Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has agreed to purchase a new team in the TGL League, a virtual golf association founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank purchases Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy TGL virtual golf team
Falcons Owner Arthur Blank has purchased TGL Atlanta, the third team announced as part of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL golf league.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
The new league will commence in January 2024, with matches taking place every Monday night for 15 weeks in a virtual arena-like setting in South Florida.
Along with Woods and McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, and Collin Morikawa will compete in this start-up league. Many other notable players will too. As of this writing, 12 players have committed, with 28 majors won among them.
In addition to Blank’s team, aptly named TGL Atlanta, Serena Williams holds a majority stake in Los Angeles Golf Club—the first team announced—and Fenway Sports Group owns TGL Boston, the second TGL team.
There will be six teams in total, comprising three players each. The three other teams have yet to be announced.
The announcement comes during the week of the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship, hosted annually at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Of course, just two hours east of Atlanta lies Augusta National, host of The Masters.
“In Atlanta, we are ahead of the curve,” the new TGL Atlanta website reads. “Constantly innovating. Always influencing. Never accepting the status quo. Bobby Jones, our native son, changed the game. East Lake. Augusta. Our city and state are steeped in golf history, and we’re just getting started.”
As for Blank, he is not new to the golf industry. He owns multiple PGA Tour Superstores, the flagship store of the tour that carries clothing, equipment, and more.
“The golf business is significant in our portfolio, and the next frontier in the growth of the game is technology,” Blank said, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We are seeing technology play a much larger role in introducing people to golf at the professional level. We think having the best golfers in the world playing in a unique, technology-driven environment that is competitive and packaged for primetime consumption offers many opportunities to grow our overall business and help meet our objective of playing a key role in growing the game.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
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