Keegan Bradley, Cameron Young, Sahith Theegala join Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy’s TGL for inaugural season
Keegan Bradley didn’t make the U.S. Ryder Cup team, but on Wednesday he became one of three new additions — along with Cameron Young and Sahith Theegala — to the TGL, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s indoor golf league. The inaugural season begins in January at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Bradley, Young and Theegala join a list of 16 other golfers in the nearly full league, which will begin on Tuesday nights starting Jan. 9, 2024, just after the college football season ends. Here’s a look at the other 16 golfers set to compete in the league:
- Tiger Woods
- Rory McIlroy
- Jon Rahm
- Collin Morikawa
- Justin Thomas
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Shane Lowry
- Justin Rose
- Adam Scott
- Xander Schauffele
- Max Homa
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Rickie Fowler
- Tom Kim
- Billy Horschel
It was also announced on Wednesday that Atlanta will be one of the cities represented in the league with Matt Ryan and Chipper Jones as presumed investors in that team. It is unclear how players will be situated when it comes to the teams and cities, and with five players still left to be announced — there will be six teams of four — we likely won’t know how the teams are constituted until all the players are announced.
We can presume, though, that Bradley will be part of the Boston team that was recently announced.
“As a sports fan, I think TGL is going to appeal to a lot of people who simply love to watch sports in general and not just golf. ESPN is the perfect partner for TGL and I can’t wait to be a part of one of these teams and contribute in any way that I can,” said Bradley in a statement.
It remains to be seen whether TGL will appeal to a wide range of people. It has a lot of things going for it, including a good TV partner, Tiger and Rory’s involvement, short time windows (relative to other sports) and mic’d up players throughout. But, well, do we really need more golf?
Some of this is obviously a response to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league. Players were given the opportunity through TGL to have some equity in the league, even with the PGA Tour serving as a partner. This is something that’s not possible within the current framework of the PGA Tour but is something that has apparently appealed to players like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and others who left the Tour for LIV.
It also serves a different audience than major championship or even regular PGA Tour golf. I personally have friends who are excited about TGL who do not pay attention at all to the Tour. There’s a reason Holey Moley does big numbers.
“This is truly an honor to be a part of TGL alongside many players who I have looked up to during my career,” said Theegala. “TGL has a different energy than traditional golf and provides us as players with a chance to bring in new fans and engage a younger audience, which is very exciting.”
All of this is interesting, of course — and, because Tiger and Rory are involved, relevant as well. There’s a glaring omission from the roster thus far that could be filled with three (or more!) Dallas-based players like Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris. We’ll see if that happens, but regardless, TGL continues its march toward collecting some of the best talent in the world.
