Tiger Woods’ return highlights inaugural TGL schedule

Tiger Woods is expected to play competitive golf again in January.

Woods, who underwent back surgery last month, is being promoted as making his TGL debut in the nascent league’s second week of competition. His Jupiter Links Golf Club team will play Los Angeles Golf Club at 7 p.m. ET on Jan. 14, televised on ESPN.

TGL released its full schedule Monday ahead of its debut in January. Its first match on Jan. 7 (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) will feature New York Golf Club (Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young) against The Bay Golf Club (Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Shane Lowry and Min Woo Lee).

The league itself is a big bet on a very different style of golf. Instead of playing on a golf course, the pros will hit balls into a massive video screen projecting virtual golf holes. Once they’re 50 yards away from the pin on the screen, they’ll physically chip and putt on a green that’s been built in the West Palm Beach, Fla., venue. The putting green has pistons underneath that’ll allow it to change shape for each hole.

The 24 PGA Tour pros that signed up for the venture (Woods and Rory McIlroy led its creation) were separated into six teams of four, with branding aligned with six different regions of the country.

All of this will take place in front of a live audience, in a two-hour window. All matches will be shown on an ESPN network, 16 of them in primetime.

The team matches will feature three of the four roster players each time, with lineups shaped by availability around the PGA Tour schedule. The league will take off the weeks of the Genesis Invitational and Players Championship, the highlights of the first three months of the tour season.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗧𝗚𝗟 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 @SoFi.

Coming January 2025 on @espn.

Listen to TGL’s own @RickieFowler talk match format, rules, and team golf. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MwL74ZgBqF

— TGL (@TGL) March 25, 2024

Woods is joined on his team by Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner. The idea that Woods can be a central figure in many of his team’s matches is not without reason — he is more available than anyone else, lives in the area and has a financial stake in the league’s success. It’s also a style of golf that is nothing like trying to walk 72 holes over four days.

Woods hoped to play once a month in 2024 but that proved unrealistic — after withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational in February he only played in the four majors for the rest of the PGA Tour season. He made the cut at the Masters but slumped over the weekend to fall into last place, then missed the cut at the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open from May to July.

Other top players in the league include McIlroy (Boston Common Golf), Justin Thomas (Atlanta Drive GC), Collin Morikawa (Los Angeles), Sahith Theegala (Los Angeles) and Patrick Cantlay (Atlanta).

TGL was originally expected to make its debut in January 2024 before it reported issues with its original venue after a storm. The league has since built a permanent facility, with seating for 1,500 fans.

Required reading

(Photo: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)