One thing is clear about the management at TGL, the PGA Tour-backed simulator golf league — they’re good listeners.
TGL returns to your television screens in just two months, but it will look different this time in many ways, reflecting what players, fans and others have suggested for adjustments to the action in Sofi Center. The majority of improvements surround the rotating putting green, known as the GreenZone.
TGL has increased the size of the putting surface by 38%, from 3,800 sq. feet to 5,270. The big knoll located in the center of the green — which served an important purpose for injecting break into putts — has been lowered by 18 inches, softening the grade of the green. That will likely lead to fewer short game shots that have to carry a specific distance and halt, and more that pitch and run.
The green size now mimics something much closer to the average green size on the PGA Tour, which is a good thing for the best ball-strikers in the world hitting approach shots into a screen. Perhaps most importantly, the bigger green offers five more hole locations, up to 12 from seven last season. The green contouring and variability was a project between TGL and Beau Welling Design over the offseason, and will simply allow for more variability in setup. At times last season, the rotating green would start to feel like it could only support a handful of results. This should improve that greatly.
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Also made bigger this year? The bunkers. TGL eliminated the tiniest bunker in its GreenZone and made the other two bigger. They will feature revetted bunker faces rather than the smooth transition between sand and artificial turf. That will inevitably force players to get more creative with their spin from the sand.
On your television screen though? That’s where the most pleasing element comes in. TGL is promising “localized backdrops” on Team Holes for all six franchises. But the on-screen graphics have been refurbished, too, to add to the realism. None of the holes are real, of course, but the more they feel like they are, the more glued to the broadcast one would naturally become. Check out their example in the image below, which we can only assume is the Team Hole for The Bay GC.
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The league promises that the designs of its original holes have been manipulated with different tee boxes and various features to impact strategy — all of which will be announced in the coming months.
A final adjustment will see the league take ball-tracking camera towers — originally located behind the hitting areas — out of the field of play and into the stadium ceiling. The tracking system is expected to improve from Season 1, as it was occasionally the center of ire from fans and players for questionable readings.
TGL kickstarts its second season on network TV on Dec. 28 on ABC.
