Golf legends Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are poised to introduce their groundbreaking league in January 2024.
They’ve named this new competition the TGL, which is designed to infuse modern technology into the traditional golf calendar and will be held indoors.
Currently, the inaugural season has attracted participation from 15 of the world’s top 20 players, and it will be hosted in a purpose-built arena located in Florida.
The TGL concept has garnered substantial support from both players and investors, with tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, basketball icon Stephen Curry, and the Fenway Sports Group, owners of Liverpool FC, among the current shareholders.
TGL events will be managed by TMRW Sports, the tech-focused sports company co-launched by McIlroy and Woods in August 2022. The league will feature six teams, each consisting of four players, competing in a league format. Five teams have already been announced ahead of the launch.
In each league session, two points will be at stake, with two sessions played during every match. The first session will involve nine holes of ‘triples,’ where all three players take part in an alternate-shot format over nine holes.
Following this, the second session will comprise six holes of ‘singles,’ featuring a head-to-head competition where each golfer plays two holes.
Teams will earn points for winning each hole, and the match’s winner will be determined by the side with the most points at the end of the two sessions. In the event of a tie, a nearest-the-pin shootout will decide the victor.
Once all teams have faced each other, the top four will qualify for a semi-final, with the winners advancing to a best-of-three final.
Every hole will commence on a golf simulator, but for short-distance shots, players will transition from the simulator to hitting on adaptable greens where the putting surface’s slope for each hole can be adjusted.
In the month of April, Rory McIlroy withdrew from the RBC Heritage tournament
and cited his “mental and emotional wellbeing” as the cause.
No reason was given at the time for the world number three’s withdrawal, which came soon after he missed the cut at the Masters.
McIlroy will make his first return to competition since Augusta at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.
“I needed a break for me,” the Northern Irishman told the Golf Channel.
McIlroy withdraws from RBC Heritage event
“Obviously, after the disappointment of Augusta, and it’s been a pretty taxing 12 months mentally, so it was nice to just try to disconnect a little bit and get away from it.
“But it’s nice to come back and feel refreshed and I think we’re on a pretty busy run here from now until after the play-offs so I’m excited to get going.
“I think it was a combination of a few things, and just after the disappointment of Augusta and how I played there, it was just more for my mental and emotional wellbeing I just needed to be at home for those few weeks but, as I said, looking forward to getting back this week.”
He added: “I think I’m in a better headspace than I was. Yes, you know, that run-up to Augusta is always a stressful enough couple of weeks trying to make sure everything is in the right order and making sure your game is in good shape.
“I think for me it was a nice reset because I still had to realise that there are three more majors this year, there is a ton left to play for.”
McIlroy declined to do any post-round interviews after failing to make the halfway cut in what was a disappointing performance at the Masters.
The RBC Heritage was the second designated PGA Tour event that the 33-year-old has skipped this year, one more than players ranked in the top 20 of the circuit’s Player Impact Program (PIP) are allowed to miss.
Having already sat out the season-opening Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, this second absence could potentially cost him bonus money from the PIP, which is distributed at the end of the PGA Tour season and which earned McIlroy £7.5m in 2022.
McIlroy will be aiming to win the Wells Fargo Championship for a fourth time when he competes at Quail Hollow this week, having won the title in 2010, 2015 and 2021.
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have both called on Greg Norman to step down as the head of the independent LIV Golf Tour.
Only if Norman steps down, according to Woods, can the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Tour come to an agreement.
The Australian former world number one needed to “leave stage left,” according to McIlroy earlier this month.
Woods urged LIV to drop its legal action against the PGA Tour in a speech prior to this week’s Hero World Challenge.
“I think Greg has to go, first of all,” Woods, 46, said. “And then obviously litigation against us and then our countersuit against them, those would then have to be at a stay as well.
“So then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”
After signing numerous high-profile athletes with hefty signing bonuses, including Open champion Cameron Smith and other significant winners like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, Woods accused the LIV Tour of inciting “animosity.”
Next year, LIV plans to host a 14-tournament super league using their 54-hole shotgun start format with 48-player fields.
“There’s a lot of animosity, especially from their leadership,” said Woods, who equalled Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour victories before injuries curtailed his playing career.
“And they want to be a validated tour with world ranking points and they’re buying up tours around the world and I don’t know what their end game is.
“It might be just being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being recognised with world ranking points. I think that’s what their intended goal is.
“You know, they’ve spent probably close to $2bn this year. Who’s to say they can’t spend $4bn or $5bn next year? We just don’t know. It’s an endless pit of money.
“But that doesn’t necessarily create legacies either. You want to compare yourself to [Ben] Hogan, you want to compare yourself to Snead, you want to compare yourself to [Jack] Nicklaus, you can’t do that over there, but you can on this Tour.”
In Dubai two weeks ago, McIlroy said that Norman needed to leave his role as commissioner and chief executive if there was to be peace between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. “No one’s going to talk unless there is an adult in the room,” said the current world number one.
It was reported that LIV were lining up Mark King, the former boss of golf manufacturer Taylormade, to replace Norman but this was strenuously denied.
LIV Golf managing director Majed Al-Sorour said in response to the Daily Telegraph’s report: “Greg Norman is our CEO and commissioner. Any suggestion that changes are being made to Greg’s title or role is patently false.”
Woods says it is impossible for both organisations to coexist under the current set-up. “Not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity towards the tour itself,” he said.
“I don’t see that happening. As Rory said – and I said it as well – I think Greg’s got to leave and then we can eventually, hopefully, have a stay between the two lawsuits and figure something out.
“But why would you change anything if you’ve got a lawsuit against you? They sued us first.”
LIV launched their anti-trust lawsuit against the US-based circuit after players who joined the breakaway set-up were suspended indefinitely from the PGA Tour. A trial date has been set for January 2024.
A countersuit has been launched by the PGA Tour and there are separate legal proceedings between LIV and the European based DP World Tour, which will be heard in February next year.
“I think it has to start with leadership on their side,” Woods added. “Understanding that what is happening right now is not the best fit for the future for the whole game of golf.
“Now, what is the best way for our game to grow? It’s not this way. But granted, you need to have the two bodies come together. If one side has so much animosity, someone trying to destroy our tour, then how do you work with that?”
‘Charlie will hit all the shots’
Woods also revealed that he had two operations this year on the right leg that he badly injured in a car crash in February 2021.
Refusing to give details, he admitted that the damage he suffered contributed to the plantar fasciitis that forced him to pull out of this week’s tournament. He has not played since missing the cut in the Open at St Andrews last July.
Woods still plans to play with his son Charlie in the PNC Championship in Florida next month, when he can ride in a buggy, and at The Match on 10 December, when he will partner McIlroy against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
“The Father-Son will be a very easy week,” the former world number one said. “Charlie will just hit all the shots and I’ll just get the putts out of the hole, so pretty easy there.”
As for returning to competitive golf, Woods reiterated that he will play sparingly in future. “The goal is to play just the major championships and maybe one or two more, physically that’s all I can do,” he said.
“I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and hopefully, you know, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and hopefully I remember how to do that.”
Rory McIlroy believes “golf is ripping itself apart right now” as the battle between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf Invitational Series rages on.
The introduction of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf has caused a huge divide in the sport, with big names such as Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau defecting from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.
The storm has also seen some defectors file lawsuits against the PGA Tour after it banned those who made the switch to LIV Golf from playing in its events.
And McIlroy, who has remained fiercely loyal to the PGA Tour, sees the dispute as harmful for players on both sides of the divide, telling reporters: “I don’t want a fractured game. I never have.
“You look at some other sports and what’s happened and the game of golf is ripping itself apart right now.
“It’s no good for the guys on, you know, this side or the sort of traditional system and it’s no good for the guys on the other side, either.
“It’s no good for anyone. There is a time and a place for it. I just think right now, with where everything is, it’s probably not the right time.
“I’ve always said I think there is a time and a place where everyone that’s involved here should sit down and try to work together. It’s very hard for that to happen right now when there’s two lawsuits going on.”
“I hate what it’s doing to the game of golf,” McIlroy said of LIV.
A number of high-profile players have left the established tours for the £1.6bn LIV Golf series which is holding eight invitational events in 2022 with a prize fund of £200m before turning into a league from next year.
Major winners Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Dustin Johnson are among those to have joined, and the PGA Tour responded by indefinitely banning those players.
Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, and Ian Poulter are among the LIV players expected to feature at the DP World Tour’s flagship event from 8-11 September.
McIlroy added: “I hate it. I really do. It’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks’ time and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me.
“So yeah, I feel strongly. I believe what I’m saying are the right things and I think when you believe that what you’re saying is the right thing, you’re happy to stick your neck out on the line.”
Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are set to compete at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth
McIlroy captured his third FedEx Cup following a thrilling final-round duel with world number one Scottie Scheffler at East Lake in Atlanta.
Scheffler started the week with a six-shot advantage over the four-time major winner as players began the season-ending event on staggered scores, determined by their respective positions in the FedEx Cup standings.
McIlroy also started the final round six adrift of Masters winner Scheffler but carded a closing four-under 66 to beat the American and South Korea’s Sungjae Im by one shot.
“Look, it’s been a tumultuous time for the world of men’s professional golf in particular,” said McIlroy, 33.
“I’ve been right in the middle of it. I’ve picked a great time to go on the PGA Tour board.
“But yeah, I’ve been in the thick of things. I guess every chance I get, I’m trying to defend what I feel is the best place to play elite professional golf in the world.
“It’s in some ways fitting that I was able to get this done today to sort of round off a year that has been very, very challenging and different.”
The PGA Tour reaches its climax this week with a stellar 29-man field battling it out at the Tour Championship for FedEx Cup glory.
Usually, the season-ending event involves the leading 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings, but the field has been cut to 29 following the withdrawal of Will Zalatoris because of a back injury that has also ruled him out of The Presidents Cup next month.
Nevertheless, there will be some top-quality golf at East Lake Golf Club – a par-70 course measuring 7,346 yards which has been the host of the Tour Championship every year since 2004, while it also staged the event in 1998 2000 and 2002.
The unique starting stroke format will again be in operation, with FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler starting the tournament on -10 — two strokes ahead of fellow American Patrick Cantlay and a further two clear of Xander Schauffele.
Tour Championship starting strokes
Scottie Scheffler will start this week’s event on 10-under par, two shots ahead of Patrick Cantlay, who won the BMW Championship last time out. Xander Schauffele will commence his round on six-under par, one shot clear of Sam Burns. Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy, Rony Finau, Sepp Straka and Sungjae Im will all tee off on four-under par.
Whoever wins this week’s Tour Championship will also be crowned FedEx Cup champion and take home a cheque for $18m.
Thomas in attack mode
Starting the tournament on -3, there is lots of work for Justin Thomas to do if he wants to lift the FedEx Cup for the first time since 2017, but there is enough evidence to suggest he will have a positive week in Georgia.
With the fairways notoriously challenging to hit and thick rough ready to capture any errant shots, there is a premium on accuracy at East Lake, and the world number seven has shown that in spades this season.
The American is third in strokes gained: tee-to-green, 15th in SG: off-the-tee and sixth in SG: approach-the-green on the PGA Tour this campaign, while he is fifth in putting average, third in birdie average and seventh in scoring average.
Not only do those statistics make for good reading, but Thomas has also never finished outside of the top 10 on his previous six East Lake appearances – posting results of sixth, second, seventh, ninth, third and fourth.
Fitzpatrick set to shine on debut
Matthew Fitzpatrick will hope to build on his US Open success this weekendEnglishman Matt Fitzpatrick has added some extra distance to his game this season, which proved crucial in his US Open success at Brookline in June – his maiden Major title.
The 27-year-old has always been a steady player off the tee, consistently finding fairways, and that facet of his game will prove hugely beneficial this week.
It may be a course debut for the world number 10, but there is no reason why he can’t adapt to these surroundings quickly and his PGA Tour statistics this season make for solid reading.
Fitzpatrick is eighth in SG: off-the-tee and fifth in SG: tee-to-green, while he is fourth in SG: around-the-green and third in scoring average.
Starting on -3, the same as Thomas, it would be no surprise to see the US Open champion making a charge up the leaderboard as he aims to reduce the seven-shot deficit to Scheffler.
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