Welcome to Tomorrow Golf League TODAY. Each week from now until the end of TGL’s inaugural season, we will meet here to recap all the physical, virtual and physical-virtual action from the world’s most-hyped professional simulator golf league. But this isn’t any old play-by-play. No, no. That requires too much writing. Instead, we will break down the week’s winners and losers via the most scientific form of analysis known to humanity: Superlatives.
Sound the trumpets! Raise the banners! TGL has finally had a close match! Tiger vs. Rory headlined the evening, but eventually took a backseat to the actual competition, which was settled with a closest-to-the-pin shootout in overtime. Did the newfound parity result in an improved product? Let’s take a closer look …
This Week’s Match:
Jupiter Links G.C. 4, Boston Common Golf 3 (OT)
Best Performance / Most Likely To Jump Into the Crowd and Chug a Beer: Tom Kim
🗣 Tom Kim, ladies & gentlemen.
📺: @espn pic.twitter.com/xUxrhQvELf
— TGL (@TGL) January 28, 2025
Love him or loathe him after his Presidents Cup histrionics, but you have to give it up for Tom Kim. The kid comes alive in match play. The cuddly teddy bear turns into Stone Cold Steve Austin when head-to-head golf is on the menu, as it was Monday when Kim poured in a zillion feet of putts, barking at the crowd with every make. He got so amped up at one point, we thought TGL was about to have its Malice at the Palace moment, but cooler heads—and eventually his Jupiter Links G.C.—prevailed.
Worst Performance: The simulator
So far, TGL has had enough kinks to work out that the simulator tech—the bedrock of this entire enterprise—was moved to the backburner. But last night, as the level of play improved considerably, the simulator snafus started to become cause for concern. Shots bounced supernaturally out of bunkers and at one point Kevin Kisner had to take a drop when his “ball” didn’t roll down an embankment per the laws of physics. Players have looked frustrated with depth perception and distance control for several weeks now, and there has been grumbling about the inability to draw the golf ball. In the end, it didn’t get in the way of the actual match, but if the tech isn’t rock solid, then this whole thing—the competitive integrity, the betting, the public and player interest—falls down. Moving forward, we’d like to see TGL place more of an emphasis on the screen golf, not just the screen itself.
Best Redemption Arc: Kevin Kisner
After a dismal showing in his first TGL outing two weeks ago, NBC’s colorful new analyst had a much-improved performance on Monday. It wasn’t all bombs and darts—Kisner nearly hit his first shot of the night into the lava (yes, LAVA), joking that he would have quit right there on the spot—but he didn’t almost kill an innocent bystander, so that’s an improvement in our book.
RELATED: Kevin Kisner roasts Max Homa after getting first TGL win without him
Most Annoying (for Weirdos Like Me): The shirt colors
Carmen Mandato/TGL
Through three weeks, something about TGL has felt ever so slightly off. It’s been like a cut on the roof of your mouth that starts small but slowly gets more and more irritated until it’s all you can think about. On Monday night, I finally figured out what’s been bothering me:
The players’ shirts.
They’re all slightly different colors! Obviously this is a function of each guy’s apparel sponsor; they’re getting whatever shirt from their sponsor that’s the closest match to their team color. The problem is they’re just close enough to work and just different enough to make you FEEL LIKE YOU’RE TAKING CRAZY PILLS. OK, OK, sorry. But it shouldn’t be too tough for TGL to send the Pantone numbers to the apparel brands before Season 2. Please guys, our sanity may depend on it.
Best First: Jupiter Links’ first TGL birdie
It only took 19 holes over two matches, but Tiger Woods’ snapped TGL’s most ignominious streak, sinking a 4½-footer on the par-4 fifth hole of Monday’s match for Jupiter Links’ maiden birdie. The putt seemed to take a massive weight off the boys in various shades of red, who didn’t lose another hole in triples and eventually went on to win 4-3. They always say you never forget your first … but that’s because the first is always the hardest.
RELATED: Every PGA Tour fan could use this starter’s handy player pronunciation guide
Worst First: Tiger’s shot-clock violation
Tiger Woods was given a shot clock violation and as a result, Jupiter Links GC lost the hole. pic.twitter.com/dFZv2qGV0D
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 28, 2025
On the opening hole of singles, Tiger split the fairway with a 322-yard missile. Then he crushed his 267-yard approach onto the green, giving himself a good look at eagle. Unfortunately, things unraveled quickly for the boss man, as he blew the putt eight feet by. He then failed to get his hole-tying birdie putt off before time expired, earning TGL’s first-ever penalty for a shot-clock violation. In the end, the gaffe didn’t cost Jupiter Links, but someone should reminder Tiger that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
Most Welcome Change: A close match
The average margin of victory coming into Monday night was 7.33 points. In two of the three matches, the singles session was little more than a victory lap for the leading team, sucking all the wind out of the SoFi Center as the matches plodded toward their inevitable conclusions. Thankfully, Week 4 delivered the wire-to-wire competition everyone had been dying to see, with both teams trading blows and tossing the Hammer back and forth like the pigskin on Thanksgiving. We would have preferred a regulation finish (more on that in just a second), but Monday proved that all the bells, whistles and A-list investors mean nothing without tight, balanced competition.
RELATED: Dustin Johnson reveals the trick he always uses to beat Phil Mickelson in matches
Quickest Fix: Overtime
The being said, the overtime format could use some work. When ESPN’s Matt Barrie likened the closest-to-the-pin chipping competition to penalty kicks in soccer, the alarm bells rang loud and clear. As any self-respecting footy fan will tell you, penalty kicks are THE WORST. They reward luck and guesswork more than skill, and often don’t reflect the 120-plus minutes of soccer that led to them. TGL’s overtime wasn’t that bad, but the short-game trial felt a bit anti-climactic. In the future, we’d like to see TGL move the closest-to-pin format to one of the evening’s par 3s … and if Tiger and Rory are playing, make sure they, you know, actually hit shots in overtime. Just saying.
Most Masshole ‘Stache: Keegan Bradley
Megan Briggs/TGL
Sorry Noah Kahan, whoever you are, but this one belongs to Keegan Bradley and his lustrous soup broom. Whether or not Bradley keeps Ted’s lasso for the Ryder Cup remains to be seen, but the future of America just might depend on it.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com