LIV players are not currently eligible for TGL because it is backed by the PGA Tour. That could change if a deal is done between the two rival tours and LIV’s Brooks Koepka attended the match between Jupiter and The Bay on 25 February.
The start of the first of the two deciding matches on Monday was delayed by an overrunning Women’s NCAA basketball game on ESPN2, which tells us of TGL’s standing in the bigger sporting picture.
Nevertheless, it will return. Investment is deep for a project that boasts 11 of the world’s top 15 golfers. The 1500 seat 250,000 square feet Sofi Centre venue on the Palm Beach State College campus cost $50m to build.
And there are already thoughts of adding a second venue on America’s west coast, although that would likely be years down the line.
“We’re in the middle of an expansion process now,” said Mike McCarley, the TMRW executive who co-founded the project with Woods and McIlroy.
“When exactly we make that decision – there’s no timeline on it necessarily,” McCarley added to the Palm Beach Post.
“We’ve had potential expansion team owners at every single match this season coming to visit us. Some of them, multiple times. Some of them have a lot of questions, a lot of feedback.”
TGL already has the backing of leading American sports investors, who are behind the six teams that competed.
They include the Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank (Atlanta Drive), John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group (Boston Common), New York Mets owner Steve Cohen (New York Golf Club), former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry (The Bay Golf Club) and David Blitzer, who joined Woods’ group that owns Jupiter Links.
“We really like those team owners that are operators of other sports teams and other professional leagues in their communities,” McCarley said.
“But we got a lot of really interesting diverse people domestically and internationally. They can kind of take a look and see what it looks like going forward.”
Former tennis great Serena Williams is co-owner of the Los Angeles team and her involvement prompts consideration over whether TGL missed a trick by not including some of the LPGA’s top stars, such as Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko.
Like LIV, TGL may struggle to win over traditional die-hard golf fans with its raucous environment, which is in stark contrast to the more genteel way golf is usually played.
But the new league was not brought in for the benefit of that constituency. It is there to broaden golf’s base.
Significantly, the players seem to have enjoyed it and deem it worth incorporating into their early season schedules.
“Obviously it is a little bit of a challenge with everything we’ve got going through the year with our own schedules, but I don’t think anyone has ever walked away and said ‘this felt like a burden’,” Horschel stated after collecting his share of the $9m winners’ spoils.
“I could never imagine what this was going to be,” the reigning BMW PGA champion added. “I remember coming into the arena in November and walking out and I was just in awe. I couldn’t imagine what I was seeing.
“I described it like a football player walking into Mercedes-Benz Stadium right about to play, a basketball player walking out – Steph Curry walking out at Oracle Arena, stuff like that.
“Never imagined we’d be playing golf in an arena with a big simulator and people and music and chanting. It has been really cool and has sort of exceeded all of our expectations.”
