500 spectators – in Florida on Tuesday night (Wednesday 2am UK time).
New York’s Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele will face The Bay’s Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark in alternate-shot triples and singles, with every gap value a degree. If the groups are tied on the finish of regulation, a nearest-the-pin contest will decide the winners.
Woods will characteristic in week two for his Jupiter Hyperlinks Golf Membership and once more in week 4 in opposition to McIlroy’s Boston Frequent Golf, with the highest 4 of the six groups advancing to the play-offs.
“The first thing I would like to have people know is it’s golf, but it’s reimagined, sort of trying to take golf into the 21st century,” McIlroy mentioned. “We have now groups, clearly there’s a whole lot of know-how concerned, attempting to deliver it into the digital period.
“A lot of things that we’ve taken from other sports like a shot-clock, a timeout, things that you don’t see in regular golf [We’re] trying to appeal to that bigger sports audience out there.”
Delayed launch ‘blessing in disguise’
The delayed begin to TGL was attributable to the venue’s roof collapsing throughout a storm which blew by way of Palm Seashore County, though Woods has described that as a “blessing in disguise” because it allowed for extra time to supply a greater product.
“Tiger and I have been a part of this from day one and whenever you see the concepts and the renderings you think ‘Yeah, that looks really cool’,” McIlroy informed ESPN.
“But until you actually stand in here [the SoFi Center] and you see what they’ve been able to do, I think the scale of it is the thing for me that blows my mind.
“Every time I step in here I’m just blown away by the size of the screen, the fact that we’re able to put something that looks like golf on a stage like this. It’s really cool and we’re obviously really excited about it within the game of golf.
“I feel a whole lot of different individuals exterior of the sport are going to see this and hopefully get enthusiastic about it as nicely.”
Players will hit from tee boxes with real grass, fairway, rough and sand on tee shots and approach shots into a 64ft x 53ft screen. For shots from around 50 yards or less, the ball will be placed in a short-game area which includes an adjustable green.
“The playing surfaces are very realistic,” McIlroy added. “Whenever you hit it out of the rough, you have to think about whether you’re going to get a flyer; whether it’s going to come out soft. A lot of things that you would have to think about on a real golf course.”
Who’s taking part in and for which staff?
Atlanta Drive GC – Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover, Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas
Boston Frequent Golf – Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott
Jupiter Hyperlinks Golf Membership – Max Homa, Tom Kim, Kevin Kisner, Tiger Woods
Los Angeles Golf Membership – Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose
New York Golf Membership – Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Younger
The Bay Golf Membership – Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry
Who will win the inaugural TGL season and the SoFi Cup? Watch each match of the 2025 and 2026 seasons solely reside on Sky Sports activities Golf. Stream the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, majors and extra with NOW.
