McIlroy and Woods' TGL venture set to launch in January

Golf icons Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods will launch their new, innovative league in January 2024.

The duo have branded the sport's latest contest the TGL — an indoor competition that is set to harness the latest tech to spice up the traditional calendar.

As it stands, 15 of the current world's top 20 are among the players to have signed up for the inaugural season which is set to take place at a purpose-built arena in Florida.

The concept has received a significant amount of backing from both players and investors, with Serena and Venus Williams, Stephen Curry and Liverpool owners the Fenway Sports Group among the current shareholders.

TGL events will be run by TMRW Sports, the technology-focused sports company launched by McIlroy and Woods in August 2022.

Six teams of four players will play each other in a league format, with five teams already announced ahead of the launch.

Each session in the league will be worth two points and there will be two sessions within every match.

The first will be nine holes of 'triples' where all three players compete in an alternate-shot format over nine holes.

After this, a second session is played over six holes of 'singles', a head-to-head competition featuring each golfer playing two holes.

Teams will earn points for winning each hole and the side with the most points at the end of the two sessions will win the match.

In the event of a tie, a nearest the pin shootout will determine the winner.

When every team has played each other, the top four qualify for a semi-final with the victors advancing to a best-of-three final.

Every hole will start on a golf simulator, but for short-distance shots, players will switch from the simulator to hitting into adaptable greens where the slope of the putting surface for each hole can be altered.