The inaugural season of TGL, the high-tech golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, was drawn from the first chapter of the tech startup playbook.
TGL was different. It was innovative and clumsy. It was agile and adaptable, but it also lacked an identity. But in the end, the simulator league built momentum and succeeded thanks to acquisitions from the best players in the worldallowing it to flourish.
If Season 1 was the introduction, then the second season of TGL, which is now two games old, has been all about evolution – about growing a unique idea into something that is fun and can appeal to the average golf fan and a new age viewer. Something that could be golf, but a version you can’t see anywhere else.
Like me wrote after the first game of this seasonkey to evolutionary growth TGL is looking to rest on its ability to branch out from traditional golf and embrace the high-tech, video game aspect of its DNA. This starts by inventing new holes that are more “Golden Tee” than Pebble Beach. Holes that ask the world’s best players to really show off their hitting ability by designing holes that break the traditional mold and lean into the virtual part of the sport.
“In Season 1, we wanted to make sure we didn’t shock too many people at once, so we kept it very traditional,” said Billy Horschel. “What you saw was just us hitting our shots. Now we have some of these extreme holes — video game holes — that people on social media have been talking about, what we’ve been talking about, just creating something really cool, unique holes that you can make in a tech sport like this.
“You’re going to see us hitting golf shots. You’re going to see us hit low pars, high pars, high pars. … I think everybody watching is going to enjoy a little bit of that, whether it’s traditional holes or these more radical style holes created through TGL.”
Golf, but not the kind you see on Sundays from January to August and into the fall.
Insert holes as Stinger, Cenote and Lone Pine, which appeared in the first two games of TGL and received good reviews.
Stinger is a par-4 that requires players to hit a low drive under a rock formation to reach the fairway. Another rock formation lurks along the night side of the hole (along with a water hazard) that players must hit with sweeping hooks if they find themselves out of line.
In the first two games, three of the four players who left the hole failed to get it under the rock formation. Xander Schauffele said the hole introduced “chaos” into New York Golf Club’s match with Atlanta Drive. Cam Young said the holes were “tougher.”
But that’s the point. Increase the difficulty level for the best in the world in a way that is impossible on our earthly plane and increase the fun.
“I don’t think they expected The Stinger to go this way, but I imagine it was pretty fun,” Schauffele said. “It was nice to see our teammate Cam hit a 50-yarder on a screen. It was pretty cool. I think it’s pretty cool. The tree in the middle of the hole, it’s kind of fun for us to shoot a certain way.”
TGL built a solid foundation in its inaugural season. It was a strange idea – one that still has some ironing to do – that has most of the world’s best players fully involved and enjoying a different kind of competition.
But as Tiger and Rory’s high-tech golf league looks to the future, it should look to get more creative and take bigger swings with hole designs (and perhaps other aspects) that put the world’s best players in position to show their personalities as they take on a challenge they won’t see at Quail Hollow or the Riviera.
Chapter 2 of the tech resume book is: Always be innovative. Always stay one step ahead. Better to take a swing than play it safe. Think more before you consider retiring.
That’s the path TGL plans to take, which isn’t surprising given all the players involved — from Woods and McIlroy to billionaires like Arthur Blank and Steven Cohen to celebrities Steph Curry and Alexis Ohanian. This starts with more holes like the ones that have been a hit with fans and players to start Season 2.
“I think there’s definitely an opportunity to get creative,” McIlroy said Friday after Boston Common Golf’s win over Los Angeles Golf Club. “I think the Stinger hole has been a big hit so far. We’ve played two games so far and Michael (Thorbjornsen) is the first person to get it down and actually get it on the fairway.
“There are limits in the real world to what golf holes you can build. There are no limits to what we’re doing here.”
No-holds-barred golf is exactly where TGL needs to go.
