A New Indoor Golf League Is Ready for Launch, With Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy As Central Players

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The building is impressive on its own, even more so when you consider its limited, intended use—and what it looked like just 13 months ago.

The SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College didn’t materialize for collegiate events but instead for golf. Indoor golf. To be played on a simulator that is much grander than that description would suggest.

It is the home to TGL, the tech-infused golf endeavor that has the backing of some big-time investors as well as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Set to launch Tuesday with the first of 15 different two-hour TV shows to be televised by ESPN, the structure that seats 1,500 people and has been on a fast-pace construction schedule for the better part of the last year.

A temporary power outage in November 2023 caused the air-sealed dome to deflate and led to a one-year postponement of the league’s launch. There was serious concern about whether TGL would ever launch at all.

The roof of the TGL’s SoFi Center has collapsed overnight leading to significant disruption to the construction of the arena.

A source says no-one was hurt, but the start of the TGL is likely to be delayed.

Thanks to @luckiestgolfer for the pic. pic.twitter.com/p1120I6OSy
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) November 15, 2023

While plenty of questions remain about TGL’s long-term viability, the fact that organizers came back with a bigger and better facility to showcase a group of PGA Tour players who will hit shots into a massive screen speaks to their commitment.

“Obviously, there’s been a few ups and downs with the TGL journey to get to this point,” McIlroy said during a conference call. “But I’m on the record saying that it has been a blessing in disguise.”

The extra time gave the league the opportunity to make enhancements to the arena, which has a huge screen that is 64 feet high and 53 feet wide. Players will hit shots to it from approximately 35 yards away from real Bermuda grass fairways and rough with the same sand that Augusta National uses in its bunkers.

The 250,000-square-foot facility’s total field of play is 97 yards long and 50 yards wide.

Artificial turf makes up the area for shots played from 40 yards in and on the greens, which can change contour and height and be played to seven different pin positions thanks to a hydraulic system underneath.

“It was certainly a ‘wow’ feeling, walking in there, and just even I think how big the arena is,” McIlroy said. “And I think one of my first thoughts walking in was, like, wow, the delay was like a blessing in disguise because it wouldn’t have looked the way it had if it hadn’t been for that.

“So I think it was a bit of a silver lining that that happened. It gave everyone more time to dial things in, make the arena a little bit better. So I think everyone that went into the SoFi Center has been overwhelmed by just how cool the place is.”

The delay also gave TGL extra time to shore up its list of investors and sponsors, which are key aspects to its viability.

Rory McIlroy at TGL — After a year delay, McIlroy believes TGL is even better prepared for its launch. | TGL

Whether or not there is a big enough audience for this type of product and one that will keep coming back is perhaps the biggest unknown. The technology and wizardry will surely be intriguing to both golf and non-fans alike.

A group of 24 players—all of whom having been given equity in the league—have signed on with a prize fund of $21 million to be paid out at the end of the season, with $9 million going to the winning team.

Given the focus on money in the game over the past several years—and how that is being viewed more as a negative—TGL has downplayed this aspect and the prize money is actually modest in today’s golf world.

TGL—which has been called Tech Golf League or Tiger Golf League—stands for Tomorrow Golf League, part of a bigger company called TMRW (tomorrow) Sports founded by former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley.

“The idea really started to jell in my mind around 2016 with the help of the Rio Olympics and the world I came from and seeing golf in it,” says McCarley, who had various other sports roles at NBC, during an interview. “Seeing what happens when teams of athletes get together. The guys felt they were part of something bigger. It was sort of an eye-opening moment for me.

“When golf was in prime time, the U.S. Open on the West Coast, I always appreciated what they did for the size of the audience and the makeup of the audience. Then you have all the different aspects of team golf, the conversations guys would have, the ability to take those things and put them together into one.”

McCarley said the ideas behind the technology needed to put this concept in place started to come together around 2018-19. And then it was another year before he approached Woods with his idea.

After getting Woods’s buy-in, McCarley went to McIlroy, who soon also embraced the concept. In early 2021, McCarley had his first two investors in TMRW Sports, which wasn’t unveiled publicly until August 2022 at the Tour Championship. (Both Woods’s and McIlroy’s respective companies are technically the investors.)

That, perhaps coincidentally, is when the PGA Tour also announced sweeping changes to its structure that included what is now $20 million signature events and substantially increased prize money to the stars. LIV Golf had launched, and the game was—and still is—in a disruptive stage. And yet TMWR Sports and specifically TGL kept on.

“Within a few weeks, we all agreed on fundamentally what this could be,” McCarley said. “We said would take this to the Tour (which has a small ownership stake) and be complimentary to player schedules. We wanted it to be additive to the calendar and complimentary to the players and their schedules and their sponsors.

“The concept of doing it on a Monday-Tuesday in prime time was always at the very beginning of this one of the more crucial pieces to making it work. Not just complimentary to the players’ schedules but also a time on the sports calendar. And from an investment standpoint, it’s the very first question.”

Rickie Fowler, TGL — Rickie Fowler takes a swing in the studio at a recent TGL media day. | TGL

Selling Simulator Golf

Among the many facets to putting the league together was getting teams organized with ownership groups. McCarley acknowledged that the fees paid by teams were the starting point to getting the operation off the ground.

There are six teams with four players who will each compete five times over the league’s 15-week schedule, with three of the four to compete during a particular competition. Each match is 15 holes and has two parts, one with a "triples" format that is alternate shot and then one-on-one matches.

Teams earn a point for each hole and there are no carryovers. A closest-to-the-pin competition breaks ties after 15 holes.

The schedule calls for each team to play the other five times once, with a playoff with the top four teams March 17-18 and a best two-of-three final March 24-25.

Each of the teams has an impressive ownership lineup. For example, Boston Common—the team that McIlroy is on—is backed by Fenway Sports Group as well as John Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon. Fenway Sports, which is part of the Boston Red Sox ownership group, is also an investor in Strategic Sports Group, which in early 2024 invested $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises.

New York Golf Club is owned by Steve Cohen—the owner of the New York Mets who just inked outfielder Juan Soto to a $720 million deal—and Cohen Private Ventures.

Serena and Venus Williams are among the owners of the Los Angeles Golf Club.

Woods is a part owner of his own team along with David Blitzer, who among other things, has ownership stakes in the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.

Arthur Blank, who owns the Atlanta Falcons, is one of the owners of the Atlanta team.

And NBA star Steph Curry is one of the owners of the Bay Sports Club, which also has Mark Lasry’s Avenue Sports fund as an owner.

Although TGL has not disclosed sale prices to the teams, they are believed to be well in excess of eight figures. Lasry was interviewed by CNBC shortly after the purchase of the Bay Sports Club in November 2023 and said it “was more than $25 million and less than $100 million.”

He said the attraction to TGL was “simple: what we’re trying to do is make golf available for people to watch over two hours, do it in primetime, do its where it’s virtual ... (and) you’re not watching people walk” the golf course to hit shots.

“One of the problems people have with golf, unless you’re a huge golf fan, is it takes too long, so what we’re trying to have a league where everything’s going to happen within two hours and that’s what’s hopefully going to appeal to people.”

McCarley said the teams were sold for different amounts and the fees went up as less teams were available.

Given Lasry’s disclosure, it’s conceivable that TGL fetched in excess of $100 million in club fees, which is a pretty good starting point. There are future hopes of expansion and even an alternative venue on the West Coast to better facilitate player schedules early in the year.

Figuring out a way to pay for all the technology as well as the building and prize money was clearly an important factor in initial success.

In addition to selling the teams, TGL pointed to its various sponsors, including SoFi, which is the leagues presenting sponsor and the name on the building; founding sponsors Genesis, Businessolver and Best Buy; official partners such as CapTech, Full Swing, ONE Flight, Samsung, SynLawn and TopTracer.

Perhaps as important as all of that, TGL landed a broadcaster partner in ESPN, which is paying a multi-year rights fee to televise all of the matches domestically. SkySports was announced last week as the league's broadcaster in the United Kingdom and other European countries, with McCarley saying Tuesday night’s broadcast will be shown in 100 countries.

Although the arena seats just 1,500 spectators, tickets (approximately $160 each) and hospitality packages are being sold.

TGL Simulator — The stage is set for TGL's debut Tuesday night. | TGL

Will People Tune in for Simulator Golf?

None of that, however, guarantees an audience, and that is where much of the mystery lies. Will people tune into indoor golf on Monday and Tuesday nights? Will ESPN’s marketing power be a big influence? Are the technology and the various shot-tracing capabilities enough to bring them back week after week? Will players such as Woods, McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa and Billy Horschel move the needle often enough? (Woods and McIlroy are not playing in Tuesday's debut match, which is New York Bay Club vs. the Bay Golf Club.)

“I was blown away when I first came in here,” said 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who is playing for the Bay Golf Club, during a media opportunity last month. “This was about three weeks ago, and just saw this facility, I was blown away.

“It feels like if I could equate it to golf, it feels like 16 at Waste Management (Phoenix Open), just in a smaller setting, more intimate, and indoors. Then equate it to other sports, I feel like you're courtside at an NBA game. It's really cool. That part is probably the coolest thing to me.

“Then the technology. It's unbelievable that you can hit a shot, it responds perfectly, you turn around, they point exactly to where you are on the green, the green rotates. All that stuff, it's just amazing where we are with technology.”

Golf geeks and casual observers might very well be intrigued by the arena and how it all works.

There is a “screen zone” and a “green zone.” The screen is huge to scale and more than 20 times larger than a regular simulator. There are 30 virtual holes, with 18 Full Swing radar devices and eight Top Tracer optical cameras to capture each shot.

"Bonnie Link" is faux-Scottish links course created for TGL. This hole is a 650-yard par-5. | TGL

At the other end of the arena is the green zone for shots that are from 40 yards and in along with the greens which have numerous dimensions and possibilities due to the hydraulics beneath the complex.

“The rotating green blew me away," Woods said. "I've never seen a rotating green, so that's a new experience, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun for not just us but also the fan experience.”

Almost important for fan experience? Interaction. Golf is infamously devoid of much chatter, even in the made-for-TV matches. With every player wearing a microphone and the ability to discuss various shots, especially with date available to spectators and viewers on the screen.

“If it's a country club in here, we have failed,’’ Horschel said. “Let me just tell you that. I want this to be like it would be in a Mercedes-Benz Stadium. I want it to be exciting. I want the fans to be involved. I want them to be pulling for one team or another. We're going to have music, I want it to be what you would experience in Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the Atlanta Falcons, the Florida Gators stadium, an NBA arena, an NHL arena.

“This is supposed to be different. It's supposed to be new, it's supposed to be fast, engaging, in a two-hour window when you're going to be able to see every golf shot. You're going to be able to see guys more engaging than they would be out on a PGA Tour event.”

The fast-paced nature, a shot clock, timeouts ... all those are intriguing aspects to TGL. So is Woods’s participation. His Jupiter Links team is scheduled to play twice (Jan 14 and Jan. 27) before he would make what is his first likely PGA Tour start in the Genesis Invitational in February.

But there are 10 other shows when Woods would not be playing and the league needs more than the game’s still-biggest star to pull in viewers.

TGL’s ability to do so—and which aspects click—will be among the biggest questions to answer as the first season unfolds.