Photo: Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty
Tiger Woodsdrove golf to new heights when he burst onto the PGA Tour. And now he is setting out to reinvent the sport once more.
The 46-year-old golf champ revealed on Tuesday that he teamed with fellow golf starRory McIlroy, NBC Sports producer Dick Ebersol and executive Mike McCarley to launch TMRW Sports — a new company concentrating on “technology-focused ventures that feature progressive approaches to sports, media and entertainment.”
On Wednesday, TMRW Sports first venture was announced: TGL,which the company described in a press releaseas “a new tech-infused golf league in partnership with the PGA Tour.”
The league, according to the release, “will showcase team matches fusing advanced tech and live action from a custom-built venue in primetime on Monday nights” in a schedule that complements the current PGA Tour’s schedule.
Play will start in January 2024.
TGL will feature six teams of three PGA Tour players each playing at a “data-rich, virtual course complete with a tech-infused, short-game complex” presented in prime time on Monday nights in matches that will last only two hours, according to the release.
“TGL is the next evolution within professional golf, and I am committed to helping lead it into the future,” Woods said in a release Wednesday. “Embracing technology to create this unique environment gives us the ability to move our sport into primetime on a consistent basis alongside so many of sports' biggest events.”
“We all know what it’s like to be in a football stadium or a basketball arena where you can watch every play, every minute of action unfold right in front of you,” Woods added. “It’s something that inherently isn’t possible in traditional golf — and an aspect of TGL that will set it apart and appeal to a new generation of fans.”
McIlroy, for his part, said in the release that TGL “is taking a bold step into the increasingly tech-fueled future of sports.”
“TGL will tap into the appeal of team golf within an exciting, fan-friendly environment, comparable to sitting courtside at an NBA game,” McIlroy said. “TGL will widen the appeal of golf to younger and more diverse fans and serve as another avenue to introduce people to the game I love.”
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McIlroy and Woods, who has hinted this year that hisPGA Tour playing days may be numbered, are the first two pros officially signed on to play in TGL events.
The TGL’s announcement comes amid debate in the golf community over the controversialSaudi-backed LIV Golf, which Woods in particular has criticized as several pros accepted suspensions from the PGA Tour to play with theLIV Golf Invitational Series.
ESPNpreviously reported that LIV Golf has ties to the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that makes investments on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The country has long been condemned forhuman rights abusesand LIV Golf has been criticized for working with Saudi Arabia.
source: people.com
