Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are backing a revolutionary golf project.
On Wednesday, Woods, McIlroy, and Mike McCarley — co-founder and CEO of the newly formed TMRW Sports Group — unveiled TGL, a new golf league that will operate in partnership with the PGA Tour.
The league will play its events at specially designed, first-of-their-kind virtual courses in front of a live crowd and larger television audience. Based on early renderings, there will be tech-infused throughout the venues.
- Teeing off in January 2024, the first season of play will feature 15 Monday night events of “18 holes in two hours,” as McCarley put it.
- It will be a team-oriented league with six teams of three PGA Tour golfers each.
- Woods and McIlroy are the only two players confirmed thus far.
At Wednesday’s press conference, McIlroy and McCarley outlined what the league will look like — and explained that the PGA Tour was extremely receptive to the idea.
“We’ve been working together on this for nearly two years, and every time we talked about it, it was always, ‘This is going to be a complementary project to the PGA Tour,’” said McCarley. “We couldn’t be happier that [PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan] embraced the vision immediately and the Tour got on board, and we’re happy to call the PGA Tour our partners on the project.”
Despite the claim it’s been in the works for two years, the timing of the announcement of the new venture — clearly aimed at a younger demographic — is likely a response to LIV Golf, which has poached several Tour players in a rift that has split professional golf.
