Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new indoor golf league, Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL), was forced to postpone its first season after the roof of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, collapsed overnight on November 14.
The inaugural season was expected to kick off in January, but will now be postponed until early 2025, the league announced in a press release on Monday. The cause was a power failure that forced a dome in the structure to deflate overnight.
The dome arena of the TGL golf league deflated earlier this week, leaving behind a tattered skeleton. Here’s what it looks like up close.https://t.co/GHUYVwbmCI
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) November 17, 2023
“Although the events of last week will force us to make adjustments to our timelines, I’m fully confident that this concept will be brought to life by our great committed players,” Woods said in a statement with TGL.
No one was harmed in the incident and no technology was compromised, but the league said the delay was the best solution at this time.
The Tiger-led league was announced in August 2022 and uses virtual courses for play in an indoor arena, according to PGA. Golf simulator technology, which simulates a real golf course, first hit the market in 2012, according to Golf Digest.
The new league has several notable backers, including Alexis Ohanian, Serena and Venus Williams, Stephen Curry, and Justin Timberlake, according to CNBC.
TGL also signed a multi-year deal with ESPN to broadcast events, but in the wake of the roof collapse, ESPN said it fully supports the delay.
“We have believed in them and their vision from the beginning, and that has not changed,” said the Executive Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions at ESPN, Rosalyn Durant. “The additional time to plan, test, and rehearse will only make it better.”
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