Let us take a step back to August 2022, the time when Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced their new tech-infused league. Little did they know that, come 2023, they would be forced to delay it to 2025 owing to the SoFi Center being deflated and damaged. Well, it seems to have been unfortunate for the duo. But some consider it a fortunate encounter of sorts, especially Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, Rory McIlroy’s former manager, in an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports covered by Aravind S Menon with the assistance of the Betideas and its host, Duncan Wright.

Currently working with Darren Clarke, who competes in the PGA Tour Champions, the Northern Irishman’s ex-manager, in the EssentiallySports Exclusive expressed uncertainty regarding the whole new venture. “I don’t think they were ready for it. I don’t think anybody was ready for it,” stated Chandler as he responded to the query that he was posed with.

Adding on, the 4-time major champ’s former manager was very critical of the new form of gameplay that the tech-infused league would boast. He said, “It’ll be interesting to see what happens when it starts because I’m not sure how excited I get seeing guys hit into a screen,” while commenting on the fact that it would take place indoors instead of the usual outdoor form of the sport during the ES Exclusive.

However, he was quick to point out how it all hangs on the graphics that the league can dish out. Elaborating on the same, he said, “Well, it depends on how well they get the graphics, and the whole thing, because I mean those things can look pretty real these days,” all the while drawing a parallel with the sport of football, where one can watch the players.

Even so, Chandler was still unsure of the whole new brainchild put forward by the pair, consisting of the Northern Irishman and the legend of the game. Interestingly, McIlroy’s ex-manager went ahead and dubbed it a lucky encounter, as he explained, “I don’t know, the jury’s out on it. I think they were very lucky that the hurricane hit just at the right time.”

The unprecedented disaster that TGL faced

On November 14th, 2023, the high-tech dome of the custom-built SoFi center, which was to play host to the TGL, was affected by a failure in the temporary power system and backup systems, which led to the air-inflated dome being damaged. Although there were no injuries or any sort of impact on the technology, the decision to postpone the league was made after careful discussion with the key figures.

“[PGA Tour] Don’t Even Stand Up Against LIV”: Rory McIlroy’s Former Agent Chubby Chandler Makes a Bold Claim

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Meanwhile, the new venture was delayed to make its debut as late as 2025 after reviewing various short-term solutions, player schedules, and the prime time television sports calendar for the year. Thus, the community can only wait and see whether it actually lives up to the hype as claimed by the two veteran golfers.

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