Click above to view TGL schedule.
The announcement this week that the New York Golf Club will meet the Bay Golf Club in the first-ever TGL match at 9 p.m. EST January 7 on ESPN is intended to be a big deal, with the league’s full schedule release marking another important milepost on the yellow brick road toward a new, teched-out version of professional golf.
The TGL presented by SoFi (to be official), if it has slipped your mind amid the avalanche of political ads and football games, is the made-for-television team competition that will be played entirely indoors on a giant simulator and, most critically, will include many of the PGA Tour glitterati, notably league co-founders Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
It is intended to fill the entertainment void on Monday and Tuesday evenings from January through March while generating a golf-can-be-hip vibe, and it appears to be rich in star power, wealthy investors and optimism.
At this point, it is like a dream house being built. The renderings are there, and the materials have been loaded in. Soon, it will be time to see whether it’s everything it looks to be on paper or, in today’s world, a computer screen.
For those wondering whether the TGL is a blatant rip-off of LIV Golf’s team concept which has been greeted with widespread indifference, the TGL idea was being cultivated before LIV came into existence and will be more different than it is alike.
The TGL is made-for-television exhibition golf. Whether it wants to or not, that’s what LIV feels like.
The inaugural TGL schedule announcement dropped on Monday and is part of an intentional build-up to generate curiosity about what the world will see in early January.
The schedule includes 15 regular-season matches, four semifinal matches and a best-of-three finale on March 24-25, all played at the new state-of-the-art SoFi Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, with seating for 1,500 fans and tickets starting at $160 per match (hardly Ryder Cup prices but skewed toward corporate buyers, it would seem).
The question is whether this is something the viewing public wants, and there is no doubt plenty of research to support this potentially game-expanding venture. Having Woods as a central character – and investor – immediately elevates TGL.
Unless you have been paying very close attention, you probably don’t yet know that the New York Golf Club roster is made up of Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young while the Bay Golf Club includes Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee.
The first match will be played two days after the final round of the Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opening signature event on Maui in Hawaii, which means a long Monday travel day for several of the participants.
In the same way that real estate success is based largely on location, location, location, the TGL plan is underpinned by its location on the sports TV calendar. With the NFL playoffs occupying the weekend attention, college basketball lost in its new NIL wilderness and the endless NBA season trudging along, the TGL has found a window of opportunity.
The question is whether this is something the viewing public wants, and there is no doubt plenty of research to support this potentially game-expanding venture. Having Woods as a central character – and investor – immediately elevates TGL.
Assuming he has recovered from his most recent back procedure, Woods will debut on the TGL telecasts on January 14 when his Jupiter Links team, which includes Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner, meets the Los Angeles Golf Club of Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose.
Under TGL rules, only three of the four team members will participate in a match.
The curiosity factor alone should help TGL initially, especially when Woods is participating. It seems perfect for the soon-to-be 49-year-old, eliminating the demands of walking a golf course and letting him focus almost entirely on the shots he has to hit. He can still do that.
Part of the presumed appeal of TGL telecasts will be the cross-talk between players, whether on the same team or not. That’s a tricky area because it has to be organic, like what might be said in a Saturday morning foursome among friends who play together regularly.
Too many times in the made-for-TV matches, the back and forth between players has sounded orchestrated. Some players try too hard to be funny, and others don’t have the humor gene.
Don’t be surprised if Schauffele turns out to be one of the more entertaining personalities when the TGL gets rolling early next year. He has a subtle but biting sense of humor which could shine in this format.
The make-or-break piece of the TGL concept is how the players respond. Most viewers won’t care which team wins, but they will want to get a sense of the players in the same way that watching “Full Swing” on Netflix provided a better sense of the players as people.
The pieces are coming together for TGL. It will be interesting to see the finished product.