For nearly a century, golfers and followers related workforce play with worldwide competitions, such because the Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup.
LIV Golf has since modified that. When it launched in 2022, the Saudi-backed circuit integrated a workforce component. 13 squads now exist, every with its personal distinct model and emblem. A few of them have even scored sponsorship offers.
Golf’s newest enterprise, TGL, has additionally embraced workforce play. The indoor golf league options six groups, every with 4 PGA Tour execs. In contrast to LIV, TGL focuses on geography, with groups from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Atlanta, and Jupiter, Florida, all part of the league. Granted, these groups don’t function out of these locales, as all of them compete on the SoFi Middle in South Florida. However TGL wished to lean into these markets to garner consideration and spur rivalries between cities like New York and Boston.
Think about if LIV Golf had its personal TGL workforce.
In any case, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton dedicated to becoming a member of TGL earlier than bolting to LIV a yr in the past. However Rahm and Hatton can not play TGL matches since they jumped to LIV. Solely PGA Tour members can.
Regardless of that, Mike McCarley, a TGL founder alongside Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, instructed Josh Carpenter of Sports activities Enterprise Journal that, “Sure, completely,” he had an inventory of potential LIV gamers on his thoughts.
So who might that be?
Rahm and Hatton are doubtless on that listing.
Rahm, now a two-time main winner, is likely one of the hottest gamers on the planet. He may also be remembered as the most effective gamers of his technology, whether or not he wins one other main or not. Hatton is a top-20 participant, however the unfiltered Englishman additionally waxes poetic together with his phrases on the course all too usually — not in an acceptable method both. That makes him extremely entertaining as a result of no one is aware of what is going to come from Hatton’s mouth. That, coupled together with his capacity to contend at majors routinely, makes his play appointment viewing. Rahm has had his truthful encounters with a sizzling mic, too, which might make each of those gamers notable additions to TGL. It’s an leisure product, at first, and what higher technique to entertain than to have these two fiery and aggressive personalities?
Add Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, and you’ll have a LIV Golf workforce of DeChambeau, Koepka, Rahm, and Hatton.
Discuss fireworks.
DeChambeau is at present the preferred participant on the planet, not named Tiger Woods, due to his exponential rise in YouTube subscribers and social media followers. He has turn into a cultural icon, taking pictures movies with the President of america and trying hole-in-one tries over his home. His presence in a TGL match would solely improve rankings and assist it in the long term.
Koepka, in the meantime, is a five-time main champion and nonetheless one of the vital formidable gamers on the planet. He has a direct, considerably abrasive persona and sometimes tells you precisely how he feels. His nonchalant nature would make it pleasurable for followers to listen to a TGL match.
In fact, contemplating the divisive nature of professional golf, a LIV Golf workforce getting into the TGL sphere would ship shockwaves throughout the game. A rivalry would rapidly come up, and the LIV workforce would undertake an “us-against-the-world” mentality. That might entertain golf followers in all places, as Rahm, Hatton, DeChambeau, and Koepka can be the brand new children on the block that no one would wish to mess with.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
