TODAY’S TALKER

Woods, Mcilroy star at virtual golf league kickoff event in Florida

Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy put silver-plated shovels into a pile of dirt and left sizable divots.

With that, their high-tech golf league got a bit closer to launch.

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the arena that will house the league that’s being called TGL was held Tuesday at Palm Beach (Fla.) State College, with Woods and Mcilroy — two of the co-founders of TMRW Sports — there for the first step of actual construction.

TMRW — pronounced “tomorrow” — says TGL play will begin early next year, and the league will be in partnership with the PGA Tour. Woods and Mcilroy, so far, have 11 players committed. Besides them, the league will include world No. 1 Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele.

“In terms of fan experience, it’s going to be nothing like golf has offered before,” Mcilroy said.

The concept is this: six teams of three PGA Tour players, squaring off in match play on a data-driven virtual course that also includes a short-game complex for chipping and putting. It’ll be played on Monday nights, and will take only two hours, with in-arena fans all close to the action. There will be 15 matches in the regular season, followed by semifinals and a final.

Access is part of the allure of the concept, along with the technology. TGL players will be mic’d-up, and fans won’t have to guess what their thought processes are on certain shots.

“It’s going to give the viewer at home and also the people in the arena just more of an in-depth of sort of how we do things and how we sort of think through things in our head,” Mcilroy said.