Fenway Sports Group to join Tiger Woods-backed virtual golf league

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The US owner of Liverpool FC and the Boston Red Sox is expanding into golf by buying a team in a new virtual league owned by star players Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Fenway Sports Group will become the second owner of a team in the TGL, the new competition due to launch early next year, after acquiring the rights to a Boston-based franchise, it said on Monday.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and his wife, tennis superstar Serena Williams, bought the first — Los Angeles Golf Club — earlier this month.

TGL is majority owned by TMRW Sports, an investment vehicle jointly controlled by Woods and McIlroy, two of the biggest names in golf. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but FSG will hold a 3 per cent stake in TGL as part of the deal.

The new league involves six teams of three top players competing on a simulator inside an arena. Games will last just two hours and will be broadcast on primetime television in the US.

Woods and McIlroy hope to use TGL — which has taken some inspiration from the Indian Premier League cricket tournament and Formula One racing — to broaden interest in golf by condensing the game into an easily digestible format for a new, younger audience.

“I think what you’ll find is the format lends itself to those who may follow golf occasionally, but are fans of traditional team sports. Ultimately they will become fans of golf,” said Mike McCarley, chief executive and co-founder of TMRW Sports.

The PGA Tour owns an 18 per cent stake in TGL. Each team owner will get 3 per cent, while the golfers who participate will share a 10 per cent holding. A number of top players have already signed up to the project, including Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele.

“This is an idea that is really very timely. It fuses live action and technology,” Tom Werner, chair of FSG, told the Financial Times. “This is a time where as many people are playing simulated golf as green grass golf.”

Werner and FSG founder John Henry were already investors in TMRW Sports.

Woods and McIlroy were both outspoken critics of the LIV, the Saudi-backed rebel tour that offered big pay packets to lure players away from the PGA Tour. Last summer’s launch of LIV, which also aims to promote golf as a team sport, opened up a bitter divide in the game.

However, the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced plans earlier this month to combine their commercial operations and cease legal hostilities. The agreement shocked the golf world, with the PGA Tour left scrambling to reassure its players — many of whom had rejected lucrative offers from LIV.

McCarley said the idea of starting TGL long predated the launch of LIV, and that the recent deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF had not altered any of the league’s plans.

TMRW Sports has attracted a long list of celebrity backers, including F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, footballer Gareth Bale and singer Justin Timberlake. Its investors also include well-known names in sports finance, such as Blackstone executive David Blitzer.