PALM BEACH GARDENS — Rickie Fowler watched his bunker shot at the SoFi Center roll toward the hole, although not quite close enough for his liking.
Fowler, who along with Billy Horschel and Wyndham Clark on Wednesday gave media members a first look at how TGL works, said he was careful not to “skull” a shot in the direction of where the media was standing.
“You’re looking out for the media, Rickie,” Horschel said. “That’s good.”
“I want to keep them on my side,” Fowler said.
Said Horschel: “They’ve been on your side since Day 1.”
More: Tiger Woods will be motivated by TGL team being disrespected by oddsmakers, says teammate
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy league set for debut
TGL, the interactive golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, is set to debut Jan. 7, and the venue on the campus of Palm Beach State College is going through its final touches.
The unique indoor format is something we’ve never seen in golf and will lend itself to entertaining, as much as competitive, golf.
Probably with some spicy trash-talking.
“You’ll see some interesting things from us,” Clark said.
“We have to be entertainers,” Horschel added. “Certain words may come out that shouldn’t come out.”
The league gave a quick primer Wednesday with three of the 24 PGA Tour pros who will make up the six teams and high-ranking officials.
The players demonstrated every shot from the screen zone where tee shots and approach shots are hit 35 yards or 21 yards from a giant screen; to the green zone where players chip and putt like traditional golf and play shots out of authentic bunkers.
All of it will be tracked by innovative technology.
“We’re in a stadium, it’s not normal golf,” Clark said. “We’re not outside, we’re not playing a major tournament. This is inside golf and it’s going to be different and fun.
“I think that’s what makes it really cool and unique.”
The stadium is about the length of a football field. At one end sits a 64 x 53-foot screen. At the other end, a green and chipping area. Underneath the green are about 600 actuators that will alter the undulations for each hole (TGL will feature 30 different holes designed by three companies, including Palm Beach Gardens-based Nicklaus Design) and a turntable that changes the position of the green and the three real bunkers surrounding the green.
“Mike and his team are using technology to innovate a game that’s been around for hundreds of years, making it more accessable, making it more fun and making it reach broader audiences,” Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, said about Mike McCarley, CEO of TMRW Sports Group, which owns TGL.
Palm Beach County was a natural fit for this league that has been in the works for more than two years because it’s “where the vast majority of the players live,” McCarley said.
McCarley said the objective is to keep connected to the tradition of golf while trying to bring the game more into the future and embracing technology, something he said Woods and McIlroy quickly got on board with.
“You’re going to see absolutely everything,” McCarley said. “We’re not going to miss a thing.
“All of the focus, time, energy, resource, investment really focused on getting this dialed in from a technology standpoint.”
Players are the gladiators in the arena for this setting
For the 1,500 fans in attendance, that means listening in to mic’d up players’ conversations as they strategize shots while watching from an indoor stadium setting.
“It is a little bit of a prime-time stage.” McCarley said. “(The players) step into this arena and you’re trying to create a little bit of the gladiators in the arena.”
During the demonstration Wednesday, Horschel had about a 10-foot putt and asked Fowler for his thoughts on how the ball has been rolling on the synthetic green. Horschel pointed out Fowler has spent more time practicing at the facility because he lives in Jupiter.
“He has the advantage, he lives here,” Clark chimed in.
Fowler joked that he wasn’t going to give away secrets to any players not on his team. Fowler plays for New York GC, Horschel is part of Atlanta Drive GC and Wyndham is on the The Bay GC.
But then he told Horschel to take into consideration the lighting when reading the putt, saying it gives a bit of a different look than natural sunshine.
Horschel then made the putt.
“Looking forward to doing this when it’s filled with people and a little more energy going on,” Fowler said.
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
More: LPGA players could become part of TGL, the Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy interactive golf league
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy golf league, TGL, ready for 2025 debut
