Categories
Professionals

Restart after stadium disaster: TGL unveils new start date

After the stadium roof of the SoFi Center collapsed in November, the start of the TGL had to be postponed, but now there is a new date.

The Tomorrow Golf League (TGL) is scheduled to start on January 07, 2025. (Source: Instagram @tmrwsports)
The Tomorrow Golf League (TGL) is scheduled to start on January 07, 2025. (Source: Instagram @tmrwsports)

In November 2024, a fault in the temporary power system and the backup systems caused the dome of the SoFi Center to collapse, forcing the organizers around Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to postpone the originally planned start on the 9th of January 2024. The Tomorrow Golf League (TGL) has now published the new start date.

TGL starts in January 2025

One year late, the indoor golf league is set to kick off on January 7, 2025. “In planning the launch of TGL presented by SoFi in 2025, we have now marked the first three Tuesdays in January to introduce sports fans to this new form of team golf,” explained Mike McCarley, co-founder of TMRW Sports with Woods and McIlroy. “January is a great time of year for fans looking for prime-time sporting events, and the launch of TGL will complement the start of the PGA Tour season and capitalize on ESPN’s advertising machine as part of their coverage of the NFL and college football playoffs,” McCarley continued.

Six teams are currently confirmed. Atlanta Drive GC, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club, Los Angeles Golf Club, TGL New York and TGL San Francisco. However, only Atlanta Drive and LAGC have full four-man squads so far. The TGL Golf squad as a whole underwent something of an upheaval at the start of 2024 when Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf. Hatton was previously a member of McIlroy’s Team Boston Common before joining the Saudi Arabia-funded circuit.

How the indoor golf league works

The Tomorrow Golf League presents an innovative format that challenges the traditional rules of golf. Each event of the season is divided into two sessions, with only three of the four players on a team competing. First, they compete in “Triples”, a 3-on-3 competition over nine holes. This is followed by the “Singles”, in which three duels are played over six holes, with each player on their team playing two holes. If no decision is made, it goes into “overtime”, where the aim is to place the ball closest to the flag. The team that gets two of the three balls closer to the target wins the overtime. In addition, each player wears a microphone during the tournament.

The scoring system is similar to that of ice hockey: a win in regulation time, i.e. the triples and singles, earns a team two points, while the losing team receives none. If the game goes into overtime, the losing team receives an extra point. The regular season consists of 15 events, after which the four best teams advance to the playoffs. These include two semi-finals, which are decided after one game, and a final in a best-of-3 format.