Palm Beach Gardens, FL – Los Angeles Golf Club took on hometown franchise Jupiter Links Golf Club at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach, it was Match #2 of the new simulator golf league that features six teams and 24 of the best players in the world. It was our first time in the building, and I’m here to tell ya, the place is impressive.
The theme in week 2 was Tiger Woods’ debut into this new genre, and the hype was massive (Tiger & Rory are partners in TMRW Sports – the company that created TGL). Tiger was introduced last, and in Michael Jordan-esque style at the United Center in the 90’s, all eyes were on him as he entered the arena to his very own walkout song, the 80’s anthem – Eye of the Tiger. The place erupted. Then he and his Jupiter Links team (Max Homa & Kevin Kisner) had to actually play simulator golf.
Tiger Woods hit the first tee shot of his TGL career, leading off the night’s competition (above), and he threw the “Hammer” – which allows the hole to be worth two points instead of one. Team Los Angeles accepted the challenge, and rose to it (pun intended), dominating from the get-go, with Justin Rose leading the way. As the evening grew, things did not improve for the home squad. Kevin Kisner played like a guy who’s ready for the full-time broadcast gig at NBC, rather than executing well struck golf shots. In the end, the Jupiter Links trio was drubbed by Team LAGC (Justin Rose, Colin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala) by a tally of 12-1.
In the post game presser, Tiger made reference to his team being entertaining in a dreadful way, but behind the giggles and light-hearted banter, it was clear to see – he wanted to put on a better showing. On the other side, team Los Angeles looked like they had the SoFi setup all figured out, executing every facet of the TGL format superbly, they had aced the “Super SIM” at SoFi Center.
So the competition wasn’t stellar in either of the two matches played so far (The Bay vs New York GC Match #1), but the experience inside the SoFi Center is worthy of checking out, either on the ESPN telecast or in person. A few things to note about the experience, there’s so much going on technology-wise, that a big part of the experience is largely a visual overload of everything the SoFi Center has going on. So many types of cameras are being employed for the telecast, the sound system is on point and the rotating green is a pretty amazing innovation to see in person – it has to be seen to truly appreciate how far things have come along in this new age of innovation and technology, but there are questions . . .
Is TGL sustainable? Can the telecast hold the attention of viewers for two hours? Both valid questions, and one that probably will be answered by the quality of the competition and the telecast going forward. Another challenge is the demographic of the average golfer, safe to say the traditionalist may not be the target audience. The younger YouTube crowd and casual golf viewers may be more inclined to watch something so tech-driven and outside the box. Perhaps mixing up the format a bit, and encouraging more wagers through DraftKings and FanDuel might move the needle a bit. Afterall, what else are you doing on a Tuesday night in January?
I’ll tell you one thing, I’d love to spend a day in there with some friends hitting into that giant SIM, and playing some shortgame “H-O-R-S-E” with wagers on that rotating green.
Match 3 is Tuesday, January 21st at 7pm – the Atlanta Drive led by Justin Thomas vs Xander Schauffele’s New York Golf Club.
For more info on TGL – https://tglgolf.com/
