Indoor golf to most is unfathomable, but Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have officially brought that idea to life.
For over 100 years, golf tournaments have occurred in the same setting: outdoors, on a large piece of land cut out and shaped by a designer. There is nothing more natural than watching pros fire golf balls all over a course.
So, why change now? Golf simulators have been used more recently as a training aid and as entertainment in someone’s home. Pros could not compete on those kinds of simulators, so Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) had to go bigger.
The Early Stages
Roughly two years ago, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, and the PGA Tour reached out to TMRW Sports with an idea for a new league. The two professionals saw an opportunity to integrate constantly evolving technology into golf. Some were skeptical of the idea, but the hope was that it may bring in an entirely new fanbase for golf.
Besides the 53′ x 64′ screen that the players swing at, TGL has many other features that separate it from real golf. In the 2.5-month season, six teams of four players will face off with one of the four players sitting. During the 15-hole matches, the first nine holes are played as alternate-shot, and the last six are played as alternating one-on-ones.
These formats give each participating player a chance to hit as many golf shots as possible. Once the players’ ball reach 50 yards from the green, they hit towards a 43-foot green complex that rotates 360 degrees. The green is rotated so that it is facing the ball related to the angle to the green after the shot on the screen.
TGL has also implemented rules that the game of golf has never been exposed to, like the shot clock. The shot clock in TGL is 40 seconds long, and when there are 15 seconds left, a heartbeat sound plays throughout the stadium. Every hole a team wins is worth a point unless the team captain decides to throw the ‘hammer’. The hammer is thrown when a team thinks they have an advantage on a hole, and the hole is worth two points if they win.
If the hammer is thrown before the start of a hole, the other team must accept the challenge. Alongside those, some many more rules and formats make this league exciting to watch.
Settling In
Match one between New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club was headlined by captains Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Aberg. Ludvig Aberg demonstrated his robotic golf skills with some phenomenal golf shots and long putts. New York had no answer for The Bay, they left Sofi Center unhappy after a 9-2 loss on opening night.
Match two received the most attention out of all, due to the anticipated debut of Jupiter Links’ captain Tiger Woods. Tiger’s squad would face off with Colin Morikawa and Los Angeles Golf Club. When Jupiter made mistakes, Los Angeles took advantage, especially with Justin Rose’s clutch putting performance. Los Angeles moved to 1-0 with a dominating 12-1 victory in the SoFi Center.
Match three was the debut of Justin Thomas’ Atlanta Drive Golf Club, as they faced off against New York. Some good golf was on display for the crowd, but the longer putts got the best of New York as Atlanta took advantage. Justin Thomas and Atlanta put one in the win column, securing a 4-0 win.
Match four featured the teams of the two creators of this league, Tiger Woods for Jupiter and Rory McIlroy for Boston Common Golf Club. With Tom Kim entering the rotation for Jupiter, the crowd was much more engaged and excited while watching. The match was tight to the finish, but Jupiter won 4-3 after the first closest-to-the-pin overtime in TGL history.
Match five was between Boston’s Rory McIlroy and the powerhouse Los Angeles Golf Club. Los Angeles exploded out of the gate, securing the first three holes without the hammer. Chipping got the best of Boston and they lost their chance to come back, giving Los Angeles the victory, 6-2.
Crunching Numbers
TGL’s debut was a big night for SoFi and the PGA Tour, as people were curious about viewership. While it could’ve been a disaster, TGL drew over 900,000 viewers, a success for a new concept. Wyndham Clark from The Bay Golf Club expressed his thoughts on opening night: “It’s the most fun we’ve had playing golf.” The players described the rules as fun and innovative, especially giving props to the shot clock.
The biggest viewership number came from match two, Tiger’s debut on the big screen. Over one million viewers tuned in to watch Jupiter Golf Links take on Los Angeles Golf Club. Tiger soaked it all in before heading to the tee for the opening shot, he even dropped the hammer.
Unfortunately for TGL, they lose a ton of viewers when the matches are not competitive like this match.
The effect of having back-to-back uncompetitive matches finally caught up to TGL. The third match, between New York and Atlanta, pulled less than 700,000 viewers across all platforms. A drop off of over 30% drew concern from the TGL faithful as to whether this idea would pan out.
The tickets to watch TGL in person at the SoFi center are north of $100, but the in-person experience at TGL is like no other. Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods’ matchup drew roughly 830,000 viewers and kept the viewers entertained. Since then, the viewership numbers for TGL have coasted right around 800,000, a good number to maintain going forward.
TGL vs. PGA
While they are partnered, TGL wants to be competitive with the PGA Tour and stay alive in this current sports market. At first, TGL was crushing the PGA Tour in numbers, however, TGL is a one-night ordeal rather than four days. Tiger Woods is another massive factor when it comes to viewership because of how big of a draw he is. It is proven that PGA Tour events featuring Tiger have a significantly higher viewership number.
The PGA Tour’s viewership numbers certainly raised some questions regarding the leadership within the Tour. Recently, the PGA Tour put those to rest, receiving 3 million viewers on Sunday for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
TGL can double, sometimes triple the PGA Tour’s viewers for a Thursday or Friday at a non-major Tournament. What TGL doesn’t have is that fierce competitiveness in their competition like how it is on a Sunday for a PGA Tour event, especially a major.
