PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — It took a year longer than expected, but TGL, the new tech-infused golf league being fronted by superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, is finally teeing off.
The first of 15 regular-season matches, with the inaugural one between New York GC and The Bay Golf Club, will be played Tuesday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+) at SoFi Center, a 250,000-square-foot venue on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
TGL was supposed to launch in January 2024, but its start was pushed back a year after a power outage caused by a storm resulted in the original arena’s domed roof collapsing on Nov. 14, 2023.
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Woods believes the delay was a good thing because the new SoFi Center is bigger and better. The new arena is a steel structure with a traditional roof. About 1,500 fans will be wrapped around the playing area.
“I think it was a blessing in disguise,” Woods said at last month’s PNC Championship. “We were rushing to get it ready. I don’t think we had all the components we have now, and we certainly didn’t have the technology we’re able to have now. It worked out for the best for us as players, for the fans, and I think for everyone watching.”
Here’s what to know about TGL.
A closer look at the virtual course
Three golf course design companies (Agustín Pizá, Beau Welling and Nicklaus Design) created 30 original holes that will be played on a competition area approximately 97 yards by 50 yards, roughly the size of a football field, inside SoFi Center.
The holes will be played in varying order in matches, and TGL says they were “inspired by authentic golf landscapes such as links, canyons, coastal, deserts and tropical settings.”
For instance, there’s a par-5, 590-yard hole known as “Pick Yer Plunder,” which was created by Pizá Golf, that sits along Bounty Bay in the Pacific Ocean. A par-4 hole designed by Nicklaus, “Hang Low,” is set among the barrancas of Southern California.
Then there are more unique holes like the par-4 “Flex,” which is nestled on an active volcano, and “The Spear,” which has a floating tee box, landing area and GreenZone.
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Each team will field three players for the matches, starting each hole by teeing off on real grass tee boxes into a screen that is 64 feet by 53 feet — 24 times larger than a standard golf simulator.
For shots of 130 yards or longer, including most tee shots, golfers will hit from a back box that is 35 yards away from the screen. The back box accommodates shots from real fairway grass and rough, as well as sand. For shots of 50 to 129 yards, golfers will hit from a front box that is located 21 yards from the screen.
The landing location of their tee shots will determine the next challenge: approach shots played from natural grass fairways, deep rough, or pristine white sand, mirroring the bunkers found at Augusta National Golf Club. For shots of 50 yards or less, the players will shift to a one-of-a-kind, specially designed green to complete the hole.
“The playing surfaces are very realistic,” McIlroy said. “Whenever you hit it out of the rough, you have to think about whether you’re going to get a flyer; whether it’s going to come out soft, a lot of things that you would have to think about on a real golf course.”
The GreenZone features a state-of-the-art 22,475-square-foot short-game area that dynamically transforms between holes. A turntable 41 yards wide rotates the artificial-turf green to create varying approach angles, while nearly 600 actuators morph the terrain to simulate different topographies of 30 different greens.
“I still feel like the ball reacts very realistically on the green,” McIlroy said. “We toyed around with the idea of using real grass and real turf on the green, but with the rotating green and then obviously with the jacks underneath and the ability to change slopes, we were afraid if we used real turf that that turf could crack and break. We made the decision to go with artificial [grass] for the green because we want to make it interesting.”
How the matches will work
Each team will play five matches during the 2025 regular season from Jan. 7 to March 4.
The 15-hole matches will be split into two sessions: nine holes of alternate shot and six holes of singles. Three players from each team will hit alternate shots in the first nine holes. In the final six, the golfers will compete head-to-head, with each golfer playing two full holes during the session.
Each hole is worth one point and there are no carryovers. If the two teams are tied at the end of regulation, an overtime determines the winner. TGL’s overtime period is similar to a penalty shootout in soccer. Three golfers from each squad will compete in a best-of-three, closest to the pin competition until a team successfully hits two shots closer than its competitors.
The golfers will play the overtime period on the 15th hole, which will remain unchanged from regulation. The shot will be played from between 25 and 50 yards, and the on-course official will determine the pin location and distance before the match. A ball must land on the putting surface to be eligible.
Every match will consist of 15 holes — even if the outcome has been decided. Tiebreakers in the SoFi Cup standings will be determined by the total number of holes won during the regular season.
There’s a shot clock and timeouts
There won’t be any slow play in TGL — it’s designed to be fast and entertaining.
Each match will feature a shot clock that displays a countdown of 40 seconds. Players must hit their shot within the allotted time frame or their team receives a shot clock violation and incurs a one-stroke penalty. The 40-second time frame is based on the United States Golf Association’s recommendation on pace of play.
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Each team has four timeouts per match, two timeouts in each of the two sessions. Unused timeouts during the first session do not carry over to the second session. For the team that is playing its shot, timeouts may be called at any point until the shot clock expires. The opposing team may call a timeout until the other team’s player has addressed the ball. A team cannot call back-to-back timeouts while on the current shot.
A referee will be on the course to enforce TGL’s rules and regulations, and another official monitors the action from a booth.
What is the Hammer?
The Hammer increases the value of a hole by one point. It can be played by only the TGL team that holds possession of it. The Bay Golf Club, as a result of a coin flip, will start the season in possession of the Hammer.
The Hammer can be thrown at any time during a match — and it can be used multiple times on the same hole — to increase pressure on an opponent. The opposing team can decline to play the Hammer — kind of like a golfer turning down a “press” in a Saturday morning match — but it concedes the hole if it declines.
The Hammer changes possession each time it’s used.
There’s a caddie (sort of)
TGL golfers will be allowed to use a digital caddie, which is a 50-inch touchscreen yardage book, which reveals distances, penalty areas, wind, green topography and elevation changes on each hole.
TGL says the interactive app, custom built by Full Swing, “allows players to use a number of quick, user-friendly tools to research their next shot, set their target, and get a preview of what they will see on the hitting screen when they step up to hit their shot.”
The digital caddie is another way to ensure that the pace of play is lightning fast.
There’s going to be trash-talking (hopefully)
Golfers involved in TGL know they’re going to have to be more than, well, golfers. For the tech-infused circuit to work, viewers are going to have to be entertained, and that’s going to come from the conversations and ribbing that are going to be captured by microphones that every player will be wearing during the matches.
“It’s going to be really competitive,” Billy Horschel said. “We’re competitors. We want to win, but we also have to be entertainers at the same time. I think everyone who has signed up to be a part of this is aware of that, and they’re going to do their part to make sure this is successful.”
The microphones might capture too much in some instances.
“People are going to see our personalities,” Wyndham Clark said. “Some things could come out that maybe we don’t want to say, but that’s how other sports are.
“I’m going to have to really watch my cussing, but on our team, Shane Lowry. He has some cuss words on trigger pretty quick, so he’s going to have to really watch himself.”
Who’s on which teams?
Atlanta Drive GC
Justin ThomasPatrick CantlayBilly HorschelLucas Glover
Boston Common Golf
Rory McIlroyKeegan BradleyAdam ScottHideki Matsuyama
Jupiter Links GC
Tiger WoodsMax HomaTom KimKevin Kisner
Los Angeles Golf Club
Collin MorikawaTommy FleetwoodJustin RoseSahith Theegala
New York Golf Club
Matt FitzpatrickRickie FowlerXander SchauffeleCameron Young
The Bay Golf Club
Ludvig ÅbergWyndham ClarkMin Woo LeeShane Lowry
2025 SCHEDULE
Tuesday, Jan. 7: New York Golf Club vs. The Bay Golf Club, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Tuesday, Jan. 14: Los Angeles Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links GC, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Tuesday, Jan. 21: New York Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, Jan. 27: Jupiter Links GC vs. Boston Common Golf, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Tuesday, Feb. 4: Boston Common Golf vs. Los Angeles Golf Club, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, Feb. 17: Atlanta Drive GC vs. Los Angeles Golf Club, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, Feb. 17: Atlanta Drive GC vs. The Bay Golf Club, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, Feb. 17: The Bay Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+Tuesday, Feb. 18: Jupiter Links GC vs. New York Golf Club, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, Feb. 24: Los Angeles Golf Club vs. New York Golf Club, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+Monday, Feb. 24: Boston Common Golf vs. Atlanta Drive GC, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+Tuesday, Feb. 25: The Bay Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links GC, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+Monday, March 3: The Bay Golf Club vs. Los Angeles Golf Club, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+Monday, March 3: New York Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+Tuesday, March 4: Jupiter Links GC vs. Atlanta Drive GC, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+
The SoFi Cup playoffs
Similar to the NHL, TGL will employ a points-based system for regular-season matches. For each match, teams can earn up to two points toward their regular-season total. That total determines their position in the SoFi Cup standings.
A win in regulation and a win in overtime both equal two points, while a loss in overtime equals one point.
The top four teams advance to the playoffs, which include a single-elimination semifinal round and a best-of-three championship series.
The TGL semifinal matches featuring the top four teams in the SoFi Cup standings will be played March 17-18. The two winning teams will advance to the championship series, a best-of-three match that will be played March 24-25.
