Rory McIlroy provided golf fans with a sneak preview of what to expect in the inaugural season of the golf league TGL.

During halftime of Saturday’s NFL clash between the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns, McIlroy sat down with ESPN commentator Scott Van Pelt to discuss ‘Tomorrow’s Golf League’ – a tech-infused circuit that the Northern Irishman hopes will reinvent the way in which the sport is watched and played.

“I think the first thing that 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,” he began.

“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. So [we’re] trying to appeal to that bigger sports audience out there.”

On Tuesday, TGL will kick off at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens – a 250,000-square foot arena that has the ability to seat 1,500 spectators. In the indoor-based league, 24 PGA Tour players will be divided into six teams of four and compete on a weekly basis in the coming months.

The innovative concept was first brought to the attention of McIlroy and Tiger Woods by Mike McCarley in December of 2020. The trio founded TMRW Sports two years later, with the league finally coming to fruition this month following a one-year delay.

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TGL's matches will be played at SoFi Center in Florida

TGL’s matches will be played at SoFi Center in Florida ( 

Image:

TGL)

It wasn’t until McIlroy stepped foot in the SoFi Center – which features a 64 x 53-foot screen and rotating green – that the 35-year-old realized just how vast of a project TGL is. “Tiger and I have been a part of this from day one, and whenever you see the concepts and the renderings, you’re like, ‘Yeah, that looks really cool,’” he said.

“But until you stand in here and you see what they’ve been able to do, I think the scale of the thing 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.

“We’re obviously very excited about it within the game of golf. And I think a lot of other people outside of the game are going to see this and hopefully get excited about it as well.”

According to Golf Monthly’s Matt Cradock, TGL will boast a total prize pot of $21 million, with the winning team taking home a whopping $9 million purse at the end of the season. The opening contest will match up the New York Golf Club (Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, and Matt Fitzpatrick) against The Bay Golf Club (Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, and Shane Lowry).