A bunch of high-profile stars have invested in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new sports venture.
Woods and McIlroy, the golf’s two most popular players, have led the PGA Tour’s fightback against LIV Golf – the controversial, Saudi-backed breakaway series.
The pair have teamed up to create TGL: a stadium-based, high-tech golf league in conjunction with the PGA Tour, starting in January 2024.
Six teams of three players will hit shots into a big screen and then move to a tech-infused short-game complex in a two-hour broadcast on Monday nights, designed to attract a new audience.
The announcement came after Woods and McIlroy launched TMRW Sports, a company created to take golf into a new tech-based future.
Now, they have confirmed the likes of Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton and tennis legend Serena Williams are behind the project, alongside some of the biggest names from sport and entertainment.
Golf-mad footballer Gareth Bale has also invested, as have tennis superstar Andy Murray and basketball icon Steph Curry.
While the two golfing superstars have attracted some of the most marketable people in the world to their project, LIV Golf is still without a TV deal or any major endorsement.
Full list of TMRW Sports investors
NFL:
Josh Allen
Kelvin Beachum
Larry Fitzgerald
Tony Romo
NBA/WNBA:
Stephen Curry
Andre Iguodala
Chris Paul
Jayson Tatum
Diana Taurasi
Football:
Jozy Altidore
Gareth Bale
Servando Carrasco
Alex Morgan
MLB:
Shohei Ohtani
Trea Turner
NHL:
Sidney Crosby
Surfing:
Kanoa Igarashi
Tennis:
Andy Murray
Serena Williams
F1:
Alex Albon
Lewis Hamilton
Lando Norris
Carlos Sainz
Mark Webber
Entertainment:
Justin Timberlake
Gaming:
Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins
Momentum has to shift against LIV, with the majority of golf’s biggest names uniting against it after a wave of defections from the likes of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson.
The Saudi-backed league does not yet have Official World Ranking Points, which means some of its players will not qualify for next year’s Majors, and rebels have to wait until 2024 for an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour to start.
Meanwhile, a raft of big changes on the PGA Tour have been announced after an unprecedented meeting of 23 top players, led by Woods and McIlroy.
In order to stem the flow of high-profile players to LIV Golf, the Tour has introduced a $500,000 (£424,000) minimum salary for its players and a $5,000 (£4,200) buffer for missed cuts.
The Tour’s top players have also agreed to co-ordinate their schedules for 20 PGA Tour events per season to ensure fans get to watch the best against the best on a regular basis.
They will go head-to-head in 12 elevated events, with average purses of $20million (£16.9m) to keep pace with LIV, as well as the four Majors, the Players’ Championship, and three events of their choosing.
The high-profile list of investors backing Woods and McIlroy is the latest victory for the Tour but LIV Golf is not expected to go away any time soon.
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News Summary:
- Lewis Hamilton, Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Gareth Bale among incredible list of investors in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy venture to help PGA Tour fight against LIV Golf
- Check all news and articles from the latest Golf updates.