(Reuters) – Tiger Woods is expected to make his TGL debut on Jan. 14, the new tech-infused indoor team golf league announced on Monday along with the full schedule for its inaugural season that will be held entirely in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The 15-time major champion’s first potential match will come in the second week of the season inside a venue that fits 1,500 fans wrapped around a field of play featuring a five-storey-high simulator screen and an adjustable putting surface.
The 48-year-old Woods, who had back surgery in September and played a limited schedule in recent years due to injuries, is a part owner of Jupiter Links Golf Club, a team that features himself, Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner.
Jupiter Links will face the Los Angeles Golf Club team that is made up of Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, and Justin Rose in their first match.
Before every TGL match, teams will name three players each to compete in 15-hole contests that will feature two sessions: nine holes of three-man alternate shots followed by six holes of singles head-to-head play.
The opening TGL match on Jan. 7 will feature a New York Golf Club team made up of Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young face The Bay Golf Club unit of Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, and Shane Lowry.
TGL, a primetime golf league featuring six squads of four players competing in a fast-paced form of team golf, was founded in 2022 by Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports in partnership with the PGA Tour.
Northern Irishman McIlroy is part of Boston Common Golf with Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, and Hideki Matsuyama and their first match is scheduled for Jan. 27 against Woods’ Jupiter Links.
Golfers will tee off from real grass tee boxes to play custom-designed, virtual holes that will be projected on a massive screen. Once teams are inside approximately 50 yards they will transition to live action and finish each hole on a short game complex that transforms between holes.
Technology will help to make each hole unique and includes a 41-yard-wide turntable that rotates the green and bunkers to change approach angles, while motorized actuators embedded under the putting surface can morph its topography.
Two months before its initial January 2024 launch date, a power outage caused deflation and damage to the air-supported dome section of the TGL venue. Organisers have since replaced it with a steel-supported structure.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto)
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