What is TGL? Full details as new Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy golf event launches

Some of golf's top players are trading the greens for the digital realm as the highly-anticipated, technologically advanced and lucrative TGL is set to launch this week.

Express Sport provides an insight into the new competition and its rules...

What exactly is TGL?

It's a new fast-paced indoor team competition led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, where the action unfolds on two state-of-the-art golf simulators. Unofficially, it stands for Tomorrow's Golf League, but in all literature, it is simply referred to as TGL.

Its launch was scheduled for last year, but issues with the inflatable dome roof at its custom-built arena, the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, resulted in a 12-month delay. Who's participating?

Alongside 15-time major winner Woods and McIlroy, who are the faces of the venture, the competition features several elite players from the PGA Tour, divided into six teams representing different American cities.

Woods leads Jupiter Links Golf Club, playing alongside Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner. World number three McIlroy is the star name for Boston Common Golf with his team-mates being US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott.

The other teams include Atlanta Drive GC, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club. Other notable players include Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg and Shane Lowry.

But how does the gameplay work?

The SoFi Center boasts a playing area roughly equivalent to a football pitch. Half of the arena is dedicated to 'screen play', where players will strike balls from a natural surface towards a colossal 64x53ft screen.

Depending on the shot, balls will be played from a grass tee box, fairway grass, rough or sand. When balls land within 50ft of the virtual pin, the action then shifts to the other half of the arena, or 'green zone'.

This features a mechanised 22,475 sq ft short-game area which can be altered for each hole in terms of dimensions, topography and pin position. A crowd of 1,500 can spectate the play.

What's the competition format?

Each competition day – either Monday or Tuesday – showcases one match between two teams. Each team has a roster of four players with three participating in each fixture.

Matches are divided into two sessions – triples and singles, both matchplay. Triples is a three-on-three contest over nine holes with all players taking turns to play the same ball.

Three singles contests are then played over six holes. 

Each hole is worth one point. In the event of a tie, a nearest-the-pin 'overtime' competition is held.

Teams are awarded two points for a victory and one for a loss in overtime, with nothing for a defeat in normal time. All teams play each other over the regular season with the top four in the table advancing to the play-offs.

What other innovations can we expect?

The virtual course designers, unbound by real-world limitations such as finance, geography, climate and terrain, have promised some spectacular holes from fictional locations including coastal, tropical and desert landscapes.

Other new features include a shot clock, timeouts and the use of the ‘hammer’, with which teams can choose to double the value of a hole.

All players will wear microphones and a referee will enforce the rules. TGL is an attempt to sell the sport to a new audience.

It is the brainchild of sports media executive Mike McCarley, who teamed up with Woods and McIlroy in 2022 to found TMRW Sports to get the project up and running.

The company has attracted considerable private investment and TGL has a prize pot of £16.75million, with £7.9m for the winning team.

It has been in the making for some years and was not devised as a rival to LIV Golf, although it has come to be seen as such.