The entire golf world was surprised when Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced a new golf league that would be played in an arena with simulators. An alternative to the PGA Tour had already been launched in LIV, and now, a third league wanted golf fans’ attention.
After a lengthy delay, TGL is officially running at full steam, approaching the end of its first regular season. I took a trip to the SoFi Center in Palm Beach, Fla., to see an event in person and talk to Andrew Macaulay, TMRW Sports’ Chief Technology Officer.
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As it turns out, there are some misconceptions about the tech stack that makes the massive simulator golf league work. From the launch monitors used to the staggeringly impressive moving green complex, we dove into everything to learn more about TGL and how it works.
TGL tech by the numbers
What impressed me the most about TGL is the number of parts required to make it work. When I reviewed the Garmin R10 launch monitor, I was impressed by what it can do. But that’s one launch monitor. TGL uses two technologies to track every detail of the golf ball from the moment of impact through its flight into the gigantic 64 by 53-foot screen set 35 yards away.
“The vision was to create a new and complementary version of professional golf by infusing technology into the actual game being played that allows for a fast-paced, indoor stadium, team-based competition,” Macaulay explained.
And while it’s two primary pieces of tech making the shots work, there aren’t just two launch monitors keeping an eye on everything. There are 18 Full Swing Kit launch monitors. (They’re not stock Kit monitors, as they’ve been modified with extra cameras for TGL’s use.)
To all the naysayers, Macaulay assured me that testing was rigorous and Full Swing was the right choice for tracking the point of impact, especially with its versatility of capturing impact data from anywhere on TGL’s real-grass hitting areas. (The players don’t need to worry about where they place the ball like you would with a home-based launch monitor.)
People have said Full Swing might not be the best choice. However, Macaulay explained much of the heavy lifting of ball flight is done by Toptracer, the same technology golfers worldwide rely on to track their shots at the driving range. Eight Toptracer cameras track every shot that hits the screen.
“TGL now brings transformation to the way the game of golf can be played.”
— Andrew Macaulay, TMRW Sports
Between the two types of tracking technology, the company gets multiple streams of optical and radar data (optical for ball flight from Toptracer and radar from Full Swing for data at the point of impact) to drive the game engine in the virtual world. TNW Sports says it’s exponentially more accurate than a single launch monitor or at-home simulator setup.
And then there’s the moving green, which has a technology called Skymark that uses eight lights and computer vision cameras mounted in SoFi Center’s ceiling that sync with the proprietary software to tell players exactly where to put the balls on or near the green.
This transitions gameplay from the virtual world into the real world, as players finish each hole surrounded by approximately 1,500 fans in the venue and the television cameras.
But the green must also move to match what’s on the screen. How do you move a green complex that weighs 500,000 pounds?
You design a massive turntable that spins between each hole in the building’s design. Full Swing’s Virtual Green technology lives under the putting surface with 567 jacks to morph areas of the topography to the exact design the hole designer wants.
If all of that wasn’t impressive enough, I also learned from Andrew Macaulay that TGL tells its system exactly what golf ball model each player uses and allows the game engine to compensate for different balls’ aerodynamic properties.
Players choose certain balls based on flight, spin, and other factors, and TGL’s software can adjust to create a more accurate ball flight. It’s a small detail, but it shows the attention to detail by the TGL tech team.
“My goal for the TGL technology is for it to be like magic,” Macaulay said. “Magic for me is when something amazing happens, and you don’t know how it was done. So every technology decision we made combined the necessity to perform with a form factor that blended in with the physical play.”
Stadium golf is cool
The tech came together in an event that saw Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club take on the league-leading The Bay Golf Club. (Sadly, Tiger didn’t play at the match I attended.)
While the match wasn’t close, with The Bay taking it 6-3, it was cool to see the technology I’d spent the afternoon marveling over in action.
Seeing the players hit drives, iron shots, a Min Woo Lee chip-in and lots of great putts made me feel like I was just watching golf, and the arena aspect kind of faded away.
In fact, TGL is like watching golf without all the inconveniences that come with being there on the course. You aren’t forced to walk around with your favorite player or be tied to a hospitality suite at a single hole. You see every shot from every player.
Sure, you don’t get fresh air, but you also don’t get trapped in a rainstorm or burned by the sun.
Will stadium golf ever replace “real” golf? Of course not, but with the shorter matches happening in prime time on weeknights, there’s no reason TGL and traditional golf competition can’t thrive side-by-side.
“Stadium golf is perhaps a better description because TGL allows fans to experience live every shot by every player in fast-paced, non-stop action as you would experience watching football, hockey, basketball, baseball and any other team sport played on a field in front of thousands of screaming fans inside their stadium,” Macaulay said.
Sure, there are flaws and an occasional missed shot, but refs miss calls in conventional sports.
It’s not a perfect system, but Macaulay and the rest of the team have shown a willingness to evolve and pivot if something isn’t working, and there will be even more of that in the offseason leading into the league’s second season.