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Monday Night Football, Except it's Indoor Golf

Author

Andy Molitor
December 24, 2024

Normally, I hate gimmicky stuff like this.

It had all the feel of the dumb changes they make to the Pro Bowl or the NBA All Star Game in order to reignite interest. But, as clips have rolled in and I’ve learned more about how this will work, I will say my interest has been piqued.

How It Works

This is a Monday night event, and even better, it’s going to be a tight two hours.

With Monday Night Football firmly in the rear-view mirror and “real” golf not taking place until Thursdays, it does seem to fit into most folks’ viewing schedules nicely.

There are six teams, comprised of four players each (you can take a quiz on the TGL website to help you pick your team). Only two teams play each week for the most part with some exceptions like a Presidents day TRIPLE HEADER. Each team will have five regular season matches. (full schedule). TGL's season will run from January to roughly April.

Three of the four players will compete when it’s that team’s turn in the schedule, which should help a bit with some of the logistics of getting people over to Florida to do this on a Monday during the actual PGA Tour season.

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The Arena

Ok, so the first one fell down, but we learned from our mistakes, and this place looks pretty sick. I’m not sure I’d be super interested in attending a TGL event live in the crowd, but there will be 1500 fans in attendance, which I think adds to the atmosphere for sure.

As famously promoted, the screen that they are hitting into is massive: 64 x 53 feet.

The details are pretty cool as well: if someone hits the ball into a bunker on the screen, they have to take their next shot from a damn sand pit right there in the arena.

On top of it all, the grass is real.

Once they get close, players will turn around and play on an actual indoor greens complex. The green itself is on a turntable and has ~600 actuators underneath, so it can completely transform and change the topography from hole to hole. Some early renderings:

And since this is all done in the imaginary world of a simulator, some of the holes will be wild as hell (check out all the holes here).

Straight out of Golden Tee, there are a few pretty crazy-looking ones, which I think adds to the overall effect. I think this will keep things way more interesting than, say, playing a virtual version of a course that’s in the normal rota.

How Will the Matches Work?

As for the actual match play, here are some nice explanations directly from the TGL official site:

“Two teams made up of three players each will tee off at SoFi Center and start with Triples. From there, they'll complete the match by playing Singles. Modern match play is the scoring system: Each hole is worth 1 point and the team with the fewest shots on a hole wins the point. The team with the most points at the end of the night wins the match.

Let's give you an example of how Triples will work. Say, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, and Keegan Bradley are playing for Boston Common Golf against Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, and Billy Horschel on Atlanta Drive. On hole 1 of Triples, Rory tees off for Boston, and JT tees off for Atlanta. Then, Scott will take the next shot for Boston, Cantlay will do the same for Atlanta, and so on, until the hole is complete. That's Triples, 3 vs. 3 alternate shot.”

“To give you an example of how Singles works: The 10th hole begins with head-to-head play as Rory representing Boston plays JT on Atlanta. They play the entire hole and the winner (fewest shots) earns the point. In the next hole, Scott faces Cantlay. And then Bradley vs. Horschel. The cycle begins again for holes 13, 14, and 15, so in total six holes of Singles will be played.”

Will I Be Watching?

I mean, probably.

So, every Monday, two teams will square off for 15 holes, we’ll see every single shot and the players will be mic’d up. We’ll see what mistakes are made (there will be some), but for the most part, the powers that be seem to have hit on most of the biggest complaints that I personally have as a viewer:

  • Slow Play/Long Rounds (there is a shot clock of 40 seconds)

  • Not Showing Golf (We’ll see every shot)

  • Not enough Tiger Woods (Tiger is on a team)

  • Figuring out How to Watch (This is just on ESPN/ESPN+)

After it’s all said and done, the top four teams will compete in a two-week playoff tournament to determine the ultimate champion.

I don’t think I can get invested in rooting for a team or caring who wins the championship, but from the standpoint of watching something interesting on a Monday in February, I think I’m in.

And, of course, I hope we have betting lines on this. It’d be a fun handicap for sure and there are certainly plenty of unique markets you could put up outside of just a team ML and point spread.

See you next week for our first real tournament in a while.

I’m pumped. The Betsperts Golf team is pumped. The Rabbit Hole already has the Sentry field loaded up for members to start modeling!

As always, have fun, bet responsibly, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!