The indoor golf league envisioned by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy finally has its debut match

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Ludvig Aberg will be the answer to a trivia question: He made the first birdie in TGL history.

And with that, the indoor golf competition that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had envisioned for years was finally underway.

The TGL made its debut on Tuesday night, with Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele of New York Golf Club taking on Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Aberg of The Bay Golf Club in the opener. The 15-hole match took just under two hours, which is exactly how TGL envisioned it to work. Final score: The Bay 9, New York 2.

Lowry hit the first shot at 21.15. Four minutes later, the first hole in TGL history was complete when Aberg rolled in a 9-footer for the first point in league play. Yes, it goes that fast.

“This was just a dream conjured,” Woods said on the ESPN broadcast. “Rory and I talked about it; It’s hard to believe that dream came true and we were able to take golf into another stratosphere, really.”

Woods and McIlroy — part of the brain trust that put this enterprise together — was there as expected. DJ Khaled was also there as the players warmed up and showed off his swing with an imaginary club.

The venue is a 250,000 square foot facility at Palm Beach State College. Players hit some shots on a video screen, some from real grass, some off-grass, and the bunkers aren’t just real sand—it’s Augusta National Golf Club sand, the same sand Woods has on his home practice facility. It’s super high-tech, with data collected from every shot. Players wore microphones, there were betting options and fans surrounded the “pitch” in an intimate arena where music blared and noise was welcomed.

Once the teams moved within 50 yards of the pin, they went to a card game complex — with a green that sits on a 41-yard-wide turntable and has about 600 units underneath to change the contours.

And the players loved it. Lowry had one-liner after one-liner. A few examples:

– “I’m going to be the Scottie Scheffler of indoor golf.”

– “A bit like myself. A bit chunky,” he said after a shot came up a bit short.

It ended with a 729-yard par-5 — a reachable 729-yard par-5, if that makes any sense. Handshakes and cheers all around when it was over, Lowry gave a big wave to the fans and the night was over.

Woods loved it when some fans, let’s say, weren’t quite quiet when Clark made a putt on one of the early holes.

“You don’t usually hear that at events,” Woods said. “You’re going to hear that here.”

Woods is expected to make his debut for his Jupiter Links club on January 14. McIlroy’s debut could be on January 27 when Boston Common plays Jupiter Links. The regular season lasts until March 4. There are 24 players – six teams of four – and the top four teams advance to the playoffs with a best-of-three championship series two weeks before the Masters.

Each team activates three players for a match and the 15-hole competitions will be completed in approximately two hours. It will all be shown on ESPN platforms, often in prime time. The league has been in the making for a few years; the original plan was for it to start last year, but a storm slowed construction and organizers pushed the debut back to 2025.

“It’s not traditional golf, yeah,” Woods said. “But it’s golf. And that’s the most important thing.”

___

AP golf: