It is a time of upheaval in the golf universe. For a few weeks, the revolution for the landing of the Saudi LIV Golf put everyone on alert and now the controversy is growing, because Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced the creation of a new league in collaboration with the PGA Tour, which will try to incorporate the latest technology into the discipline. Under the name TGL (The Golf League), this new competition will complement the PGA circuit calendar and is scheduled to start in January 2024.
The TGL will feature six teams of three PGA Tour players each, will be played on Monday nights in fifteen different weeks, and will also have semi-finals and a final. One of the keys to TGL, according to its promoters, will be the application of technology to the world of golf to improve and enrich the experience of television viewers. Golf Magazine shared several images generated by a computer, which allow you to see what the place where it would be played would be like and there it is noted that it looks more like a television set than a golf course, in addition to also incorporating virtual simulation.
The TGL matches would have a total duration of two hours, with the commitment that the entire contest and also the games would be televised. “TGL is the next evolution in professional golf and I am committed to helping lead it into the future,” Tiger Woods said in a statement.
He added: “Leveraging technology to create this unique environment gives us the ability to consistently bring our sport into prime time alongside many other major sporting events. As a huge sports fan, I am excited to bring golf together with the technology and equipment items common in other sports.”
While McIlroy explained that TGL wants to bring golf to an environment that is comparable to sitting courtside, as in an NBA game: “TGL will broaden the appeal of golf to younger and more diverse fans and will serve as another entry way to introduce people to the sport that I love.”
In addition to promoters of this initiative, Woods and McIlroy are the first two players who committed to participate in TGL, but for now it is not known who will complete the list of golfers in this new initiative. TGL is part of the PGA Tour’s response to the LIV Golf offensive promoted by Saudi Arabia, which intends to organize a circuit that competes with the PGA Tour and is based in the United States.
This threat is so great that the PGA Tour last May denied permission for players on its circuit to compete at LIV Golf, which led to disciplinary measures and the abandonment of the tour by golfers such as Spaniard Sergio García, Dustin Johnson , Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Brooks Koepka, the Mexican Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen, among many others.