LIV Golf turned the world golf scene upside down. Not only because of the creation of this Saudi circuit itself, but because it forced the PGA Tour to react to who had dominated the sport in recent decades. This Wednesday the two great North American responses against LIV have been made official. In just a few hours, first the PGA announced big changes in the competition, focused on bringing together the stars of the circuit in the same tournaments. Shortly after, it was confirmed creation of TGL, a league promoted by TMRW Sports, a company promoted by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
TGL will not compete against the PGA Tour, rather they will go hand in hand. This league, created in collaboration with the American circuit, will gather the main stars of the PGA and will be played on Monday nights, during prime-time hours and without coinciding with the tournaments that go from Thursday to Sunday. In the official announcement of TGL, special emphasis has been placed on technology, which will dominate this new league. There will be 15 regular season events throughout the year and the format will be team, with six teams of three players each facing each other (there will be three games). TGL’s promise is that the 18 holes will be completed in just two hours, thus avoiding long days of golf, and this can be fulfilled thanks to the main novelty of the league: It will not be played on a golf course, but in a stadium.
Seeking to bring golf closer to fans, TGL events will be held in sports venues where fans will be able to experience each shot on a virtual course. The starts and the impacts of the fairway will be made on a screen that will act as a simulator, as is already done in golf schools and driving ranges. The shots that will be made live will be those on the green, since there will be one in the stadium. The objective of this is to generate an atmosphere never seen before in this sport, with the great stars of the same and in American prime-time, competing with giants such as the NFL. All this promoted by Tiger Woods, who has already proven to be capable of dragging masses in his country and in the whole world. January of the year 2024 has been marked as the starting point for TGL.
“TGL is the next evolution in professional golf, and I am committed to helping guide it into the future. Embracing technology to create this unique environment gives us the ability to consistently move our sport into primetime. We all know what it’s like to be in a football or basketball stadium where you can see every play, every minute of action unfolding in front of you. It’s something that isn’t possible in traditional golf, and an aspect of TGL that will set it apart. and it will appeal to a new generation of fans,” explained Tiger Woods. “TGL, while rooted in the traditions of the game, is taking a step towards an increasingly technology-driven future of sports. TGL will be comparable to sitting courtside in an NBA game,” completed the other great promoter of the league, Rory McIlroy.
The PGA Tour seeks to bring the stars together
TGL is not the only big news of the day in the world of golf. Just an hour before, the North American circuit published a statement detailing an extensive list of novelties that will be put into practice from next year. The most important of them is that the players considered “top” will be obliged to compete in a minimum of 20 events a year, being 17 of them the same for all. This responds to the problem that has been talked about lately, and that is that it was very difficult to see the best in the world in the same tournament that was not a major or the FedExCup playoffs, so now it will be more common for the big stars to share competition schedule. “When I tune in to a Tampa Bay game, I expect to see Tom Brady throw a ball. When I tune in to a Formula 1 race, I expect to see Lewis Hamilton in a single seater. Sometimes what happens on the PGA Tour is that we all act independently and have our own schedules,” McIlroy explained.
In this detailed list of tournaments in which the “top” (as the PGA calls them, these being the first 20 in the “Player Impact Program”) are obliged to compete unless they suffer an injury appear the four majors (British Open, US Open, Masters de Augusta y PGA Championship), all three FedExCup playoff events (St. Jude, BMW Championship y Tour Championship), The Players Championship and nine more “Elevated Events” (Currently they are the Genesis Invitational, The Memorial, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Match Play, Sentry Tournament of Champions and four more to be created soon). To make the minimum of 20, each player will have to participate in at least three more tournaments from all those that make up the FedExCup calendar. In all the tournaments mentioned above the prize pool has risen considerably, with a minimum of 20 million dollars to be distributed in each event, with the exception of the Sentry where it will be 15 million.
“Our best players are firmly behind the PGA Tour, helping us deliver an unmatched product to our fans, who will be guaranteed to see the best players compete against each other in 20 events or more throughout the season,” said Jay Monahan. , US Circuit Commissioner. Among other changes, highlights the creation of a program that ensures a minimum income of 500,000 to each player, regardless of their harvested results, while those who do not exceed the cuts of the tournaments will receive 5,000 dollars. Also, those who qualify for the Tour Championship, the final event of the year, will have a two-year exemption from the PGA Tour. The golf revolution is already here.
