This brilliant rules twist stole the show in TGL’s first game

Phew.

That’s something, right?

No matter how you felt about Tuesday night’s TGL opener at the gorgeous SoFi Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, you probably…idea.

Maybe you rolled your eyes at the voluminous WWE-level pregame intro (“Make some noise for the Matt Fitz-PAAAA-trick!!!”), followed by the dad-bodied golfer modestly entering the arena in crisp white pants. , polo shirt.

Or maybe you’re in awe of the tens of millions of dollars worth of TGL technology, finally seeing some of its competitive representatives: a six-story-tall simulator screen; a marvelous rotating green with nearly 600 hydraulic jacks beneath its surface; A giant touch-screen yardage “book” that teammates can use to plan their shooting strategies and club selections.

Maybe you cringe at the Rambo’s fast downhill putts, which seem more suited to mini-golf than the professional variety. Or maybe you dig a variety of shocking hole designs – snakes! Oh Chute! Choose your loot! — It’s a far cry from anything you’ll find at TPC Craig Ranch.

Maybe you could do it without DJ Khaled’s endless guest appearances. Or maybe you appreciate ESPN’s riffs on team owners, looking down on their subjects like wealthy Romans gazing at gladiators in the Colosseum.

Maybe you’re convinced that TGL is all that’s wrong with professional golf in 2024.

But let’s put all that aside for a moment and celebrate something that seems every Players, ticket holders, spectators, journalists, tweeters, dogs, cats and goldfish all gathered in the back: TGL’s games are extremely fast-paced. Keeping the tournament flowing is not only crucial to keeping viewers engaged, but also compressing 15 holes of competition into a two-hour broadcast window, which TGL accomplishes by not only encouraging fast play; One mission. force it.

If you were watching the broadcast, you no doubt noticed this rule: Players can’t hit the ball for longer than 40 seconds, a number derived from the USGA’s pace-of-play recommendations for traditional golf but often ignored in golf competitions. ’s senior management, largely because slow racing is not strictly regulated.

However, at TGL, “Move on or else” is a commandment carved in stone. The specifics are in the official rules, which state “Each player will have 40 seconds to hit the ball or their team will be subject to a shot clock violation and a one-shot penalty.”

Enforcing the clock rules is TGL’s resident referee, and a man who knows a thing or two about shot clocks: former NBA referee Derrick Stafford. He’s got some help, too, in the form of two unmissable digital timers on either side of the SIM screen. If the player needs other When the clock reaches the 15-second mark, they receive a heartbeat that sounds throughout the arena, reminding them that time is shortening.

Cliche? Heck, no. marvelous. As one player steps off the tee, the next player is already holding his club, quickly walking to the tee and calculating his yardage. It’s golf meets F1, and golf fans on social media appreciated it. Playing indoors (no wind!) and from perfect lies certainly makes club selection easier and faster, but in some places you can still feel players wishing they had spent more time evaluating them shots, especially on the greens. Professional golfers like to be in control everything. They move at their own pace and only pull the trigger when they are fully committed. Regardless, the shot clock can and will disrupt that sequence for some players.

If you believe the opening night TGL players, though, none of them fit that description. Players representing Bay Area GC were Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Åberg, who defeated their opponents Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick of New York GC 9-2. When asked about the shot clock after the game, every player praised it, with Fitzpatrick even saying, “I wish that was [in] Real golf.

Lowry acknowledged that the clock did take some getting used to during Monday’s practice — “Can’t believe it all happened so fast,” he said — but added that other teams were more comfortable than his. It is possible to struggle with time pressure.

“Our team won’t have any trouble,” he said. “We’re the three fastest guys on the field.”

In fact, neither team looked stressed Tuesday because of the 40-second limit. Instead, they seemed to embrace the rhythm, perhaps even be liberated by it.

Toward the end of the postgame press conference, New York was asked if there were TGL rules that would apply to traditional golf.

It took Fitzpatrick and Fowler about half a second to say the same two words in harmony: “Shoot the clock.”

But Fitzpatrick isn’t done yet.

He leaned into the microphone and said, “No problem.”