Be warned, this is a bold theory: golf needs to be rethought here and there – at least in terms of competition formats. Even the game, which is ageless in its magnificence and unshakeable in its foundations, needs the fresh cell treatment of innovation from time to time. It’s not really that bold an idea, is it?
It needs spectacle
Of course, there is plenty of room for argument about how. But one thing is certain: the leisure society 4.0 can hardly be won over by tedious counting game competitions over four days, unless they have the aura of a major’s speciality or other significance. The fun-focussed modern man flutters from experience to experience: a little thrill here, a little amusement there, a little action there.
Applied to sport, this means: it takes sweat, tears, toil, duels eye for eye, ruckus, lots of smoke and thunder – even for nothing. In short: it needs spectacle. This doesn’t have to be detrimental to the seriousness of the competition, see American football or the new biathlon season starting at the end of November.
New era in Golf
A few weeks later, on 7 January, a new era begins in golf too, so to speak. The starting signal will be given for the competition of tomorrow, which its creators have appropriately christened Tomorrow’s Golf League. With the competition offshoot of their joint venture TMRW Sports, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are taking the future of the game into their own hands.
The two superstars and their team-mate Mike McCarley are following the trend towards gamification of golf, which is enjoying success up and down the country, manifested by the opening of more and more indoor facilities and the constant upgrading of driving ranges with analysis systems, and are also raising the game in the elite sector to the level of modern entertainment. They call the spectacle under the roof of the hall ‘golf remixed’. You could also say: golf goes south curve. That fits the spirit of the times more than ever.
‘Bringing the game into the 21st century’
The TGL match days between ScreenZone and GreenZone will be high-tech events with coliseum character, target shooting, light and show effects like in the NBA, the National Basketball Association. With hype and a grandstand atmosphere like at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale on 16, the party hole. With tailgating like in American football around the NFL stadiums. A circus, and in the middle of it all, the Triple-A PGA Tour staff wired up as gladiators.
‘We’re trying to break with tradition and bring the game into the 21st century,’ says Rory McIlroy, who points out that more golf was played in simulators than on real courses in 2023. ‘It’s a completely different type of golf; not the traditional sport you see week in, week out.’
‘Everything is even bigger than expected’
The key spatial data has already been presented here, and it is impressive enough: the oversized simulator screen, the specially designed golf courses, the short game area with the green, whose slopes and breaks can be adjusted under the surface using electric motors, the technology surrounding it with huge monitors for the 1,600 spectators in the stands, with treadmills for results, stroke analysis data and scores, etc. ‘Everything is even bigger than I expected. That makes it even better,’ enthused Justin Thomas, for example.
Overloaded regulations?
So far, so exciting and promising. However, there seems to be one catch: the rules. To put it mildly, it is complex. It could, if you like, be too complicated. Sport as a spectacle thrives not least on the transparency of the result, finish or goal lines, clocks that run with the game or the constantly updated score. Winners and losers must be very easy to identify; no one wants an outcome that is only determined after painstaking arithmetic. In the case of the TGL with its ‘Modern Matchplay’ format, this seems overloaded at first glance; the following is an attempt to sort things out:
Every hole is worth a point – most of the time
Three of the four players from the two teams in question compete in each match of the 15 match days of the season. The format is based on awarding points per hole played. The team with the fewest strokes on a hole wins a point. A draw is awarded zero points.
Within a match, two sessions are played in two different formats:
Triples: Nine holes of three against three in alternate shot format. Everyone plays their own ball and the best score per hole is scored for the team.
Singles: Six holes man against man; each player in the team plays two holes.
In the event of a tie, ‘Nearest to the Pin’ as overtime
In the event of a tie at the end of the regular playing time, ‘Nearest to the Pin’ is played in overtime until one team has been closer to the pin twice than the competition.
For each match won, regardless of whether in regular time or in overtime, the team in question receives two points for the overall ranking. If a team only loses in overtime, it still receives one point. The four best teams qualify for the play-offs with semi-finals (17 and 18 March 2025) and final (24 and 25 March).
40 seconds for each stroke
There are also a few special features. For example, there is a shot clock: each player must take their upcoming shot within 40 seconds, the time is monitored by a referee who imposes a penalty if the time is exceeded. On the other hand, each team has four timeouts per match, two for each session, to stop the shot clock.
And then there’s the hammer. Whoever swings it doubles the value of a hole won. It doesn’t take much imagination to visualise the bang that will be created at the SoFi Centre on the campus of Palm Beach State College. The question remains as to what happens if a team doesn’t live up to the hammer it has brought into play. The first match day at the latest will shed light on this and show whether this set of rules does not turn out to be a malus for the spectacle.
Written by Michael Basche
