PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – TGL, the technology-enabled indoor golf league brought to you by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, has finally teed off. And the verdict: Good start!
Bay GC took the first match of TGL’s inaugural season over New York GC, with Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark playing like they were in a major. Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler played like they were playing in a simulator.
But let’s be honest: the result of the game was a secondary concern. The real question of the night is: Is TGL worth watching? The answer: Yes, with a touch of “it depends.”
Look, if you’re predisposed to hate simulator golf or believe that the only “real” golf is played outdoors with nature as your only soundtrack… well, TGL hasn’t done, and never will, do much to change your mind. . It’s loud, it’s fast, it has fans. booing bad shots…this is not Augusta National, folks.
However, for what it is (a fast-paced, high-tech golf exhibition), the first night of TGL was a significant success. The evening went by quickly, the crowd’s energy was palpable, the players seemed engaged, and the tech show was virtually flawless.
Will TGL attract new golf fans? Will it convert the old? That remains to be determined, but TGL has taken a solid first step.
In the hours before the game, spot lights traced the sky above SoFi Center on an unusually cold South Florida night. Inside, soft jazz and club music filtered from the massive overhead speaker system as a well-dressed crowd, in jackets and short zippers, filed in.
Customers, or fans, whatever, filed past craft cocktail stands, a floor-model Genesis SUV, a putting green and a fan store with merchandise from all six teams. (T-shirts: $44.99 and up). They found their seats just before 9 pm ET…just in time to sit a few more minutes as the Duke-Pitt game wrapped up on ESPN.
“This is not a golf course, nor a country club!” bellowed emcee Roger Steele. “This is a real club!” Remixes of everything from the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” made their way around the arena before the two teams’ WWE-style entrances. Of all the flashy elements of TGL, the intros felt the most forced, mainly because most golfers can’t begin to muster the love-me-or-hate-me charisma necessary for one of those. performances that make the heavens ring.
Shane Lowry had the honor of hitting the first drive in TGL history, hitting it dead center on the par-4, 480-yard debut hole titled “The Plank”:
Bay GC claimed the first point, and the next five, achieving the largest lead in TGL history. The New York general finally broke out of her Jets and Giants-style slide by earning a point on the final three-point hole. (TGL has 15 holes of match play: nine holes of triples, where everyone plays, and six holes of singles, where players compete against each other).
Some of the players, Fitzpatrick in particular, had trouble with the green. Others, like Aberg, prospered:
Woods and McIlroy were present, watching the proceedings and offering hole-by-hole commentary on ESPN. Both are scheduled to play in the coming weeks and both will provide an opportunity for star power for golf fans.
TGL returns next week and every week until the end of March. Initial results are positive, and golf Twitter seemed to relish the opportunity to have a little midweek golf chat. A guaranteed two-hour competition, with little downtime and lots of statistical analysis, seems tailor-made for golf fans of the 2020s.
The only question left now: Can anyone stop the mighty Bay GC?