Los Angeles Golf Club player Sahith Theegala chats with Jupiter Links Golf Club player Tiger Woods as LAGC took down Jupiter Links 12-1 on Jan. 14, 2025. Photo courtesy of TGL.
JAMIE HEALY | STAFF REPORTER | jdhealy1@butler.edu
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where the Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
What do Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas have in common? All are major champions, but starting this year they are also competitors in the inaugural season of the TMRW Golf League (TGL).
The six-team league launched its inaugural season on Jan. 7 and consists of 15-hole matches. Winning points on each hole, the first nine utilize all three players on a team in an alternate-shot format while the final six consist of a match-play format.
What sets the league aside is the mix between simulator golf and traditional golf, with golfers having to wait until the “GreenZone” to take their first in-person swing.
At the beginning of each match, a team has three “hammers.” According to the official TGL rulebook, a “hammer is a game modifier that will change the hole value by adding one point to the value.”
First-year biochemistry major Nate Elliott enjoys the hammer rule and thinks it adds more to every match.
“I really like the hammer rule,” Elliott said. “I think it keeps teams in [the match] longer and keeps it interesting even when a team is down late in the match.”
The TGL also features a 40-second shot clock for every shot, where players must hit the ball before time runs out in order to avoid a penalty. This is a massive deviation from the traditional golf leagues where there is no running clock.
Elliott agreed with the shot clock usage in the league and thinks it is a major improvement over the pace-of-play rules in golf leagues like the PGA Tour.
“I think the shot clock absolutely should be implemented on tour just to speed up play,” Elliott said. “I think it would just make things go a lot smoother.”
The pace of play has been a noted issue on the PGA Tour in recent years, including this past January during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. During the CBS broadcast, course reporter Dottie Pepper criticized the final grouping’s pace after it took them three hours to play the first nine holes of the round.
The shot clock used in the TGL has allowed its product to be placed in a two-hour primetime window on ESPN, amplifying the sport to a bigger audience. However, the shot clock is not the only driving factor behind the league’s success.
With marquee names such as Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa competing in the league, the TGL is committed to star power and sees it as a goldmine for viewership. TGL has also allowed each team to have an in-season signing, as LAGC signed six-time PGA Tour winner Tony Finau to a one-match contract in their chase for a playoff spot.
Elliott contends that involving even more key names in the league will help to drive up viewership.
“I think including the LIV players would be really good for this league,” Elliott said. ”I think involving some of these players such as Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka would be really good at bringing a lot of excitement to the golf world.”
Even with the PGA-LIV split in 2022, there have been events such as The Showdown involving those marquee names on LIV such as DeChambeau and Koepka. On Dec. 17 of this past year, TNT televised the made-for-TV golf exhibition that pitted DeChambeau and Koepka against PGA stars McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
Elliott is not alone in advocating for new players in the league to help get even more fans engaged in the sport.
Nick Brenner, senior computer engineering and economics double major, pines for the league to add celebrity golfers in order to emphasize the casual nature of the league.
“I think it would be fun to have one non-professional golfer on each team,” Brenner said “If it was someone good but not like a pro, like Steph Curry or Aaron Rodgers, that would help get more viewership and represent the whole idea of the more casual league.”
Both Curry and Rodgers have played in multiple exhibition events including the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament contested each July in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Brenner also really appreciates the team aspect of the league and believes it to be the reason he has gotten into the league as a whole.
“Team sports appeal more to me,” Brenner said. “It’s more fun to see people working together, especially [in] a game that’s so individual, but they find ways to help each other out.”
The league’s more modern approach to a centuries-old game is not without some detractors.
Sophomore pharmacy major Andrew Dial agrees that this new take is innovative and draws new fans. However, a different approach may be necessary to make it more fun for him.
“Making the league more [involved with] mini-games or something like that,” Dial said. “You’re already changing what golf is and it’s not like traditional golf, So maybe making it more like closest-to-the-pin challenges or something like that.”
All three believe the league is reaching the casual market and can help entice more people into the game as a whole.
“People who normally wouldn’t watch golf are tuning into it,” Elliott said. “Usually, tournaments are Thursday through Sunday and TGL matches are usually on Tuesday. It gives fans another thing to look forward to in the middle of the week.”
While there may still be moves needed for more people to come into the flock, TGL has had an effect on Butler students already. Innovations such as the shot clock and a team element have given multiple reasons to watch. Even in its inaugural year, the league has adopted a following from both non-golf fans and golf fanatics alike.
