TGL home snazzy Sofi Center steal thunder



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TGL Gold SoFi Center opens Image: TGL

TGL (golf league), the new tech-focused golf league which sits within the SoFi Center arena in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (US), made a splash recently. But more than the ‘tech golf’ it was the venue which stole the thunder.

‘The Palm Beach Post’ stated that the biggest star is not the league Founders Tiger Woods (American professional golfer) or Rory McIlroy (Northern Irish professional golfer). The big draw was the SoFi Center, the high-tech home of the revolutionary indoor golf league in Palm Beach County, Florida (US). The facility holds a supersized version of a golf simulator screen on top of a massive morphing green for a one-of-a-kind experience in the sport nestled into one of its hotbeds (Florida is home to the best golfing in the country and has been ranked as the # 1 best State in the United States for the golfers).

TGL (for TMRW Golf League) is a golf league created by TMRW Sports, a venture formed by sports executive Mike McCarley and professional golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in partnership with the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour. The league employs a combination of traditional golf play with elements of simulated indoor golf and features players from the PGA Tour (the organizer of professional golf tours in North America). The inaugural season began in 2025 that will compete in prime-time matches from January through March.
 

SoFi Center

The 1,500-capacity SoFi Center is on the campus of the Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, about 70 miles North of the 65,326-capacity Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (US), home of the National Football League (NFL) team Miami Dolphins.

Maintained McCarley, “The area is a perfect fit for the league because the Palm Beach County is where the vast majority of the players live.”

‘The Palm Beach Post’ further stated that the SoFi Center is nearly 250,000 square feet. Its simulator screen is 64 by 53 feet and the rotating green sits on a turntable 41 yards wide. It seats a capacity of 1,500 fans.
 

‘Blessing in Disguise’

The SoFi Center isn’t the original planned home of the TGL. It was supposed to live in an inflatable dome that collapsed when powerful storms moved through the area in November 2023 less than two months before the league was supposed to tee off. The launch was pushed back a year and the current steel version of the arena was built.

Pointed out Woods, “I think it was a blessing in disguise. We were rushing to get it ready. I don’t think we had all the components we have now and we certainly didn’t have the technology we’re able to have now. It worked out for the best for us as players, for the fans and I think for everyone watching.”
 

TGL Technique

The TGL is a mix of simulator and traditional golf. Players tee off from a platform into a 64-by-53-foot screen. That’s roughly the size of an IMAX screen (50×72). The league will feature 30 different hole layouts and there will be fairway, rough and sand surfaces to hit from depending on where the shot lands on the screen.

When the ball lands about 50 yards away from the pin the players will transition to the ‘Green Zone’, a 3,800-square-foot green that can be adjusted for variety on each hole. There are about 600 actuators under the green that will adjust the slope and layout of the green depending on the hole as well as sand traps.
 

Broadcast High

‘GOLF’ stated that the much-ballyhooed launch of the TGL on ESPN was … fine. The telecast ran for a shade more than two technically sound hours, featured an utter blowout and did not leave a bitter taste in the mouth of most who tuned in. For a sports league in Season 1, Episode 1 – a league that was perfectly transparent about the fact that its broadcasts will only improve from here – fine feels like a … fine place to be.
 

Broadcast Breakdown

The TGL didn’t show a shot for the first 15 full minutes of the action, electing for a series of player interviews and a brief league overview before launching into the action. The whole ordeal felt a bit like explaining the rules of a board game before one has played a turn –nobody seemed to retain the information and everyone seemed a little antsy to just get going.

‘GOLF’ further stated that but then the action began with Shane Lowry’s (Irish professional golfer) opening tee shot and the broadcast shot out of a cannon. The biggest lesson of the TGL’s opening broadcast – and perhaps the entire Opening Day – is that the league’s shot clock is a revelation. Gone are the boredom of incessant pre-shot tinkering and the inherent sleepiness of golf on television. If nothing else, the TGL moves and that alone give the format a real chance to survive.
 

The Camera Setup

There are some 70 cameras bugged throughout the SoFi Center like the Secret Service Agents. One gets the feel like each camera angle was used in some way throughout the action and spare for a few wildly oversaturated bunker-cam shots, it all whipped around pretty seamlessly. In a nod to the production team’s efforts, shots did not feel overly choreographed or boring to watch after the ball struck the simulator screen.

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