Tomorrow's Golf League modernizes sport for prime time television

The future of golf might be arriving as soon as 2025.

That's when Tomorrow's Golf League, an arena-based, team version of the 600-year old sport, will launch at the purpose-built SoFi Center in Palm Beach, Fla. TGL chief executive officer Mike McCarley, who founded the league with golf greats Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, said it's all about modernizing the sport.

"If we're creating a version of the game today, in 2024, what would that look like?" said McCarley on Wednesday. "Something that was really important to Tiger, Rory, and myself from the very early days, was we want to keep a foot firmly planted in the traditions of the game, which meant working with the PGA Tour, being in collaboration with the other governing bodies in the game.

"The other foot is planted in bringing that traditional game forward into a more modern approach."

Although the goal remains the same — get the little white ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible — there are several changes that fans will immediately notice.

The "original six" teams of Atlanta Drive GC, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club, and The Bay Golf Club will all play out of the SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College.

All matches will be head-to-head and air live on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+, debuting on Jan. 7.

The 24 players that have committed to playing in the league are some of the biggest on the PGA Tour, including Woods, McIlroy, world No. 2 Xander Schauffele and world Nos. 4-7 Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, and Hideki Matsuyama. The schedule will be set in collaboration with the PGA Tour, with TGL matches happening on Mondays and Tuesdays so the golfers can get to their in-person tournaments Wednesday through Sunday.

All drives and approach shots hit at SoFi Center will be hit into a giant Imax-sized simulator from 35 yards out. The short game — 50 yards and in — will be done on the so-called greenzone inside the arena, a changeable turf golf hole that can rotate 360 degrees.

Each match will be 15 holes, starting with nine holes of triples playing alternating shots. The second session will be singles matchups for the remaining six holes.

TGL will have a shot clock, the players will be mic'd up, there will be no caddies, and each team will have four timeouts to consult with each other.

"The idea of borrowing elements from other sports that are familiar to sports fans and bringing them into golf in a way that resonates with a sports fan and is not necessarily going to alienate the traditional golf fan, is a balance," said McCarley. "We think all of those attributes, starting with two hours in prime time and coming all the way down to the competitive elements (..) keeps the fan front of mind as we continue to build, test and iterate."

Although there are no Canadian players signed up for the league yet, there is hope that there will be an expansion team representing a Canadian market in the near future that would include "hometown" golfers.

PGA TOUR — There are six Canadians in the field at this week's Shriners Children's Open, with four of them looking to move up in the PGA Tour's rankings during its fall season. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is 58th in the FedExCup Fall standings, Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., is 77th, Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., is 97th, and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., is 172nd. Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford both finished inside the top 50 of the regular season but will still play at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.

CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary's Stephen Ames and Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., will both be in the field at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. Ames is third in the Schwab Cup standings and Weir is 25th heading into play on Friday at The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Va.

LPGA TOUR — Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., is the lone Canadian in the field at the BMW Ladies Championship at Seowon-gil, Gwangtan-meyo, in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. She's 15th in the CME Race to the Globe standings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press