Reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick is the most recent addition to TGL, the brand new golf league from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports activities enterprise, the league introduced Tuesday. Right here’s what you must know:
- Fitzpatrick, 28, was the 2013 U.S. newbie champion and has eight worldwide wins. He additionally tied for fifth on the 2022 PGA Championship and is No. 10 within the Official World Golf Rating.
- He joins a TGL roster that additionally consists of Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas along with Woods and McIlroy.
- TGL is a team-based “primetime golf league” that can work in partnership with the PGA Tour. It’s going to start play in January 2024.
We’re including one other main champion to the combo: Welcome to TGL, @MattFitz94! pic.twitter.com/zKrsptiviT
— TGL (@TGL) January 31, 2023
What’s TGL?
The league, first introduced in August of final 12 months — about two months after LIV Golf’s first match — will characteristic six groups of three PGA Tour gamers in a custom-built “tech-infused” venue.
The 2-hour competitions will happen Monday nights and the schedule will complement the PGA Tour’s. There will probably be 15 regular-season matches adopted by semifinals and finals.
Why the TGL issues within the PGA Tour-LIV Golf discourse
We’re nonetheless a 12 months out from the TGL really placing on its first present, however including one other top-10 golfer who’s within the prime of his profession appears like a superb addition.
However why these bulletins are newsworthy relate again to the dominant storyline in males’s golf during the last 12 months. In the event you’re signing up for TGL, you’re aligning your self with Woods and McIlroy. And never simply exhibiting up at a gathering in Delaware and going together with the gang, however placing some pen to paper. And signing up with Woods and McIlroy means a long-term dedication to the PGA Tour, one that isn’t simply undone by LIV’s riches.
If this all feels very Sharks vs. Jets to you, we apologize. However that’s simply how issues are proper now. — Kellenberger
What’s TMRW Sports activities?
Woods and McIlroy, together with CEO Mike McCarley, introduced the brand new firm “targeted on constructing technology-focused ventures that characteristic progressive approaches to sports activities, media and leisure” final 12 months.
Tv government Dick Ebersol was an preliminary investor. In November, the corporate introduced a star-studded group of recent traders spanning 26 lively and retired athletes, together with NBA star Steph Curry, baseball’s Shohei Ohtani, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, Payments quarterback Josh Allen and tennis greats Serena Williams and Andy Murray.
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(Photograph: Kyle Terada / USA As we speak)