The inaugural season of the TGL golf league closes this week with a final championship-deciding series . The upstart, team-based, men's league has made headlines for its celebrity backers, including star golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy .
Authors
- Brad Millington
Associate Professor, Sport Management, Brock University
- Brian Wilson
Professor, School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia
- Michael L. Naraine
Associate Professor of Sport Management, Brock University
- Parissa Safai
Professor and Chair, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Canada
Even more noteworthy is TGL's unique format . Events are played inside SoFi Center, a custom-built venue in Florida with an audience capacity of 1,500.
At one end lies the " ScreenZone ," where a golf simulator is used for longer shots such as drives and iron play. At the other end, players chip and putt along the physical surface of the " GreenZone " to record a final score on each hole.
TGL is the latest commercial venture to shake up the golf world in recent years. The league is no doubt novel in some ways, yet it can also be explained as the convergence of two longstanding trends: the "mediatization" and "indoorization" of sport.
A 'mediatized' sports landscape
Mediatization is a concept that speaks to relationships of interdependence between media and other institutions, such as sport. More than simply conveying sport content, communication technologies have helped change sport over the years - consider "television timeouts" or the use of instant replay.
In return, sport is a source of live, unpredictable and exciting media content, something that is highly valuable in a competitive attention economy .
In this context, TGL stands out as an especially tech-infused venture .
First, there is the golf simulator. The ScreenZone is so named because players hit into a massive screen measuring 64 by 53 feet. Tracking technology is used to map and represent the flight of the ball on screen. This allows for a thoroughly datafied sport experience as an array of performance metrics are available to both players and fans.
Also relevant are TGL's seemingly made-for-TV conventions , some of which might be anathema to golf traditionalists. Among them, a 40-second shot clock keeps a brisk pace of play. Players are also mic'd up, making strategy conversations and reactions accessible to the audience.
In all, TGL is a media spectacle. It is not uncommon for sports leagues to adopt new rules and formats , seemingly in a bid to capture consumer attention. But, through TGL's video game-like components, media representation - golf on a simulated volcano, among other places - becomes part of the sport competition itself.
Sport moves indoors
TGL is also an indoor spectacle. In this sense, it contributes to the indoorization of outdoor sports.
Outdoor sports from surfing to skiing, rock climbing and many more have moved indoors in recent years (while remaining outdoor sports too). A potential trade-off is that, while outdoor sports often foreground adventure, uncertainty and danger, their indoor analogues often trade this for control, predictability and calculability. The authenticity of indoor sport might therefore be debated, especially in historically counter-cultural sports such as surfing.
Yet indoorization can also lead to expansion. From the late 1800s onwards, artificial ice in North American arenas allowed for reliable skating conditions and helped hockey move to new locations, growing the game as a commercial endeavour and cultural institution.
There was also the benefit of escaping the elements. As architectural historian Howard Shubert writes :
"Covered rinks allowed patrons to escape winter's cold temperatures, harsh winds, and blowing snow and eliminated the immediate danger of falling through thin ice on ponds and streams."
Indoorization is not new, even for golf: golf simulators can be found in converted garages; Topgolf facilities offer high-tech, all-weather golf experiences. But TGL is a high-profile entrant in a history of moving sport indoors.
Indoorization as adaption?
Researchers assessing the prospects for outdoor skating against recent climate projections have concluded the future looks bleak for outdoor rinks, and that indoor arenas and synthetic surfaces will grow more important in the years ahead.
Put another way, indoorization may increasingly be a requirement, and not just a luxury, in the context of a worsening climate crisis.
Likewise, sport mega-events have implemented various climate adaptation measures over time, from snow-making on ski slopes to refrigeration of sliding tracks and far beyond. The future is likely to see host cities become climate unreliable to an even greater extent.
It's not just winter sports. From air-conditioned stadiums to relocated events in search of cooler conditions to indoor recess for students escaping poor-quality outdoor air, the changing climate is a point of vulnerability year-round - and for sport and physical activity participation at various levels.
Our point here is not that TGL was conceived with the climate crisis in mind. Nor do we expect outdoor golf to disappear. Rather, the climate crisis will demand adaptation in sport in the years ahead.
In a time of technological innovation - augmented reality, artificial intelligence and more - the mediatization of sport will provide new commercial and recreational opportunities that offer escape from, and perhaps distraction from, worsening outdoor conditions.
TGL's blend of real and artificial elements can be seen as foreshadowing "solutions" to much greater problems that are beginning to seem inevitable.
Brad Millington receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Brian Wilson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Michael L. Naraine receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Sport Canada.
Parissa Safai has received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
