Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy Are Launching Their Own 'Tech-Infused Golf League' Called TGL

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Tiger Woods drove golf to new heights when he burst onto the PGA Tour. And now he is setting out to reinvent the sport once more.

The 46-year-old golf champ revealed on Tuesday that he teamed with fellow golf star Rory McIlroy, NBC Sports producer Dick Ebersol and executive Mike McCarley to launch TMRW Sports — a new company concentrating on "technology-focused ventures that feature progressive approaches to sports, media and entertainment."

On Wednesday, TMRW Sports first venture was announced: TGL, which the company described in a press release as "a new tech-infused golf league in partnership with the PGA Tour."

The league, according to the release, "will showcase team matches fusing advanced tech and live action from a custom-built venue in primetime on Monday nights" in a schedule that complements the current PGA Tour's schedule.

Play will start in January 2024.

TGL will feature six teams of three PGA Tour players each playing at a "data-rich, virtual course complete with a tech-infused, short-game complex" presented in prime time on Monday nights in matches that will last only two hours, according to the release.

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The league's season will include 15 regular season matches followed by a semifinals and finals match for a playoff format.

"TGL is the next evolution within professional golf, and I am committed to helping lead it into the future," Woods said in a release Wednesday. "Embracing technology to create this unique environment gives us the ability to move our sport into primetime on a consistent basis alongside so many of sports' biggest events."

"We all know what it's like to be in a football stadium or a basketball arena where you can watch every play, every minute of action unfold right in front of you," Woods added. "It's something that inherently isn't possible in traditional golf — and an aspect of TGL that will set it apart and appeal to a new generation of fans."

Virtual renderings of the course shared on Twitter by TGL showcase what appear to be live putting greens and sand pits for the course's short game, while golfers hit into a large movie theater-type screen for initial drives and longer shots. Fans will be seated inside the course for a stadium-type environment. It's unclear where this course will be located, but according to the New York Post, it will be designed to match different PGA Tour courses for each week's match.

McIlroy, for his part, said in the release that TGL "is taking a bold step into the increasingly tech-fueled future of sports."

"TGL will tap into the appeal of team golf within an exciting, fan-friendly environment, comparable to sitting courtside at an NBA game," McIlroy said. "TGL will widen the appeal of golf to younger and more diverse fans and serve as another avenue to introduce people to the game I love."

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McIlroy — who, alongside Woods and Jack Nicklaus, is one of just three golfers ever to win four major tournaments by age 25, according to the BBC — said at a TGL press conference Wednesday that the group has been working on TGL for two years before unveiling the new league. He also said he hopes the prime time, Monday night matches allow for PGA Tour players to "show a different side of themselves" in competition.

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"I think when someone comes to you and says 'I've got something to show you, I think it'll be really cool, it'll enhance the fan experience, it'll be additive and complementary to the PGA Tour season, oh, and by the way, Tiger Woods is involved,' it's like, yeah, I think that'll be pretty cool," McIlRoy told reporters.

McIlroy and Woods, who has hinted this year that his PGA Tour playing days may be numbered, are the first two pros officially signed on to play in TGL events.

The TGL's announcement comes amid debate in the golf community over the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which Woods in particular has criticized as several pros accepted suspensions from the PGA Tour to play with the LIV Golf Invitational Series.

ESPN previously reported that LIV Golf has ties to the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that makes investments on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The country has long been condemned for human rights abuses and LIV Golf has been criticized for working with Saudi Arabia.