TGL, a golf league featuring PGA Tour stars, debuts on Tuesday night
TGL tees up for its first match on Tuesday night, but fans of Justin Thomas will need to wait two weeks before the former Alabama All-American makes his debut in Tomorrow’s Golf League.
The new golf venture from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy features six teams of four PGA Tour golfers competing in a league format at a high-tech venue with seating for 1,500 spectators in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Golfers will hit shots off tee boxes with real grass, fairway, rough and sand into a 64-by-53-foot simulator screen until they’re within 50 yards of the cup on 15 named holes, including the Spear, Riptide and Serpent.
After that, the virtual golf switches to shots played at the GreenZone, an adaptable green featuring 600 underground devices to change the slope of the putting surface from hole to hole.
Thomas plays for Atlanta Drive Golf Club. The Drive will play its first match at 6 p.m. CST Jan. 21 against New York Golf Club.
The league debuts with New York playing Bay Golf Club at 8 p.m. Tuesday. ESPN will televise the TGL matches.
The other teams are Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club and Los Angeles Golf Club. The regular season will continue through March 4, with each team playing five two-hour matches.
Each match will feature three players from each team. They’ll compete in an alternate-shot format for nine holes, then switch to singles competition for the final six, with each golfer playing two holes.
Each hole is worth one point, unless a team uses the hammer, which puts the value at two points and also passes control of the hammer to the other team.
The TGL team rosters include:
Atlanta Drive Golf Club: Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover, Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas
Bay Golf Club: Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry
Boston Common Golf: Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott
Jupiter Links Golf Club: Max Homa, Tom Kim, Kevin Kisner, Tiger Woods
Los Angeles Golf Club: Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Sahith Theegala
New York Golf Club: Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.