In TGL’s debut, this brilliant rule twist made the whole thing work

Phew.

It was something, wasn’t it?

However you felt about the debut match of TGL in the SoFi Center blocked in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday night, you probably had…thoughts.

You may have rolled your eyes at the WWE class’s voluminous pre-match introductions (“make some noise for Matt Fitz-PAAAA-trick!!!) which were followed by Dad-bod golfers humbly strolling into the arena in sweatpants. crisp whites and polos.

Or maybe you’re in awe of the tens of millions of dollars worth of TGL technology, finally seeing some competitive iterations: six-story simulator screen; the magnificent rolling green with nearly 600 hydraulic jacks beneath its surface; large touchscreen “book” on which teammates can strategize shots and club selections.

Maybe you gravitated to fast Lambo Golfs on the descents that seemed better suited for miniature golf than the professional variety. Or maybe you dug the variety of wild hole designs – Snake! O Chute! Pick Yer Plunder! – were a far cry from anything you’ll find at TPC Craig Ranch.

Maybe you could have done without DJ Khaled’s interminably long show. Or maybe you appreciated ESPN’s repeated cuts to team owners, seeing their subjects as wealthy Romans watching gladiators in the Colosseum.

Maybe you’re convinced that the TGL is everything that’s wrong with professional golf in 2024. Or maybe this brave new league fills you with hope and excitement about what’s possible in the evolution of the so-called ancient game.

But let’s put all that aside for a quick moment to celebrate the one thing that seemingly ANY the player, the ticket holder, the spectator, the reporter, the tweeter, the dog, the cat and the goldfish gathered behind: the gloriously fast pace of TGL’s game. Keeping the game moving was essential not only to keep audiences engaged, but also to squeeze a 15-hole match into a two-hour broadcast window, a TGL mission accomplished by not only encouraging fast play, but the mandated that.

If you were watching the broadcast, you probably noticed the rule: players are allotted no more than 40 seconds to play a shot, a number derived from the USGA’s pace-of-play recommendation for traditional golf, but one that also is routinely ignored at the top levels of professional golf, largely because the slow game is not tightly controlled.

However, in TGL, Keep it Moving or Else is a commandment that is set in stone. The specifics are right there in the official rules, which state that “each player will have 40 seconds to hit their shot, or their team will receive a shot clock violation and a one-shot penalty.”

Enforcing the timing rules is TGL’s resident referee and a guy who knows a little about shot clocks: former NBA ref Derrick Stafford. It’s helped, too, by two can’t-miss digital timers flanking either side of the SIM display. If the players need it another one reminder of their running time, they get it when the clock hits the 15-second mark in the form of a heartbeat sound that pulses through the arena.

Corny? Heck, no. It’s excellent. When one player left the tee, the other player was already speeding toward the tee box, spaced out, club in hand. It was the F1 golf meet, and golf fans on social media embraced it. Playing indoors (no wind!) and with perfect lies certainly makes club selection easier and faster, but still, at points you can tell guys wish they had a few more moments to rate their shots, especially on the greens. Professional players like to check everything. They move at their own pace and only pull the trigger when fully engaged. The shot clock can and will break that sequence – for some players, anyway.

However, if you take the TGL players from opening night at their word, none of them live up to that description. Bay GC’s repeat was Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Åberg who defeated their opponents, New York GC’s Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick, 9-2. Asked about the shot clock afterwards, every player to a man praised it, with Fitzpatrick going so far as to say: “I wish it was (in) real golf.”

Lowry admitted that during his practice session Monday, the clock took some getting used to — “I couldn’t believe how fast it all happens,” he said — but added that other teams are more likely to struggle with time pressure than his team. .

“Our team will have no problem with that,” he said. “We’re three of the fastest players out there.”

Indeed, at no point on Tuesday did either team appear stressed by their 40-second time limit. On the contrary, they seemed to embrace the rhythm, and perhaps even break free from it.

At the end of their post-match press conference, the New York team was asked if there is a TGL rule that might make sense to apply to traditional golf.

It took Fitzpatrick and Fowler about half a second before they uttered the same two-word response in unison: “Shot clock.”

But Fitzpatrick wasn’t done.

He leaned back into his microphone and said, “There’s no question.”

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