TMRW Sports, a startup founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel President Mike McCarley, recently raised an oversubscribed seed round from a collective of high-profile investors.
The company has begun to grow golf’s fan base by reimagining the sport for a younger, more technological and diverse audience. Its new league, TGL, will blend the traditional game of golf with emerging technologies to create what former Goldman Sachs partner and TMRW investor Eric Grubman called “the first true esport.”
PGA Tour stars — including Woods and McIlroy — will hit the balls in a simulator that will measure parameters such as club speed, outlet speed, club path and spin to project shots onto large screens. Once within a certain distance from the hole on the virtual course, a technology-enabled green will be placed in front of the live studio audience.
“It’s completely technology-driven, so its appeal is likely to a younger demographic with a shorter attention span,” Grubman said. The average age of the PGA Tour viewer on linear TV is 67.8.
JWS’s Take: “GL” TGL stands for golf league. The “T” is left open to interpretation. It could mean Technology, the group, TMRW or Tiger – and according to insiders, at various times during the past two years.
TMRW has not disclosed how much money it has raised or the valuation at which capital has been raised. However, the seed round is expected to bring TGL to sustainability.
To be clear, TGL does not seek to compete with the PGA Tour. In fact, the tour is a partner of the new league. He sees value in golf’s ancillary property in promoting its biggest stars and personalities. “A prime-time player experience on the PGA Tour will help attract a wider audience to our sport and the world’s greatest players,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement.
TGL events will be held on Mondays so as not to interfere with the tour schedule from Thursday to Sunday.
Generating interest in a new sports league is a difficult challenge. But history has shown that viewers will tune in to televised golf events. Monday Night Golf, a series of prime-time match-play events that aired once a year on ABC from 1999-2005, averaged 7.4 million viewers.
Turner Sports has averaged 1.39 million cable viewers over the past four episodes the match.
There is also momentum behind the outdoor golf trend. More people will be playing on a regular golf course in 2022. Top Golf’s rapid growth is behind the shift to “modern golf”.
TMRW aims to produce events that make audiences feel like they’re hanging out with “some of the biggest figures in the world of gaming and pop culture,” said former On Location Experiences CEO and TMRW investor John Collins. Think of it as a live golf tournament mixed with ManningCast. However, unlike MNF The personalities appearing in alt-broadcast, TGL events will actively participate in the competition.
The PGA Tour’s involvement lends credibility to the inaugural league and should help convince existing golf fans to give it a shot. TGL’s team format (six teams, three per golfer) is designed to add some extra intrigue.
TMRW will rely on its diversified investor base to drive awareness of the property among non-professional golfers.
Most televised golf contests over the years have been one-off events. Player travel and/or infrastructure construction required to get a professional golf tournament off the ground in the early hours was often hampered by unrealistic expectations.
TGL will host its events weekly over a five-month period starting in January 2024. The regular season lasts 15 weeks and is followed by a post-season consisting of semi-finals and finals.
While some players may be reluctant to give up their day, TMRW is finding many others to turn what is usually a practice day into a productive one from a competitive and trading perspective. TGL intends to announce the names of the committed players in the coming weeks.
Advances in technology allow the competition to be held on the East Coast, in prime time, without the need to flood a 200-acre track or worry about rain delays.
The tech-packed setup is expected to deliver a televised broadcast. Event coverage “will be able to integrate things that historically haven’t worked well for golf, like games and stats,” Collins said. Remember that much of the action in a typical golf event happens all at once. As a result, only a fraction of the hits made are shown on TV in real time, limiting the possibilities of live betting.
By eliminating the time players spend walking, TGL will be able to show every shot live in a compressed two-hour contest. The studio environment allows the league to set up cameras to capture each of them perfectly. Having those angles should allow predictors to provide the swing analysis that golf die-hards want.
TGL’s business model will initially look like any other professional sports league. “Gate, sponsorship, media distribution,” Collins said. If the league catches on as investors hope, it could consider selling ownership in teams going forward.
Gate is expected to be the lowest grossing of the three. Matches are taking place in an intimate studio environment, not on a golf course or 20,000-seat stadium.
There could also be credible proprietary data available to TGL in the future. “Imagine the rich data that can be collected in this controlled environment,” Grubman said. “You start thinking about the fans, [club pros] and sports game companies would like to do with it.’
While TMRW’s initial focus is on golf, the company envisions being able to replicate its technology-enabled league concept in other sports. Steph Curry, Serena Williams and Lewis Hamilton are among the famous athletes who participated in the final round. “You can see in the list of investors there are other legs,” Collins said.
