No change of plan in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL. The futuristic league, set to debut next January, announced the first part of its schedule. The inaugural match will kick off in the second week of January on ESPN and ESPN+. Woods and McIlroy also want to latch on to the NFL fever to generate more eyeballs for their tech-infused team golf event.

Six teams have been introduced to the newly launched league. The 15-time Major Champion heads Jupiter Links GC. He is also the co-owner of the Florida-based team. Whereas Rory McIlroy will steer the Boston Common Golf. An early setback due to the roof dome collapse of the SoFi Center delayed the launch date but not more than a year.

Woods’s grand plan to make TGL an instant hit

The tech-infused league will make a debut on January 7 on ESPN Prime Time. Matchweek 2 on January 14 (Tuesday), will follow ESPN’s Monday Night Football Wild Card Playoff game. Similarly, Matchweek 3 on January 21 is on the heels of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The full schedule will be released later.

The rationale revealed by the official announcement was that TGL wants to benefit from the high enthusiasm for sports in January. The first month of the year has traditionally been the most-watched month for ESPN as well. They also brushed aside any notion that Woods’s latest venture will compete with the PGA Tour.

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Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, said in the official announcement, “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 and take advantage of ESPN’s promotional machine across their coverage of the NFL and college football playoffs.”

15 holes will be played in two sessions, with three players from each team taking alternate shots from holes 1–9. In the second session, those three players will go head-to-head individually from holes 9–15, with each player taking on two holes. All the actions will take place in the SoFi center, which TMRW Sports sought to revamp after the disastrous roof-dome collapse.

A unique mix of simulation and reality

TGL wants to blend virtual golf with real experience on the greens. 1500 wraparound seats have been added in the Palm Beach State College’s sprawling auditorium. Each team will start from “real grass” tee boxes, hitting their tee shots into the massive 3000 sq. ft. screen. Interestingly, the venue also boasts of a “real grass” 22,475-yard short game complex. Once players are within 50 yards, they will finish each hole on the greenside.

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Furthermore, TGL also brings forth an innovative technology, a shot clock. Each player has to take their shots within 40 seconds. On top of that, each PGA Tour Pro will be mic’d up, something that LIV Golf has done in the past couple of years. 

Notably, TGL was read as an answer to the PIF-funded league from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the Tour’s most vigorous defenders. The PGA Tour has moved ahead with the framework agreement with PIF. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chief governor of PIF, met the Tour’s player-directors in the Bahamas recently. The meeting was apparently spearheaded by Woods, no less. The announcement makes it clear that there will be a world where the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and TGL co-exist.

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