Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy watched on as the opening match of the inaugural TGL season – the new high-tech indoor golf league attempting to revolutionize golf – took place on Tuesday.
The Bay Golf Club – comprised of Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark – beat the New York Golf Club – made up of Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler – 9-2 over their 15 holes at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The competition, which was delayed for a year, had to wait a few moments longer after Lowry forgot a tee for the first shot of the new format but eventually the Irishman got proceeding underway, blasting his tee shot into the big screen and down the fairway.
It was a dominant performance for The Bay Golf Club who quickly raced into a 6-0 lead in front of a packed arena, with Lowry securing the win on the par-five 10th hole as he beat Fowler to make the score 7-1 with five holes left.
The whole event was played with smiles on the faces of everyone involved, with players mic’d up throughout to be able to hear the interactions between the competitors. Lowry was inarguably the star of the show after saying numerous humorous lines during the match, including: “I’m going to be the Scottie Scheffler of indoor golf.”
The players were introduced in a manner very different to the traditional golf atmosphere, with loud music, smoke cannons and an announcer welcoming the players into the venue like boxers ahead of a fight.
There were also plenty of humorous moments to entertain spectators, including when Fowler threw the flag onto the green in front of Lowry’s ball to block his shot with The Bay Golf Club’s victory already sealed.
Woods and McIlroy – who co-founded TMRW Sports, the company which came up with the idea of the new format – were both in attendance for the first-ever TGL match, with Woods joining the TGL broadcast at points to express his excitement at the action he was watching and also explain where the idea for TGL came from.
“This was just a dream conjured up,” Woods said. “Rory and I were talking about it; it’s hard to believe that dream came into reality and we were able to take golf into another stratosphere, really.”
Woods added: “It’s not traditional golf, yes, but it is golf. And that’s the main thing.”
After the opening match, many of the players detailed how much they enjoyed the debut of TGL.
Lowry said he had “an amazing two hours.”
“The last time I’ve had that much fun was probably last September,” he said, referencing his participation in Team Europe’s victorious outing at the Ryder Cup in 2023.
Åberg, who was also on that European team, echoed Lowry’s sentiment.
“It was awesome,” the Swede said afterwards. “I always said I was so jealous of basketball and football players because they get to do this a lot and we don’t.
“So this whole stadium-like feel is awesome to be a part of, and it gets you going a little bit differently from a normal golf tournament.”
The second game of TGL takes place on January 14 with the Los Angeles Golf Club taking on the Jupiter Links Golf Club where Woods is expected his make his TGL debut for Jupiter Links.