BY CRAIG DOLCH
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA | One of the biggest concerns golf purists have with TGL is it’s not real golf. The tech-infused indoor league is not the same type of competition we’ve watched on TV every weekend for most of our lives. Not even close.
That’s the point, say the players involved.
“This is supposed to be different than what people are seeing on the golf course,” Billy Horschel said at last month’s media day at SoFi Center. “It’s supposed to be new, it’s supposed to be fast, engaging, in a two-hour window when you’re going to be able to see every golf shot. You’re going to be able to see guys more engaging than they would be out on a PGA Tour event.”
It’s certainly different.
Instead of individual competition, six four-person teams – only three will play each match – will face off for nine holes, followed by singles competition for six holes, all on a giant simulator. It will be 15 holes instead of 18, with a 40-second shot clock to help fit the action into the two-hour time limit.
“It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before in golf,” said Rory McIlroy, who co-founded the league with Tiger Woods and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley
Fan noise is encouraged, not frowned upon. Take as many pictures as you want. Don’t speak in hushed tones because you won’t be heard over the music pumping through the 1,500-seat arena. It’s as if, dare we say, TGL borrowed some ideas from LIV Golf.
The matches will be played on Monday and Tuesday nights (televised by ESPN) for the next 2½ months at the teched-out SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College. Because it’s indoors, there are no concerns about weather or daylight (it poured during media day). And there’s no need for volunteers walking around with “Quiet, please” signs.
“If it’s (like) a country club in here, we have failed,” Horschel said. “I want it to be what you would experience in Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the Atlanta Falcons, the Florida Gators stadium, an NBA arena, an NHL arena. We’re going to have music. You want it to be where you can feel that energy, you can feel the excitement from the crowd.
“We have to be entertainers. We have to take ourselves away a little bit from what we are at PGA Tour events inside the ropes, and we have to be different. We have to show more of ourselves in here than we would out on the PGA Tour.”
But this will not be a hit-and-giggle event like the Skins Game or other offseason events. When the rosters include multiple-major champions such as Woods, McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, the competitive juices will be overflowing.
The winning team earns $9 million, after all.
“If we’re able through audio to provide entertainment, but we play like crap, that’s not going to be any good,” said Rickie Fowler, a member of the New York Golf Club who plays in the opening match Tuesday night against the Bay Golf Club. “We need to play up to a certain standard at the same time. Having some good golf being shown, but us also having fun.”
Fun is not a word usually associated with professional golf, which explains why many of the game’s top players go into a cocoon during their rounds. We strain to hear a few words when they chat with their caddie about an upcoming shot, always leaving the fan wanting more of the behind-the-scenes moments.
“A challenge with golf is people are farther away and sometimes the fans (in other sports) are intimate, but this is really intimate,” said Wyndham Clark of the Bay Golf Club. “People are going to see our personalities. We’re going to be mic’d up. Some things could come out that maybe we don’t want to say. But that’s how other sports are.”
Golf is such a traditional sport, the ardent fan usually resists any tinkering. Not so for the 24 players who have embraced this concept as professional golf continues to reimagine itself during the last two years.
“I think anything new in golf is always exciting,” Clark said. “This could be the future of golf. This could be one of the coolest things on Monday nights after football, and that’s the hope. I just wanted to be a part of it.”
Horschel believes TGL will help grow the sport as well as the players’ bank accounts. Golf participation has been helped by non-traditional businesses such as Topgolf, PopStroke, Drive Shack and even hitting off simulators in sports bars. TGL can continue that push for more golfers.
“I love the game of golf,” Horschel said. “I think it’s the greatest sport in the world, and my entire thing about golf is I want to get more people engaged. I want to get more people playing the game of golf because it can open up so many doors. It can do so many things for your life. This is another way to bring golf to people that have never played golf, that haven’t really watched golf.”