Sport | Golf |
---|---|
Founded | August 24, 2022 |
Founder | |
First season | 2025 |
Country | United States |
Related competitions | PGA Tour |
TGL is a planned golf league created by TMRW Sports, [lower-alpha 1] a venture formed by sports executive Mike McCarley and professional golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in partnership with the PGA Tour. Its launch was delayed from 2024 to 2025, with events planned to be held on weeknights in conjunction with the PGA Tour schedule. [2]
On August 24, 2022, the PGA Tour, along with Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley, announced the formation of TGL. [3] It will initially feature six teams of three PGA Tour players, competing head-to-head in 18-hole match play on a virtual course with a special short game area. Fifteen matches, each lasting two hours and played in primetime on Monday and Tuesday nights, will make up the regular season. The semi-finals and a final match will be held at the end of the season. [4]
Initial investors include NBA players Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant, [5] Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, soccer player Alex Morgan, MLB players Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, [6] Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, tennis player Serena Williams, and WNBA player Diana Taurasi. Other investors include pop artist Justin Timberlake, [7] Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, [8] and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei. [9] TGL was originally planned to launch in 2024. It was delayed until 2025 after the host arena under construction was damaged due to a power failure. [10] [11]
TMRW Sports is building the first TGL venue, the SoFi Center, in Palm Beach, Florida, through a partnership with Palm Beach State College. [12] The group broke ground at the venue on February 20, 2023. [13] [14] The venue will include educational and recreational facilities. [15] Construction is being overseen by CAA Icon. [16] In November 2023, a power failure at the construction site caused the deflation of SoFi Center's air-supported roof, causing damage to portions of the structure. [10] [11]
Team | City | Owner(s) |
---|---|---|
Atlanta Drive GC | Atlanta, Georgia | Arthur Blank [17] |
Boston Common Golf | Boston, Massachusetts | Fenway Sports Group [18] |
Jupiter Links Golf Club | Jupiter, Florida | Tiger Woods, David Blitzer [19] |
Los Angeles Golf Club | Los Angeles, California | Alexis Ohanian, Venus Williams, Serena Williams [20] |
New York Golf Club | New York City, New York | Steve Cohen [21] |
The Bay Golf Club | San Francisco, California | Marc Lasry, Stephen Curry [22] |
No broadcaster for TGL was announced during the league's unveiling. An August 2022 report by Sports Business Journal indicated that NBC Sports had an option to carry league events. [23] On October 5, 2023, ESPN Inc. announced it had secured media rights for the league in a "multi-year" deal, with all matches airing on ESPN or ESPN2, and streaming on ESPN+; the first match was originally scheduled to air on January 9, 2024, immediately following the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship. [24]
Woods, McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm were the first four golfers to commit to compete in the league. [25] Twenty more players have since signed on leaving the roster set at twenty-four. [26] [27]
Rahm withdrew from the league in November 2023, [28] shortly before joining LIV Golf. In January 2024, Tyrrell Hatton also joined LIV Golf after negotiating his exit from TGL. [29] In June 2024 it was announced that Hatton would be replaced by Hideki Matsuyama [30]
Rory Daniel McIlroy is a Northern Irish professional golfer who is a member of both the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He is former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over a hundred weeks in that position during his career. He is the only person to win the FedEx Cup three times, surpassing Tiger Woods' two. He is a four-time major champion, winning the 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship, 2014 Open Championship, and 2014 PGA Championship. Along with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, he is one of three players to win four majors by age 25.
Mike McCarley is an American media executive and the founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, a company which he founded with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Previously, he was president of golf for the NBC Sports Group after leading marketing for NBC's Olympics and Sunday Night Football franchises. He is a protégé of former NBC Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol and has had close connections to several sports icons, including the late Arnold Palmer, Jim McKay, John Madden and golf superstars Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler.
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