Tiger Woods Golf League: How This New Indoor Simulator-Powered Golf League Works
Will you be watching the TGL?
Tiger Woods Golf League (TGL) bring a new high tech golf league to the pros.
Instead of traveling around to world-renowned golf courses, the league is being played inside the SoFi Center in Palm Beach, Florida.
The league brings a truly unique setup to simulator golf with an oversized 64’ x 46’ simulator screen that would feel like driving a golf ball at a drive-in movie screen along with pits of real grass, fairway, rough, and sand to match the terrain to the ball placement on the hole.
But not only do the golfers play the ball from real placements when approaching the hole, once they get within about 50 yards, they transition to the green.
Realistic Putting Indoors?
Now let’s talk about putting because this is where TGL has really come up with a next level innovation.
Putting with golf simulators is the hardest part to recreate because when you’re trying to simulate a hole with a tricky slope, you’re still putting on a flat surface at the simulator. At the SoFi Center, the putting green and approach includes a surface the size of 4 NBA basketball courts with 189 different actuators and jacks to modify the surface and fully recreate the slopes for each hole.
It will be incredible to see how this plays out and whether the golfers will get the typical results they expect from their putting game.
How It’s Scored
For scoring, the league is set up a lot like hockey.
There are six teams of 4 golfers to kick off the first season of TGL and matches are played as 15 holes:
9 holes are played as 3 vs. 3 alternate shots.
6 holes are singles head-to-head where each player will play two holes.
Each hole is worth one point and the team with the fewest shots wins the point.
The team with the most points after 15 holes wins the match, or in a tie it goes to overtime.
Overtime tiebreakers are played as 3 vs 3 again with the objective of hitting closest to the pin. The teams battle it out until one team hits two shots in a row closer than the other team.
The outcome of each match comes down to 3 results: 2 points for a win in regulation or overtime, 1 point for a loss in overtime, and 0 points for a loss in regulation.
Much like the mic’d up head-to-head versions of golf seen in “The Match” in recent years, the TGL format should serve to bring some new energy to the sport of golf and draw attention to the benefits of playing on simulators as a realistic way to enjoy golf year-round.
