'Traditionalist' Rory McIlroy wants to appeal to a younger generation via TGL
Rory McIlroy recently said that he was a traditionalist when it came to golf and that there was nothing close to championship golf. However, he added that with TGL, he wanted the game to appeal to a younger generation.
On Thursday, December 19, McIlroy attended the Boston Common GC's press conference. During the press conference, the Northern Irishman addressed many questions regarding the new tech-infused league and its format, which is unlike traditional golf.
"I'm still a traditionalist in a lot of ways," he said as per NBC Sports. "There’s no replicating championship golf. I think that’s always going to be around. It always will be around.
"But I think there are certain things that we can do to innovate and try to maybe try to appeal to a different and younger demographic, especially trying to condense it into a time frame that is a little bit more digestible and putting it on at a time where we’re maybe going to get a few more eyeballs as well."
The four-time major champion added that he was optimistic about TGL attracting both older and younger generations.
"Maybe it’s something that the traditional golf fan finds interesting finds interesting and sort of complementary to the golf that they usually watch," he said. "And then maybe some people that have never watched the game before in any serious way think actually this is a pretty cool version of golf, and we can sort of get into it and we can root for a certain team that we haven’t really been able to do before."
Rory McIlroy's Boston Common GC to release at BTS documentary ahead of the TGL season
Rory McIlroy's team, Boston Common Golf Club, will drop the BTS documentary next week before the TGL goes on the floor in the first week of January. The documentary, titled unCommon: Building a Boston Sports Team, will be released on Friday, December 26, on NESN at 6 PM ET.
Boston Common GC is owned by Fenway Sports Group, the popular sports holding conglomerate that has stakes in several big teams. Besides Rory McIlroy, the team will feature major winners Shane Lowry, Adam Scott, and Keegan Bradley.
The TGL will kick off on January 7, with New York GC taking on The Bay GC. Boston Common will play its first match on January 27 against Jupiter Links GC.