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Tiger Woods’s New Indoor Golf League Tees Off Tonight. Here’s Everything You Need to Know.

nicole hoey
·2-min read

Who needs Augusta? Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are bringing golf indoors—and adding simulators to the mix.

The duo’s highly anticipated golf league, TGL, is making its live, televised debut on Tuesday night in Palm Beach, The Wall Street Journal reported. The team competition, which is also done in partnership with the PGA Tour, marks a new endeavor for the sport, combining simulator golf with live play on a real green for a mixed-reality experience.

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All the excitement is happening at TGL’s SoFi Center, a 250,000-square-foot behemoth that was custom built for the game. The playing area itself is about the size of a football field, according to WSJ. That’s where players will tee off, hitting the ball into a 64-foot-tall, 53-foot-wide screen—24 times bigger than a standard simulator—on holes that were created just for the league.

The real green is added into the mix once the ball comes within about 50 yards of the hole on-screen. Then, the golfer will pivot toward the in-person complex, where they can putt on a real hole. And, lest things get dull, the green is set on a hydraulic system, which allows it switch up its angles and topography (either fairway-length grass, rough-length grass, or sand) with each turn, Golf.com reported.

Each TGL game is a matchup between two teams playing 15 holes, with three golfers per team playing on each. The first nine holes will be played as triples, where the teammates alternate shots; holes 10 to 15, meanwhile, will be an individual endeavor, where each player tees off on two full holes. Along with a 40-second shot clock, each hole is worth a point, and the team who wins the most holes, well, wins.

As for who is hopping on the green, the league consists of six four-player teams of PGA Tour pros: Atlanta Drive Golf Club, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club, and the Bay Golf Club. For the league’s debut match, you’ll be watching Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, and Matt Fitzpatrick of the New York group face Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry, and Wyndham Clark of the Bay Golf Club.

Besides Woods and McIlroy, TGL has some other sporty backers behind the scenes. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen bought the rights to the New York GC in April of last year. Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Jimmy Fallon, and Michael Strahan have also signed on as limited partners for the Big Apple club.

Despite all the financial support, it’s yet to be seen if the new league will catch on. If you want to check out all the action for yourself, tune into to ESPN or ESPN+ at 9 p.m. tonight.

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