Rory McIlroy is understandably in very high spirits as his TGL venture with Tiger Woods welcomes opening night.
McIlroy has been backed to win a major in 2025, but first the Northern Irishman turns his focus to TGL, which gets underway this week.
From TMRW Sports, the company founded by Woods and McIlroy, the TGL takes place at Florida’s SoFi Center.
Woods loves the TGL arena, with the competition having been pushed back one year after the dome collapsed due to a power shortage.
McIlroy and Woods are not involved in the opener, with the former representing Boston Common Golf and the latter playing for Jupiter Links Golf Club.
Rory McIlroy says why fans should be excited about TGL ahead of opening night
Instead, 1,500 spectators are expected to watch New York Golf Club play The Bay Golf Club over 15 holes in match one.
And even though he isn’t taking part, McIlroy is anticipating a fantastic reaction from those watching from both near and afar.
“The first thing I would like to have people know is it’s golf, but it’s reimagined, sort of trying to take golf into the 21st century,” McIlroy told ESPN. “We have teams, obviously there’s a lot of technology involved, trying to bring it into the digital era.
“A lot of things that we’ve taken from other sports like a shot-clock, a timeout, things that you don’t see in regular golf. [We’re] trying to appeal to that bigger sports audience out there.
“Tiger and I have been a part of this from day one and whenever you see the concepts and the renderings you think ‘Yeah, that looks really cool’.
“But until you actually stand in here and you see what they’ve been able to do, I think the scale of it is the thing for me that blows my mind.
“Every time I step in here I’m just blown away by the size of the screen, the fact that we’re able to put something that looks like golf on a stage like this.
“It’s really cool and we’re obviously very excited about it within the game of golf. I think a lot of other people outside of the game are going to see this and hopefully get excited about it as well.”
Who is playing in TGL opener for New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club?
A long list of star names will feature in TGL, where the top four of the six teams will advance to the play-offs.
Representing New York on opening night are Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele, who face Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark of The Bay.
Cameron Young misses out for the former as the competition gets going, with Min Woo Lee not selected for The Bay this time around.
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The two teams will play alternate-shot triples and singles, where each hole will be worth a point, with a nearest-the-pin competition played if there is a tie.
Woods will take to the SoFi Center in week two, with McIlroy set to take on the 15-time major champion in his opener in week four.
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