TGL Tees Off: A New Era of Golf Entertainment

The long-awaited TGL (Tomorrow's Golf League) has finally arrived. Founded by golfing icons Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, this innovative league aims to revolutionize the sport with a blend of traditional golf and cutting-edge technology.   

What is TGL?

TGL is a 3-on-3, indoor golf league featuring top PGA Tour players. Matches take place at SoFi Center, a state-of-the-art venue, where players hit shots into a massive simulator screen. The league incorporates elements of traditional golf with exciting, fast-paced gameplay designed to appeal to a younger, more tech-savvy audience. Matches will air on ESPN and ESPN+ in the U.S. with every shot live and all the players mic'd up, bringing unprecedented access to the competition for golf fans.

How it Works

The players start by hitting into a giant 64 x 53ft simulator powered by Full Swing. They hit from areas with real grass, fairway, rough and sand into the screen for tee shots and approach shots. 

For anything inside approximately 50 yards, players move to a physical, custom-built GreenZone, a 22,475-square-foot short game area that transforms between holes. The GreenZone includes a 41-yard-wide turntable that rotates the green to change approach angles and can morph its topography using nearly 600 actuators.

Three world-class golf course design companies created 30 original holes that start in the virtual world with shots into the screen and end in the real world on the green inside SoFi Center. Each match, 15 of these holes will be selected and placed in a unique order to form that night's course.

The playing area within SoFi Center is roughly the size of a football field - 97 yards long x 50 yards wide. It's made up of two zones where the players will take shots: the ScreenZone - for shots into the simulator screen - and the GreenZone - for short-game shots and putting.

The Teams

Six TGL teams representing six different cities will go head-to-head in a season-long competition. The six teams include:

• Atlanta Drive GC: Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover, and Billy Horschel.
• Boston Common Golf: Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, and Hideki Matsuyama.
• Jupiter Links Golf Club: Tiger Woods, Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner.
• Los Angeles Golf Club: Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Justin Rose, and Tommy Fleetwood.
• New York Golf Club: Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Young.
• The Bay Golf Club: Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, and Shane Lowry.

Each team plays five matches between Jan. 7 - Mar. 4, but teams do not start all four of their players every match. Only three will play in a given match.

The top four teams in the SoFi Cup Standings advance to the semifinals on March 17-18 on ESPN and ESPN2, and the winners of those two semifinal matchups will play a three-match Finals Series on March 24-25 on ESPN and ESPN2. The winner takes home the SoFi Cup.

The First Match

The first match was played on January 7th and was a blowout, with The Bay Club carding a resounding 9 to 2 win over the New York Golf Club. The game was fast paced, and reactions were mixed. It will be interesting to see how it progresses over the next few months.

Did you get a chance to watch it? If so, what did you think?