From dream to virtual reality, Woods and McIlroy's indoor league has debut match

After a one-year delay, the new tech-infused indoor golf league created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy finally launched on Tuesday in Florida under bright lights in primetime, ushering in what organisers hope is a new chapter for the sport.

Unlike the genteel atmosphere reserved for typical golf events, TGL made a rollicking debut complete with strobe lights, smoke machines, enthusiastic player introductions and a DJ that helped to keep the mood elevated.

The virtual hole designs were also unlike anything players experience on tour, with golfers finding themselves playing on an active volcano, over an ocean cove, in a desert canyon, among mountain peaks and on a boomerang-shaped fairway.

While not competing in the season opener, 15-times major champion Woods and four-time major winner McIlroy were among those in attendance and both patrolled the playing area during warm-ups inside the custom-built arena that seats 1,500 people.

"Considering this was just a dream conjured up, Rory and I were talking about it; it's hard to believe that dream came into reality and we are able to take golf into another stratosphere, really," Woods said during the TV broadcast.

"It's not traditional golf, yes, but it is golf and that's the main thing and providing a different type of atmosphere."

TGL is a hybrid of virtual and real-life play featuring teams of mic'd up PGA Tour players hitting shots at a five-storey-high simulator screen before moving to a green that can rotate 360 degrees, creating hole-to-hole variations.

The threesomes played alternate shot, or triples, over the opening nine-hole session, then switched to singles for a head-to-head round where each competitor played two full holes over the final six.

After players shook hands,