TGL opening night introduced the world to the most surreal sporting event ever

The inaugural night of TGL promised to bring golf into the future, infusing it with technology and angles and excitement never before seen. As for me, all I wanted was a good time, and I walked away with that and more. For how crazy it seemed on TV, it was much wilder in person.

The craziness started before we even parked the car. Unfamiliar to the West Palm Beach area, I was honestly quite surprised when maps took me into the WPB College campus to go park. The signs all checked out, and although I couldn’t see the stadium yet, I could see the floodlights dancing in the sky. While at first I thought it was quite odd to build a large, permanent, and very specialized stadium right on a college campus, it turns out that this decision created a very healthy partnership between TGL and the school. In exchange for the land, TGL is supporting the school financially while also not writing out the use of the stadium for future unrelated activities. It was a unique vibe walking in past the classrooms, and with limited branding and music playing, it was not the loud in your face experience of going into a basketball or football stadium, but very relaxed. I think this was a positive and also a direct consequence of just how new this whole league was. From employees to fans, there was an air of curiosity around more than anything else. Once we got inside the stadium, I made sure to walk from end to end, checking out every corner. The place is spotless, with concessions everywhere, a food vendor, a merch store, and various spots where you can check out the green zone tech, or try a whiskey. It felt almost like a showroom floor, adding to the exhibition vibe that extended around the whole event. Once we got to our seats, it all changed.

Walking through the curtain into the actual TGL arena was awesome. We were so close to the green zone it was nuts, not even 10 feet from one of the sides. I was so ready to get skulled in the face. Although we were far from the screen, we had a dead on view of it from the other side of the arena. From the moment we walked in, it felt more like a lie studio audience than a sporting audience. We were really far removed from a lot of the TV aspects of it. One moment, Roger Steele was addressing the crowd, then his mic would be cut off for the TV announcer, who we could not hear. We also couldn’t hear the players mics, and there were interesting moments where we told to cheer for the cameras, then other things we weren’t told about at all. Could we heckle, could we record, could we cheer during a swing, all these things were left for the crowd to trial and error, which I honestly respect. On a whole, the tech really didn’t experience any glitches, which was honestly the most respectable accomplishment. There were just multiple times where the TV audience was heavily favored over us. I guess that’s the price you have to pay to watch the reigning PGA and Open champ practice his short game a couple feet from your nose.

The gameplay itself was great, I thought the format they’ve settled ups the stakes and also allows for constant movement and changes rather than following one golfer the entire time. Roger and the referee both had mics in the arena and did a good job moving the event along and keeping us in the loop on what was going on and when. I’m sure they’ll only get better as time goes on. Fan interaction definitely needs to be upped, as Rickie would get huge cheers no matter what while Lowry would get a few claps. I’m intrigued to see what the “hometown team” does for the crowd, obviously Tiger draws roars no matter what so I am already predicting the noise level tonight to be a lot higher. But, I think it should be made more clear when and what is acceptable, just for the sake of the fans and the level of enjoyment they can get out of the event. And my one true dislike; the music was genuinely so bad. Hearing poppy, overplayed radio hits is annoying, but when Rickie Fowler has a putt to win the match and Call Me Maybe is playing, that says to me a clear disconnect. DJ Irie is a legend, let him go to work. He’ll get it done.

Other than the music, I liked just about everything TGL threw at us. The fan experience was definitely a big aspect of focus, which was made clear with the amount of amenities, employees, and experiences available. The stadium seats are comfortable and spacious, the speaker system is great, the lights are awesome, and the proprietary tech like the green zone and screen are as amazing as they look on television. I love sporting events, I think it’s one of the best ways to spend time and money, so the opportunity to come check out a new stadium and watch professional golfers up close almost is worth the price of admission alone. But, with all the added elements, it makes for a really dope experience. The smaller stadium adds to the intimacy of the event and you could tell that everyone who was there genuinely wanted to be there.

As the golf winded down, I started to really appreciate the fact that beyond all the business reasons for doing something like this, like money, competition, marketing, investing, the innovation of sport and technology was the true winner there. From the moment it was announced years ago, people were skeptical and almost weirded out by these ideas. Not only were they promising to deliver an event legitimately the likes of which we’ve never seen, they did so during stadium collapses, professional golf splinters, and a whole lot of negativity. If anything, TGL proved that with the right people, funding, and ideas, something so utterly insane and almost unbelievable not only can become reality, but even become a success. There is more and more news every day of TGL expanding, new teams, owners, locations. I can only imagine the roadmap they have for this league. To have the brains and the balls to not only attempt this, but pull it off in the way they did, from the players to the stadium to the TV deals (the pre TGL marketing was surprisingly not as successful as I thought it would be, although they had so many big names), I can only imagine the sky is the limit. As the TV reactions and media pieces and fan surveys stated, once they saw the product, they understood the hype, at least to a degree. Innovation in sport, especially a traditionalist sport like golf, is important and helps lead the sport to new people, and vice versa. TGL is a perfect way to at least showcase what could be possible at a direct intersection of sport in tech, infused so totally that one cannot operate without the other. Is this where we are moving? Maybe not fully, but at least for the next few months, find yourself at that intersection every Tuesday night at prime time ESPN. For the lucky few in the SOFI Center, watching the pros chip balls towards your forehead and smack their driver into a 60 foot tall screen, walk away with nothing less than the fact you are witnessing the most out there and innovative sports league of all time.