Rory McIlroy admits the big concern he had about TGL after watching the first few weeks before making his debut

Add as preferred source on Google

Despite having Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in its corner, it was always likely that TGL was going to experience some teething problems during its first season.

Of course, the start of TGL was pushed back a year, while they also lost the likes of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton to LIV Golf. And it was perhaps not the best advert to not have the world number one Scottie Scheffler involved.

But there have been some promising signs in the opening weeks. Week one proved to be a great introduction, while Tiger Woods made his debut in the following game. Jupiter Links’ opener also saw perhaps the best moment of the year, with Kevin Kisner thinning his bunker shot into the flag stick.

But there were some worries after week two. Sahith Theegala noted he was hitting the ball a club further, while Woods seemed to be well off with a number of his distances. And with that, some wondered if the TGL simulator was working properly.

Rory McIlroy admits the concern he had ahead of his TGL debut

Clearly, that could be fatal for the league if the shots are not registering correctly. And it seems that Rory McIlroy was not entirely convinced that everything was working perfectly ahead of his own debut this week.

Speaking ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Northern Irishman admitted that he wanted to make sure ahead of Boston Common’s game with Jupiter Links that the numbers matched up.

“Yeah. So tech wise and numbers wise, look, I’ve had the same concerns, I guess, just from I hadn’t obviously played a match. I went in there on Wednesday and I brought two other launch monitors with me. I brought my GC Quad, I brought my TrackMan. Obviously hitting balls into the screen and every number was virtually identical. That put my concerns to bed, which was really good. I hit balls in there for 90 minutes,” he said.

“I think the big thing for us is you’re hitting into a screen. It’s obviously a big screen, but when you’re playing outside you’ve got some sort of connection to the target, right? This is what we grew up doing, this is what we know.

“So when you get in there, it’s very difficult or hard to be like okay, I’m going to aim, you know, on the right half of the screen or the left half of the screen and trust that it’s actually going to do what you want it to do.

“Adam [Scott] was in there for the first time on Saturday and I was in there with him. I said you have to really try to treat this as if you’re playing outside because you hit it on that right half of the screen and try to hit a draw, like it will come back. If you hit a fade on the left side of the screen, it will come back. It’s just getting more reps in there to familiarise yourself and trust it I think is the big thing.

“And the more and more that we play in there, the more we’re going to get used to it and be comfortable.”

Brighter signs for TGL as the PGA Tour continues to toil

Week four has the potential to be a real turning point for TGL. Unfortunately, none of the first three weeks had delivered much of a spectacle. But that all changed, as Jupiter beat Boston in overtime.

Woods and Kisner were much better, while Tom Kim looks to be absolutely ideal for the format. And it is safe to say that the fans were impressed, with many now worried for the PGA Tour.

It has been an underwhelming start to the year for the PGA Tour, with a few of their big names – including McIlroy – making their first appearance of the season this week. And with pace of play proving to be such a frustration for the fans, TGL’s ability to race through a game in a couple of hours is not exactly helping.

But it is definitely safe to say that TGL has real potential.