TGL, the virtual golf league launched by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, was scheduled to debut in one month in Palm Beach Gardens.
But just more than three weeks ago the venue’s roof collapsed causing the league to push back its inaugural season one year. While the delay is unfortunate, some of those who have joined the venture believe it could be beneficial.
“We are all coming into it pretty hot,” said Justin Rose, the London resident who joined TGL in February. “I know the concept’s been around a year or so, the build-out and the tech, but I’m sure there was always going to be things to work out. And as players, we were going to come into it literally seeing it for the first time.”
Said Jupiter’s Rickie Fowler: “It was already in a rushed state so I think it’s only going to benefit it to start in ’25.”
The venue is on the campus of Palm Beach State College. A power outage the night of Nov. 14 caused the arena’s dome to collapse and the remainder of the air-supported structure was deflated. There were no injuries and no damage to any technology at the 250,000-square-foot dome.
But TGL was on a tight timeline to get started, mainly because of the window provided by ESPN to televise the events. Less than a week after the collapse, TGL released a statement saying the decision was made to push back the start one year after discussions with players, the six team ownership groups, PGA Tour leadership and TGL’s commercial partners.
TGL is owned by TMRW Sports Group.
“Like anything in life, more time you have the better you have of getting things right and getting things done correctly,” said Billy Horschel, who signed up in February. “We were all excited to get started this year but we were going to be missing some things. We were all rushing to get it going.
“Yes, it sucks we have to wait a year. But I think it allow us to get everything under control a little bit better, better understanding about how things are going to work. It give us a year to continue to market and talk about what TGL’s about, how it’s going to work.”
Left to right: Palm Beach State College President Ava Parker, TMRW Sports Group founders Tiger Woods Mike McCarley, Rory McIlroy and PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan wield shovels during a ceremonial groundbreaking event at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on February 20, 2023. It will be the future site of TGL, a new golf league played in a stadium and launched in partnership with the PGA. (Photo: Thomas Cordy, Palm Beach Post)
The league infuses technology with in-person golf and consists of six teams, each with four PGA Tour players competing head-to-head in 18-hole match play. The first matches were scheduled for Jan. 9. The plan was for 15 regular-season Monday night matches followed by semifinals and finals.
Sahith Theegala called the timeline “ambitious” but said some of the criticism for attempting to get this started in such a short time was unfair.
“I think it has a chance to even make the product better,” Theegala said. “I know they’ve done crazy amounts of (research and development) with the whole thing and it was an ambitious timeline for sure. But a lot of people put in a lot of hard work. I think it’s only going to be better when it does start.”
More: Tiger Woods continues to put Jupiter on golf map, becoming owner/player of Florida team in TGL (Palm Beach Post)
Lucas Glover, the Jupiter who joined TGL two months ago, drives past the structure after dropping his kids off at school. Glover believed the timeline was reasonable.
“I think they were ready,” Glover said. “Now I think they’ll be really ready. A year delay is unfortunate for the owners, the teams, the sponsors, all that stuff. But they can iron out the kinks even more now and get more feedback from the technology, and I think at the end, it’ll be beneficial.”
Each of the golfers have no doubt the league will go on as planned, even if it is a year later.
“Definitely,” Rose said. “There’s too much investment into it and it’s up and running. It’s a shame what happened. I think the concept around how it was built, there was a time pressure to it. So I think this gives them a little bit of a chance to pivot.”
“TGL is another way to grow the game, another way to get more people into golf, another live sporting event,” Theegala said. “There’s going to be some good stuff that comes out of this.”