A new high-tech take on an aging sport
Golf is about to get a lot more exciting. The introduction of the new TGL Golf League promises realistic golf play at a much faster pace—and with a few new wrinkles thrown in.
Officially named TGL presented by SoFi (gotta get that sponsorship in there), this new tech-infused team golf league was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW (pronounced “tomorrow”) Sports. Its inaugural season will premiere on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, on ESPN and ESPN+ – and we can’t wait!
TGL golf history
TGL was announced by Tiger Woods in 2022. It was initially scheduled to begin in 2024, but its start was pushed back by one year as designers worked out the kinks and production rights were finalized. Construction on the TGL venue, SoFi Center, began on the Palm Beach State College campus in Florida on February 20, 2023. On October 5, 2023, ESPN announced it had secured media rights for the league in a multi-year deal with all matches airing on ESPN and ESPN+.
The TGL tournament season
TGL will feature six teams of top PGA Tour players. The TGL schedule includes 15 regular season matches leading into a four-team semifinals round before culminating with the top two teams competing for the SoFi Cup in a best-of-three finals series scheduled for March 24 and March 25.
Mike McCauley, CEO and Founder of TMRW Sports said:
“TGL presented by SoFi will combine teams of world-class PGA TOUR stars with the energy fans have become familiar with in other team sports – a live, courtside experience for golf on an unprecedented scale. The six TGL teams will go head-to-head in a season of matches from January through March, bringing team golf to prime time for the first time on a consistent basis. In partnership with ESPN, our season will complement the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Season with a fast-paced team competition that aims to captivate a wide range of sports fans with elements, like a shot clock, that are familiar to fans of other sports. TGL’s two-hour matches are perfect for prime time and will help bring more fans closer to some of the biggest names in golf.”
TGL’s SoFi Center is a modern sports marvel
Teams will compete inside the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This 250,000 square-foot venue is nothing short of astonishing. The custom-built arena will have more than one thousand fans wrapped tightly around TGL’s field of play to create a “greenside” fan experience that they say will be similar to fans sitting courtside at an NBA game (or behind the glass at an NHL game). The play area, about the size of a football field, is divided into two distinct sections: a screen zone and a green zone.
Playing a hole in TGL requires the same shots as a physical golf game. Teams hit from either of two boxes featuring real grass, sand, or rough into a 3,400-square-foot screen that is 24 times larger than a standard golf simulator screen(64 feet wide and over five stories tall). In “screenplay,” the “front box” is used for shorter virtual shots, while the “back box” is used for longer shots.
Once the player has teed off from the grass section of the box, the surface they shoot from depends on where their first shot landed. If they teed off into the rough, they continue their game and hit from the rough surface, or the sand surface if they teed off into a bunker.
Once teams are within 50 yards of the hole, they will transition to “live action” and finish each hole in a 22,475 square foot game complex (the size of four basketball courts) that “transforms” between holes. The putting green in the greenzone will utilize advanced technology to modify the shape of the green on every hole, including a 41-yard wide turntable that rotates the green and three bunkers that alter approach angles. Nearly 600 motorized actuators embedded beneath the synthetic green surface will morph the surface to give each green a unique topography.
The course features 30 custom-designed holes inspired by authentic golf landscapes, including canyons, coastlines, deserts, and even tropical settings.
Each shot will be broadcast live, with each team required to shoot against a 40-second shot clock. All players are hot-mic’d, and computers, along with robotic cameras, will monitor sensors to provide realtime shot data.
The TGL golf teams for 2025
Each TGL team is comprised of four PGA Tour playres with three players competing in each match. The teams for 2025 include:
Atlanta Drive GC
Team: Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, and Lucas Glover
Owners: Arthur M. Blank, AMB Sports and Entertainment (Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United, PGA TOUR Superstores)
Boston Common Golf
Team: Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, and Hideki Matsuyama
Ownership: John Henry, Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, and Fenway Sports Group (Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Pittsburgh Penguins, RFK Racing)
Limited Partner: Niall Horan
Jupiter Links Golf Club
Team: Tiger Woods, Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner
Ownership: Tiger Woods’ TGR Ventures and David Blitzer (Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, Cleveland Guardians, Washington Commanders, Crystal Palace FC, Real Salt Lake)
Los Angeles Golf Club
Team: Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, and Justin Rose
Ownership: Founding investor and owner Alexis Ohanian, Seven Seven Six, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams
Limited Partners: The Antetokounmpo brothers, Alex Morgan, Servando Carrasco, Michelle Wie West, Tisha Alyn, Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, and Shonda Rhimes
New York Golf Club
Team: Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Young
Ownership: Steven A. Cohen (New York Mets) and Cohen Private Ventures
The Bay Golf Club
Team: Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, and Shane Lowry
Ownership: a group led by Avenue Sports Fund with Marc Lasry (former Milwaukee Bucks), Stephen Curry
Limited Partners: Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, Alex Albon, Leonardo Fioravanti, Kanoa Igarashi, and John Stones
TGL Golf schedule
Here is the TGL schedule for 2025:
Match 1 – New York Golf Club vs. The Bay Golf Club – Tuesday, Jan 7, 9 p.m., ESPN:
• With the PGA TOUR fresh off The Sentry, its first Signature Event of 2025, TGL’s first-ever match is Tuesday, Jan. 7, in prime time on ESPN and ESPN+.
• Coming off a career season that included two major championship victories, Xander Schauffele leads New York Golf Club (Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Schauffele, and Cameron Young) to face The Bay Golf Club (Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, and Shane Lowry) as the two youngest teams in TGL square off.
Match 2 – Los Angeles Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links Golf Club – Tuesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m., ESPN:
• The second match of the season will pit Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club (Woods, Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner) against Los Angeles Golf Club (Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, and Justin Rose).
• This match is the night following ESPN’s Monday Night Football NFL Wild Card game, traditionally ESPN’s most-watched event every year.
Match 3 – New York Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC – Tuesday, Jan. 21, 7 p.m., ESPN:
• Atlanta Drive GC’s (Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, and Lucas Glover) first match will be against New York Golf Club on the night following the highly rated College Football National Championship Game on ESPN, a game that will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, owned by Atlanta Drive GC owner, Arthur Blank.
Match 4 – Jupiter Links Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf – Monday, Jan. 27, 6:30 p.m., ESPN:
• Boston Common Golf (McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, and Hideki Matsuyama) makes its debut against Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club in a matchup of two of golf’s biggest superstars.
Match 5 – Boston Common Golf vs. Los Angeles Golf Club – Tuesday, Feb. 4, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN:
• The two teams with the best current average Official World Golf Ranking square off. Boston Common Golf’s roster features the best average World Ranking at 11, while Los Angeles Golf Club follows at 16.
• Both cities have a rich history of championships in sports, with Boston winning 39 titles combined in professional football, baseball, hockey, and basketball, compared to Los Angeles’ 24 titles.
Matches 6-8 – Presidents’ Day Tripleheader – Monday, Feb. 17, 1 p.m. (ESPN), 4 p.m. (ESPN), 7 p.m. (ESPN2):
• As the PGA TOUR wraps its West Coast Swing with The Genesis Invitational, TGL will host a tripleheader on Presidents’ Day, starting with Atlanta Drive GC vs. Los Angeles Golf Club; Atlanta Drive GC vs. The Bay Golf Club; and The Bay Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf.
• While the 1 p.m. ET start of the tripleheader allows for afternoon viewing on the East Coast of the United States, the early start also allows for evening and prime time in other markets around the globe.
Match 9 – Jupiter Links Golf Club vs. New York Golf Club – Tuesday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m. (ESPN):
• Following the Presidents’ Day tripleheader, a fourth match will be played Tuesday night on ESPN.
Matches 10-12 – Monday, Feb. 24, 5 p.m. (ESPN2), 9 p.m. (ESPN2) and Tuesday, Feb. 25, 9 p.m. (ESPN):
• Three matches will be played over two days with all six teams in action starting with Los Angeles Golf Club vs. New York Golf Club and then Boston Common Golf vs. Atlanta Drive GC on Monday. Tuesday’s match features The Bay Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links Golf Club. The matches precede the PGA TOUR’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches just down the road from SoFi Center.
• The two days include interesting international team competition storylines with past Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teammates and memorable opponents set to face each other over the course of the three matches.
Matches 13-15 – Monday, March 3, 3 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2), and Tuesday, March 4, 7 p.m., (ESPN):
• The final week of the regular season includes a tripleheader of regions with traditional sports rivalries, including The Bay Golf Club (Northern California) vs. Los Angeles Golf Club (Southern California) in the first match and New York Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf in the second match. The final match of the regular season is Jupiter Links Golf Club (Florida) vs. Atlanta Drive GC (Georgia) on Tuesday.
• As the final matches of the regular season, playoff berths and seeding will be on the line.
Semifinals – Monday, March 17, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2) & Tuesday, March 18, 7 p.m. (ESPN):
• The top four teams in the SoFi Cup Standings will advance to the playoffs. The matches follow the TOUR’s flagship event, THE PLAYERS Championship.
• The tiebreaker for seeding will be total holes won by each team during the regular season, making all 15 holes of each match important to each team’s pursuit of the playoffs.
Finals Series – Monday, March 24 (ESPN2) & Tuesday, March 25 (ESPN):
• TGL’s final two teams will square off for the SoFi Cup in a best-of-three Finals Series across two nights in prime time on ESPN.
