PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Ludwig Oberg will answer a trivia question: He made the first birdie in TGL history.
And just like that, the indoor golf tournament Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had envisioned for years finally began.
TGL held its first event on Tuesday night, with New York Golf Club’s Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele in the opener Taking on Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Aberg of The Bay Golf Club. The 15-hole tournament took less than two hours and was exactly what TGL envisioned. Final score: Bay 9, New York 2.
Lowry hit his first shot at 9:15 p.m. Yes, it moves that fast.
“It’s just a dream,” Woods said on ESPN Radio. “Rory and I were talking about it; it’s hard to believe that this dream has become a reality and that we can really take golf into another stratosphere.”
As expected, Woods and McIlroy — part of the brain trust that formed the venture — were there. DJ Khaled was there too, hanging around as the players warmed up, showing off his swing with an imaginary club.
The competition venue is located at Palm Beach State College and covers an area of 250,000 square feet. Players hit shots on a video screen, some on real grass and some on turf, and the bunkers aren’t just real sand — they’re sand from Augusta National Golf Club, the same sand Woods used in his The same sand used in home practice facilities. It’s super high-tech and collects data with every shot. Players wear microphones, there are betting options, fans surround the “field,” and the music is deafening and the noise is welcome in an intimate arena.
Once teams move within 50 yards of the pin, they head to a short game area — the green sits on a 41-yard-wide turntable with about 600 pieces of equipment underneath to change the contours.
The players love it too. Lori’s line after line. To give a few examples:
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“I’m going to be the Scotty Scheffler of indoor golf.”
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“Kind of like myself. A little chunky,” he said after a shot came just short.
It ends with a 729 yard par 5 – an attainable 729 yard par 5, if that makes sense. After the game, there were a lot of handshakes and cheers, and Lowry waved to the fans and the night was over.
Woods likes when, say, Clark makes a putt on one of the holes that some fans aren’t exactly silent.
“You don’t usually hear that at events,” Woods said. “You’re going to hear this here.”
Woods is expected to make his debut for his Jupiter Links club on Jan. 14. The regular season will last until March 4.
Each team sends three players to play a match, and the 15-hole match will be completed in about two hours. Everything will be broadcast on the ESPN platform, usually in prime time. The league has been in the works for several years; it was originally scheduled to launch last year, but a storm slowed construction and organizers delayed the debut until 2025.
“Yeah, it’s not traditional golf,” Woods said. “But that’s golf. That’s the most important thing.”
