Indoor golf league created by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy has loud, swift debut match

Ludvig Aberg will be the answer to a trivia question: He made the first birdie in TGL history.

And with that, the indoor golf competition that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had envisioned for years was finally underway.

TGL had its debut match Tuesday night, with Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele of New York Golf Club taking on Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Aberg of The Bay Golf Club in the opener at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The 15-hole match took just under two hours, which is exactly how TGL envisioned this to work. Final score: The Bay 9, New York 2.

"The last time I've had that much fun was probably last September," Lowry said, turning toward Clark as he said that — the obvious reference being how he and Aberg were part of the European Ryder Cup team that beat Clark and the United States in the fall of 2023.

Yes, trash talk is part of TGL as well, even among teammates.

"Look, I had an amazing two hours," Lowry said.

Lowry struck the first shot at 9:15 p.m. ET. Four minutes later, the first hole in TGL history was complete when Aberg rolled in a nine-footer for the first point in league play. Yes, it moves that quickly.

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

Woods and McIlroy, part of the brain trust that put together this venture, were there, as expected. DJ Khaled was there too, milling about while players were warming up, showing off his swing with an imaginary club.

The venue is a 250,000-square-foot facility at Palm Beach State College. Players hit some shots into a video screen, some off real