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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
The reboot of the inaugural season of TGL presented by SoFi, the tech-infused golf league being fronted by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will begin Jan. 7, 2025, in prime time on ESPN and ESPN+, the league announced Monday.
The six-team league was scheduled to begin play on Jan. 9, 2024, but the launch was delayed after a storm knocked out electricity to the temporary power system and backup system at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, causing the dome to deflate and be damaged.
The league unveiled renderings Monday of its new 250,000-square-foot venue on the campus of Palm Beach State College.
The league will play matches on the first three Tuesdays of January, coinciding with the NFL playoffs and the College Football Playoff. “As we plan the 2025 launch of TGL presented by SoFi, we now have the first three Tuesdays in January circled to introduce sports fans to this new form of team golf,” TMRW Sports founder and CEO Mike McCarley said in a statement. “January is a tremendous time of year for fans looking for prime time sports and TGL’s launch will complement the start of the PGA Tour season and take advantage of ESPN’s promotional machine across their coverage of the NFL and college football playoffs.”
The league said the new steel-supported SoFi Center is an “unprecedented, tech-infused arena for golf and will create an intimate and unique ‘greenside’ fan experience with 1,500 seats wrapping around TGL’s field of play, which at 97 yards long and 50 yards wide is almost the size of a football field.”
Along with Woods and McIlroy, PGA Tour stars Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and others have committed to play in the league. The matches will feature three-man teams competing on a virtual course that includes real grass tee boxes and the Green Zone, a 22,475-square-foot short-game complex that transforms between holes.
TGL also announced details of the rules for the matches, including a 40-second shot clock. Players will be assessed a 1-stroke penalty if they fail to hit the ball during the allotted time. Play will be monitored by an on-course referee and a booth referee. Each team will have four timeouts, with a maximum of two per session.
The six four-man teams will represent Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Jupiter, Florida.
Rosters for Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club, TGL New York and TGL San Francisco will be announced later.