Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL Golf League delayed until 2025 due to venue damage in Florida
Tiger Woods' TGL league was targeting a January debut. The new league was expected to begin in a couple of months, but will now face a significant delay. Thanks to venue damage in Florida, they will be unable to get the league going until 2025.
Because of scheduling issues for players and for the ESPN television slots, they couldn't just delay by weeks or even months. Unfortunately, it will cost them a year even though it's highly unlikely that it takes that long to fix the venue and get things up and running again.
TMRW Sports co-Founder & CEO Mike McCarley said via Sports Business Journal:
"We are disappointed with the delay but thankful that no one was injured and grateful for the overwhelming support from our athletes, teams, Palm Beach State College and business partners. Their steadfast belief in the success of TGL and their alignment with the decision to postpone the inaugural season will allow us to regroup and return with the best product possible at our preferred time on the sports calendar.”
The schedule was initially slated to not interfere with other sports so that fans could watch and ESPN could broadcast without taking away elsewhere.
TGL now looking at 2025 start as teams continue to fill up
The 24 players who originally signed up to compete in TGL were Woods, McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Shauffele, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry, Tyrell Hatton, Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley, Sahith Theegala, Wyndham Clark, Lucas Glover, Kevin Kisner, Min Woo Lee, Cameron Young and Tom Kim.
However, Rahm ultimately decided to drop out with scheduling concerns. He also declined to take McIlroy's role as a Player Director on the PGA Tour due to the same concerns.
Right now, Morikawa and Theegala are confirmed to be on LA Golf Club, while most of the rest of the aforementioned golfers have yet to sign on to a team.
The new dome that was under construction is roughly 250,000 square feet and will allow for an oversized simulator. This has a 46-by-64-foot screen for players to hit shots.
It also comes with various other aspects like greens and bunkers to fully simulate the golfing experience. It is supposed to seat 2,000 people when the league opens.
When the collapse initially happened, statements were released indicating that they had no idea about the timetable. The official timetable still hasn't been confirmed, but they will have a year's delay regardless. The year 2024 was shaping up to be a big year for the new league, but that will have to wait until 2025.