Coming off its inaugural season, the TGL (TMRW Golf League), founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, appears to be setting its sights on expansion. And Detroit is squarely on the radar.
Officials for TGL filed a trademark application for Motor City Golf Club earlier this week.
The indoor golf league, which features state-of-the art simulators, synthetic greens and real-sand bunkers at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, debuted in January with six, four-man teams, with three players for each team competing in the matches. The Atlanta Drive, featuring Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Billy Horschel, won the inaugural TGL title, beating New York Golf Club, featuring Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young.
Other inaugural teams include Jupiter Golf Links (Woods’ team), Boston Common Golf (McIlroy’s team), Los Angeles Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club.
While all the first season’s matches take place at the SoFi Center, each team is franchised and has ownership. Woods, Steph Curry, Venus Willliams, Serena Williams, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen are some of the owners.
It’s unclear if TGL is in active talks with any Detroit dignitaries about being an owner of a Motor City Golf Club team. A TGL official didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
There is a connection between TGL and Detroit. Jason Langwell was executive director of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic from 2019 through last year, when he left to join TMRW Sports as chief revenue officer.
Year 1 matches of TGL drew decent ratings across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+, with the prime-time matches averaging about 686,000 viewers, according to a report from Sports Business Journal. All matches, including the postseason, averaged just less than 500,000 viewers ― a noticeable improvement over content aired in similar times in 2024, and numbers that far exceed what LIV Golf is drawing this year, its first on the Fox platform. Perhaps most importantly, TGL’s average viewer in Year 1 was 13 years younger than the PGA Tour, per SBJ.
Other golfers who participated in Year 1 including major champions Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Keegan Bradley, Lucas Glover, as well as big personalities such as Tom Kim, Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg.
According to reports, TGL is looking to add at least one franchise for its second season, and it’s open to allowing LIV Golf players to participate. LIV Golf players remain ineligible to compete in PGA Tour events like the Rocket Classic, which is scheduled for June 26-29 at Detroit Golf Club. TGL also reportedly is considering creating a women’s league.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
