Rory McIlroy again pulled no punches in his on-going feud with LIV Golf further brushing aside the breakaway tour by declaring they’re in ‘No man’s land’ when asked to compare the differences between LIV and the TGL Series.
McIlroy and Woods are set to debut TGL early next year with 24 PGA Tour players, competing in six four-man teams, and played in a specially built Florida arena.
McIlroy announced last week his four-man Boston Common team-mates were Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton.
TGL has the full backing of the PGA Tour but it has not stopped many observers from making mention that what TGL has created is in many ways no different to LIV Golf.
McIlroy spoke at a press conference yesterday when the Northern Irishman explained how TGL came about and how it will compliment the PGA Tour.
“I think TGL is meant to be complimentary to professional golf, this is not meant to be disrespectful in anyway,” he said.
“Whenever Mike (McCarley) brought this idea to Tiger and I, one of the first things we said is ‘if we are going to do this we are going to have to partner with the PGA Tour in some way and make this complimentary’.
“That was the first thing. This was not adversarial at all, it was ‘how can we be added into the entire system’.”
However, when going into more detail, McIlroy again voiced his distaste for all matters LIV Golf with his ‘no-man’s land’ description of the fully Saudi-backed breakaway league.
“We are pretending to be competitive, and it is different type of golf, but it is not the same golf you see week-in-week-out,” said McIlroy and with TGL running through from January to early April.
“I don’t want to sit here and talk about LIV but you could make the argument that they haven’t innovated enough from what traditional golf is, or they have innovated too much that they not traditional golf.
“They (LIV Golf) are sort of caught in no-man’s land, whereas this is so far removed from what we know golf to be.”
Interesting comments indeed given the ‘innovation’ LIV has brought to the ancient club-and-ball game in just two years, but then McIlroy believes TGL, and to be held in a specially built arena using all types of computerised gadgets and ideas, sounds very passionate he and Tiger’s idea will be even more innovative.
“I think trying to appeal to a wider sports audience,” McIlroy said.
“We are trying to sort of bring that court-side feel to a basketball game to golf in some ways. We are trying to let the fans that are at least in the arena get close to the action. Then I would say for the people tuning in at home, having us mic’d, having us being a little more interactive.
“I feel like when you watch a regular PGA Tour event you are a few steps removed from us in terms of you might pick up a couple of conversations here and there, but you are not getting right in on the action, and I think that is really important.
“What is does is speak more to the traditional golf fan, but what we are trying to really do here with TGL is broaden the demographic.”
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