The two main men go head-to-head in the simulator golf world, when Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – founders of TGL – lead their respective teams in this week’s edition of the franchise.
Woods’ Jupiter Links (who embarrassingly lost 12-1 in their opening match last week) take on McIlroy’s Boston Common team (which also features Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley) in week three of the league (live on Sky Sports, coverage begins at 11.30pm Irish time).
It is McIlroy’s first appearance in the event that hopes to offer something new to golf. The first week included Shane Lowry on the winning team with Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark and drew 919,000 average viewers in the US, and increased to 1.05 million the second week when Woods appeared. Last week, it dropped to 682,000 average viewers but it is expected to rise again as Woods’ team faces off against the one led by McIlroy.
Three players from the four-man teams compete in 15-hole matches that blend virtual and real-time golf. The longer shots will be hit into a 3,400-square-foot screen, roughly 24 times the size of a standard golf simulator.
From about 50 yards and in, they will transition to live action and finish each hole within a 22,475 sq ft short game complex, with the shape of the green modified on every hole.
McIlroy will not be hanging around too long, regardless of the outcome however. The world number three will be high-tailing it across the US for the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, the first of this season’s limited-field PGA Tour signature events (with a $20 million purse).
Shane Lowry, who missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open, and Séamus Power, who has been receiving treatment for a back injury which forced him out of the Sony Open earlier this month, are also competing.
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