New York Golf Club will take on The Bay Golf Club in the first-ever TGL match on Tuesday, January 7, 2025 as the sport enters into completely new territory.
The brainchild of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TGL is a tech-infused indoor golf league which will take place inside the custom-built SoFi Center on primetime TV and hopes to introduce a brand new audience to the game of golf. It will include shot clocks, hot mics, and a simulator screen 24 times larger than a regular version – all designed to change the way the sport is viewed.
Although each of the six rosters contains four golfers apiece, sides will select three players to represent them in standalone fixtures each week. Teams will play the other five golf clubs once each in a round robin system, with the top four progressing to the playoffs.
Said clashes will see 15 holes of golf played across roughly a two-hour period. Those 15 different set-ups will be selected from TGL’s bank of 30 custom-designed holes. The first nine holes will see each team cycle through their squad in an alternate-shot format before each player goes on to compete against an opponent over two holes throughout the remaining six.
In the opening match, it’s east coast versus west coast as Xander Schauffele’s New York heads into battle against Wyndham Clark’s The Bay. They are the two youngest squads in TGL, with New York’s average age 31 and The Bay’s just 29.75.
But what the latter lacks in age, they more than make up for in length off the tee. The Bay’s quartet boasted an average 309.8 yards off the tee during the 2024 PGA Tour season while New York managed just 303.9 – the third best of the half-a-dozen rosters.
Below is who will represent each side on Tuesday as well as any other key information before the first TGL fixture.
NEW YORK V THE BAY LINE-UPS
| Header Cell – Column 0 | New York GC | The Bay GC |
|---|---|---|
| Player 1 | Rickie Fowler | Shane Lowry |
| Player 2 | Matt Fitzpatrick | Wyndham Clark |
| Player 3 | Xander Schauffele | Ludvig Aberg |
The Bay will have the honor of striking the official inaugural tee shot inside SoFi Center on the 377-yard par-4 hole called ‘The Plank’, with Ireland’s Shane Lowry stepping up to the plate as the designated Player 1. Meanwhile, Rickie Fowler leads New York off in both the opening set of triples and the singles matches.
Lowry and co. will also start with The Hammer – TGL’s score modifier that increases the value of a hole by one point when used. That can be used multiple times on a single hole and passes back and forth between the teams after being activated.
The Bay have opted to rest Min Woo Lee for their opening fixture, while Cameron Young is the missing party for New York. In singles, Schauffele is expected to take on Aberg as the final of three potential Ryder Cup-looking match-ups.
Four players – Clark, Aberg, Schauffele, and Fitzpatrick – recently competed at The Sentry as the PGA Tour kicked off its 2025 campaign, but none of the six involved in the opening week of TGL are in the Sony Open field just days after.
WHEN DOES NEW YORK V THE BAY START?
The opening tee shot from Shane Lowry is expected to take place at around 9pm ET (2am GMT) on Tuesday, January 7 (Wednesday, January 8). Matches are scheduled to take around two hours each.
It is being shown live on ESPN and ESPN+ in the United States and on Sky Sports Golf in the UK.
NEW YORK V THE BAY TGL BETTING ODDS
New York begins as heavy favorite against The Bay, with FanDuel Sportsbook listing Schauffele’s men at -138 compared with +100 for their California-based rivals.
In terms of the overall TGL betting odds, New York are the third favorites to lift the title in March while The Bay are the second least likely club to lift the SoFi Cup later on this year.
