Asher Gibbons
Sports Editor
The leisure sport of America has a new way to entertain, with legends like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy pioneering the charge. A new golf league called Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL), has seemingly appeared out of nowhere, attracting millions of viewers on its debut match.
While traditional golf is entertaining to a niche audience, this new league promises to attract new eyes with its extremely unique ruleset and setting. The TGL is the first of its kind; an indoor golf league decked out with a tech-infused green, an extremely large simulator screen, and a roster containing well known PGA Tour names.
This all takes place just a few hours away, in Palm Beach, Florida at the newly built SoFi center. The venue is split into two segments; the simulator screen, used for long distance play, and the green, used for putting. One of the most intriguing additions to this eccentric league is a tech-infused green, known as the “GreenZone.”
According to the official TGL website, “the GreenZone is designed into every virtual hole, but the configuration is different for every hole–both in terms of the undulation of the green (which can change from hole-to-hole thanks to motorized actuators positioned underneath) and the position of the turntable. On top of that, the green has seven different pin positions per hole, offering numerous possibilities.”
Scoring is kept simple, with each hole valued at one point. Each match contains 15 holes, nine played as a team of three and six played as singles. The newly formatted league includes a shot clock, time-outs, a referee, fully mic’d up players, and … a hammer.
The hammer is a tool to put some pressure on the opponents and would be utilized to create more opportunities to take the lead in a match. It would be played in a situation where the team who uses it believes they have an advantage in the hole being played, giving the opposing team the decision to double the points for the current hole or concede the hole completely to cut their losses.
Its kickoff show on Jan. 7 displayed an electric atmosphere from the very start, with 1,500 cheering fans and Led lights for when a team sinks a putt. The next match up will be on Monday, Jan. 27 where Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links will face Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf on ESPN at 6:30p.m.
