The first announced team in TGL, the startup golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will be based in Los Angeles and include tennis legends Serena Williams and Venus Williams as owners alongside Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC) will compete in the TGL’s inaugural season starting in January 2024. Ohanian and his wife, Serena Williams, also own Angel City FC, the NWSL club that plays home games at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. LAGC is the first of six teams to form the TGL, part of Woods’ and MclIroy’s TMRW Sports endeavor backed by numerous star athletes, major sports executives, and music artists.
The PGA Tour is notably partnering with TMRW Sports to launch TGL, which forms its first team just days after the shocking merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf. Each team in the TGL will consist of three PGA Tour golfers, with Woods and McIlroy being confirmed to play.
Ohanian, a venture capitalist and founder of the Seven Seven Six investment firm, said Los Angeles’s tech scene makes it an ideal fit for the TGL. The league says its matches will be played in arenas that “combine a data-rich virtual course with a state-of-the-art short game complex.”
“[Los Angeles] embodies the intersection of sports, technology, and entertainment, making it an ideal backdrop for the innovation and excitement we aim to bring to the world of golf and its fans,” Ohanian said in a statement. “We see tremendous opportunities to leverage technology to bring golf closer to its fans and to provide an immersive and interactive experience that will captivate both seasoned golf enthusiasts and new fans.”
