Tiger Woods suddenly appeared in a plume of red smoke with Eye of the Tiger screaming in his tech-infused TGL debut and although he followed that boxing-style entrance with a performance that left his team flat on the canvas, the crowd certainly enjoyed it.
Serena Williams, an investor in the indoor simulation league, was among a crowd of 1,500 people gathered at the Sofi Center, the $50 million purpose-built stadium near Woods’ home in South Florida.
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Credit: TGL/Sky Sports
Indeed, Jupiter Links Golf Club is essentially the home team in this concept – owned in part by Woods and Rory McIlroy – but support was soon disappointed. The Woods trio – with Max Homa and Kevin Kisner in support – were eliminated by a score of 12-1 by the LA Golf Club with Englishman Justin Rose. Jupiter was so bad that Homa asked, “Are they going to kick us out of the league?”
The answer, of course, is naturally a deafening “No.” Woods is unapologetically the main draw, bringing out other well-known names on his own opening night, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, not to mention Woods’ son, Charlie, and mother, Kultida. The latter applauded when Woods finally holed a putt on the last, while Serena, nominally owner of LAGC, joked: “Well, it’s about time.”
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Credit: TGL
Woods took it all in good spirits, falling almost hysterical when Kisner unleashed a shot from a bunker that, fortunately, inflicted no damage on any spectators. Woods, 49, appreciates that his iconic status is central to TGL’s success and was willing to give up his poor play.
“I think we might not get over 100,” Woods said on the ESPN broadcast. “We had about five balls in the hazard. I missed a bunker shot, Kiz almost killed someone…”
It will be interesting to see the viewing figures when they are released on Thursday. The first match attracted a million people and that was seen as a decent return, but they will be expecting a lot more with the 15-time major winner involved. With Woods still battling to recover from a sixth back operation in September, there are concerns that his competitive appearances on the Tour proper will be severely limited and that TGL (which stands for Tomorrow’s Golf League) will be as good as possible.
“It’s not the walking that’s the problem, it’s my game that’s not very good”
Afterward, Woods expressed doubts about his ability to play at next month’s Genesis Invitational, promoted by his charitable foundation. “As far as the game goes, I went all three rounds at PNC [the Tour’s father-and-son event, last month]and I had a great time there,” he said. “It’s not the walking that’s to blame, it’s my game that’s not very good.”
Of course, it’s extremely doubtful that the Genesis will take place at its traditional home of the Riviera Golf Club in Los Angeles, which is near the epicenter of the raging wildfires.
“We’re just trying to figure everything out and make sure everyone is safe and we have meetings planned in the future,” Woods said. “But at the moment we are not really focused on the tournament. It’s more about what we can do to help everyone who is struggling, who has lost their home and whose life has changed.
“It’s just sad. Max and I grew up there. We are So Cal kids. To see what happened, I’ve known a few people who lost everything, so it’s just hard.