After a year of delay, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL is all set to begin on January 7, 2025. It will be a format that the golf world has never seen—the perfect blend of technology and traditional golf techniques. Hosted at the SoFi Center in Florida, promotions are underway. Some people have been utterly excited to see how TGL fares but some are dicey too, including some PGA Tour pros. Rickie Fowler was one of them.

On the Smylie Kaufman Show, he said, “I’m looking forward to it. In a way, we don’t fully know what to expect until it gets going. It is not real golf, but it’s not, you know, hitting balls in your bedroom simulator or office simulator. It’s somewhere kind of in between.” But now Rory McIlroy has come in to rescue the league.

Fenway Sports Group, in collaboration with the creative team at GolfPass, has produced a five-part docuseries titled unCOMMON: Building a Boston Sports Team. The series offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Boston Common TGL team, led by Rory McIlroy. On Friday, the Northern Irishman spoke to Jeremy Schilling who writes for PGA Magazine, and revealed everything about the course. “The playing surfaces are very realistic because they are real,” he said. “We’re playing off real Bermuda grass for the fairways, real Bermuda rough, if you do hit into the rough.”

McIlroy also added that even the sand is apparently similar to what is used at the Augusta National. Omitting the indoor golf and new tech advancement concepts, he added, “Once you get within 40 yards of the green, then you transition to the green zone where all of that is artificial turf. But I still feel like the ball reacts very realistically on the green.” He even said that they made the greens artificial on purpose; “We made the decision to go with artificial for the green because we want to make it interesting.” 

Fowler’s comments raised concerns about the future direction of the tournament. The newest element TGL brings is the simulator screen. The golfers will be teeing off against it, not something that has been done before. Probably pointing to this, McIlroy said “There’s still a level of anxiousness leading into his first match.”

Unlike Rickie Fowler, a lot of players are too excited to witness the new form of the game. And pretty much like Rory McIlroy, they too believe that TGL is not all artificial.

Billy Horschel comes to TGL’s rescue

On Wednesday, Billy Horschel released a promotional video for TGL, giving viewers an inside look at the arena and all the exciting features that will enhance the league’s tournaments. Horschel emphasized that this isn’t your typical golf simulator experience. While some may find it unusual to see professionals playing on a simulator, he clarified that it’s not fully digital—there’s much more to it than meets the eye.

“We’re hitting off real grass; we’re hitting real golf shots. Yes, there will be some artificial surfaces, but there is a lot of technology that is going into this. It’s not just thrown together, ‘Let’s do this.’ This is a lot of high-tech stuff, and the way they’ve created the competition,” he said.

He also added how the league was crafted so that it could stand out and reach out to viewers within just a two-hour window. With the dropping viewership, a change like this could improve the curve, and he thinks the fans will be very excited to see all the shots, and the players will be more engaged with the game than ever.

What do you think of the $500 million valued TMRW Sports’s TGL? Excited for it to begin? Let us know in the comments section below!