Have Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy nailed the coffin for TGL with its own Hammer? Once perceived as wild and impossible, TGL has popped off in the golf community with its amazing concept. Right from the first match, Xander Schauffele‘s crazy Hammer throws caught everyone’s attention. Ever since then, TGL has grown in popularity and fans now eagerly await the next round of the league every week.

However, Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy’s league has also received its fair share of criticism. Schauffele’s antics in the first round received some backlash from the insiders. Moreover, the goofy attitude of the golfers and seat fillers hired by TGL also caught a lot of limelight. But overall, the product has been a hit and it manages to draw in a lot of viewers.

So it comes as a surprise that TGL has announced a major change to its format midway through the season. As a Valentine’s Day update, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s league posted a tweet with the caption, “Happy Valentine’s Day, updated Hammer rules starting Monday.💘 🔨🔨🔨 🆚🔨🔨🔨”.

It also included an image with 3 new rules that read, “1: Each team starts the match with 3 Hammers. 2: A team can only throw 1 Hammer per hole. 3: The maximum a hole can be worth is 3 points if both teams choose to throw a Hammer on the same hole”. This is drastically different from the previous format where one Hammer was shared between both teams. As one would expect, fans reacted strongly to it.

Were the fans against or in favor of the new changes implemented by TGL? Let’s find out.

Have Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy made a mistake?

Xander Schauffele misusing the Hammer would have certainly been eye-opening for Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy. However, fans believe that TGL has other bigger issues that need to be resolved first. As someone said, “It won’t make a difference until they make the SIM more accurate!!” This was a common sentiment among other fans as well who were not pleased with the ‘Full Swing’ simulation system. Tommy Fleetwood faced the worst of it after his tee shot only jumped up a few meters.

Another fan said, “Can they get rid of the stupid flag and get a little more creative? Where the hell is their marketing staff at 🤦”.  This is a very common demand of the fans ever since the TGL began. They have found it ridiculous that the concept is called the ‘Hammer’ and an inflatable hammer is also not available in the arena.

“Ground breaking innovation, the hammers that are actually towels being tossed with zest will be must watch television” said someone sarcastically, possibly suggesting that they are not that enthusiastic about the change made by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. They might believe that TGL has many more bigger issues to take care of.

One fan shared an alternate method to utilize the Hammer. They commented “Whoever loses the first hole should be awarded the hammer first. The problem with the hammer rule currently is that whoever is in the lead has no incentive to ever throw the hammer.” They are not wrong as the winning team wouldn’t risk giving away their lead by using the Hammer unnecessarily.

Someone also mentioned, “The match that’s pretty widely considered the best so far, between Tiger and Rory, has the most hammers thrown ever. With these new rules they won’t be able to come close. Number of hammers wasn’t the problem. Should’ve made it so it switches hands after 3 holes without use.” The match between Jupiter Links GC and Boston Common Golf did have many Hammer throws. But that’s what made it more exciting. Limiting the Hammers is as dreadful as letting one team possess it for too long. Another golf fan probably doesn’t follow TGL as they said, “Nothing can save this format…..can’t fix boring”.

What do you think about the newly proposed change to the Hammer by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy for TGL? Share your views in the comments section.