Hideki Matsuyama, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, will be a member of the Boston Common Golf Team next year in the inaugural season of TGL, the technology-driven team golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. He will join McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott on the Boston team.
Matsuyama replaces Tyrrell Hatton, a former member of Boston Common Golf, one of the six founding teams in the TGL, which is owned by Fenway Sports Group and McIlroy’s investment firm Symphony Ventures. Hatton joined LIV Golf in January and is therefore no longer eligible to play in the PGA Tour-affiliated leagues. Boston Common Golf was one of the six founding teams in the TGL, which is owned by Fenway Sports Group and McIlroy’s investment firm, Symphony Ventures.
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The addition of Japan’s Matsuyama means Boston will have players from four continents who have all won major championships – Matsuyama won the Masters in 2021 – and the golf-crazy Japanese market represents a sponsorship opportunity for Boston Common Golf, which will be the primary way the TGL franchise generates revenue.
“Fenway Sports Group has experience owning the Red Sox and Liverpool, both of which have Japanese players,” Boston Common Golf CEO Mark Lev said in a phone interview. “So we have some idea of how to proceed. It’s still early days, but we’re hopeful there will be opportunities to engage with Japanese companies and multinational companies that do business in Japan.”
Each TGL team will have four golfers who will hit their shots into a 3,000-square-foot golf simulator screen and, once they get within 50 yards of the hole, the action will move to a 22,475-square-foot customizable short game area that will switch between holes. TGL rules will also include a shot clock, and the league plans to outfit players with microphones during the action. A 1,500-seat seating area has been designed around the play zone.
TGL was scheduled to begin in January of this year, but a power outage caused the dome at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens to collapse, causing the inaugural season to be postponed until 2025. The delay was due to necessary repairs.
The season will include 15 games plus playoffs. Games will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+.
Boston Common Golf recently welcomed singer Niall Horan, who first rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction, as a new investor. Horan and McIlroy are both from Ireland and have been friends for many years. Horan will also serve as an ambassador for Boston Common Golf and will benefit from his massive social media following, which includes a combined 72 million followers on Instagram and Twitter.
“When we think about growing golf and bringing new fans to Boston Common Golf and TGL, having someone like Neil who has a global following and audience that is not the typical golf fan is really appealing to us,” Lev said.
The six co-located teams in TGL’s inaugural season are Atlanta Drive GC, Boston, Jupiter Links GC, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club and Bay Golf Club. These teams feature some of the biggest names in sports, such as Arthur Blank, Steve Cohen, Alexis Ohanian and Marc Lasry, as well as athletes Serena Williams, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Woods is partnered with David Blitzer for the Jupiter franchise.
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