The outside shell of the towering indoor golf arena is complete.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The outside shell of the towering indoor golf arena rising on Palm Beach State College’s Palm Beach Gardens campus is complete.
Teams of players from around the world will compete in the TGL team at the SoFi Center starting in January. In the meantime, crews are working on the interior elements of the arena, entry pavilion, exterior plaza and player performance building.
TGL is the interactive golf league led by PGA Tour players Tiger Woods, who lives in Jupiter Island, and Rory McIlroy, who has a home in Jupiter. The first match is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN on Jan. 7 during prime time.
Pieces of red steel framing sit on the outside of the building. They mark the site of the entry pavilion, where crews will install an LED screen and signs.
Rendering of the 1,500-seat SoFi Center that will house the TGL interactive golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. (Photo provided by TGL)
The steel, walls and roof are also up on its player-performance building, a smaller structure on the south end of the arena where golfers will warm up.
Inside the arena, crews have installed a steel seating structure, a 46-foot-by-64-foot Jumbotron-type screen, HVAC ductwork, broadcast lighting, the framing of the owners’ boxes and player benches, according to a spokesperson for TGL presented by SoFi.
The arena is set for completion in mid-December, but players will start hitting balls at the SoFi Center in early November, its spokesperson said.
The entrance will be on the north end of the SoFi Center under construction for the TGL indoor golf league that was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on Palm Beach State College land on October 21, 2024, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST
TGL is hosting a job fair at PBSC campus
TGL is hosting a job fair on the PBSC campus on Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 2 to 7 p.m. for positions, including guest services, ushers, event production and ticket-takers. The job fair will be in Room SC-127 of the BioScience Building.
Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
The league’s first match is just around the corner, set to begin Jan. 7, 2025.
In August of 2022, a new vision for golf was born.
Backed by TMRW Sports, golf legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy headed the creation of Tomorrow’s Golf League, an interactive league that fuses the traditional sport and advanced technology in an indoor arena.
The Palm Beach Gardens-based league was originally set to launch in January of this year but was pushed back due to arena damages caused by a windstorm and power outage back in November.
Now, the league’s first match is just around the corner, set to begin Jan. 7, 2025. Follow along Woods and McIlroy’s journey to tee time.
New Tiger Woods golf arena at PBSC campus in Palm Beach Gardens could be metal
Will Tiger Woods’ new tech golf league get a metal arena on Palm Beach State College land in Palm Beach Gardens?
The PBSC Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet soon to discuss further a proposal to rebuild the indoor golf arena on the school’s campus off PGA Boulevard with prefabricated metal instead of an air-inflated dome.
The Palm Beach State College Board of Trustees will allow TMRW Sports to construct a permanent arena for an interactive golf league led by stars such as Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy on their Palm Beach Gardens campus — just as long as the company pays it hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
TGL, as the league is known, was supposed to start play this year in an inflatable dome on a 3-acre site along PGA Boulevard. In November, when work on the dome was nearly done, fierce winds and rain ripped apart the dome, forcing TMRW Sports to change plans.
TGL, the interactive golf league headed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, has announced the first three dates for its inaugural 2025 season after receiving approval from Palm Beach State College last Friday to construct a permanent arena.
The league, backed by TMRW Sports, will play its first three matches the first three Tuesdays in January, debuting Jan. 7. The prime-time matches will be televised by ESPN. The remainder of the schedule was not revealed.
Exclusive: Tiger Woods talks TGL with USA Today Network: ‘I couldn’t be more excited for January’
Tiger Woods hits his tee shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Troon. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports
TGL, the Palm Beach Gardens-based interactive golf league, is “full steam ahead” according to one of its co-founders, Hall of Famer Tiger Woods.
Woods, the Jupiter Island resident, answered questions via e-mail exclusively for The Palm Beach Post (part of the USA Today Network) about his team, Jupiter Links GC, and the league that has overcome the setback of the roof on its original building collapsing in November due to a power outage and wind storm. The incident forced the start date to be pushed back one year.
Tiger Woods’ TGL team includes top 10 player in the world, rising PGA Tour star
Max Homa called it “a dream” to play in Tiger Woods’ group the first two days of the Masters. When asked following Friday’s competition what he will remember from his round, he said just “a lot of Tiger stuff.”
Now, Homa will build on those memories going forward.
Max Homa’s take on why he believes he’s on Tiger Woods’ TGL team will surprise you\
US golfer Max Homa waits on the 12th green on the opening day of the 152nd British Open Golf Championship at Royal Troon on the southwest coast of Scotland on July 18, 2024. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP)
Max Homa gave a quick lesson Tuesday when it comes to TGL, the interactive golf league headed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
And he kept coming back to one word: fun.
“It should be fun,” he said. “I think you’re going to have to see it to fully get it for everybody like it’s a lot bigger than playing simulator golf.”
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy-led TGL rosters for all six teams in interactive golf league
TGL, the interactive golf league headed by Woods and Rory McIlroy, is preparing for its inaugural season, which starts Jan. 7. The league will be played in Palm Beach Gardens at a venue to be built on the campus of Palm Beach State College.
Here are the rosters. Boston and San Francisco each will add a fourth player. Although San Francisco’s team officially has not been revealed, its roster will include those remaining players who joined TGL.
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy golf league fills out final roster spot with another top 15 golfer
Hideki Matsuyama of Japan looks across the 16th hole during day two of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club on July 12, 2024 in North Berwick, Scotland. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images)
With less than seven months before TGL launches in Palm Beach Gardens, the interactive golf league headed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has filled its final roster spot.
Japanese legend Hideki Matsuyama was announced as the fourth member of Boston Common Golf, joining Jupiter’s McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott. Matsuyama, ranked No. 12 in the world, replaces Tyrrell Hatton, who vacated his spot on the team after joining LIV Golf.
How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: Tiger Woods’ golf arena towers over PBSC campus
Crews build the SoFi Center for the TGL indoor golf league that was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on Palm Beach State College land on July 10, 2024, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The indoor golf arena rising on the Palm Beach State College campus in Palm Beach Gardens now towers over nearby homes, neighborhood buildings, passing delivery trucks and neighboring trees at around 75 feet tall.
Crews have finished building the SoFi Center’s foundations. And the steel and walls and roof panels are on site. Roof work began this month, and crews are working six days a week for 10 hours per day, said a spokesperson for TGL, the interactive golf league that will call the center home. That league is being led by golf legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who both have homes in the region.
The Benjamin boys team won for the fourth time in program history — the first time since 2009
Tiger Woods and his ex-wife Elin Nordegren were among those on hand during a presentation on Tuesday as the Benjamin School golf team members received their state championship rings. The school is located in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Benjamin boys team, led by longtime coach Toby Harbeck, won for the fourth time in program history — the first time since 2009. The squad captured the Class 1A title at Mission Inn Resort and Club.
While Charlie Woods is the team’s most famous member, others on the squad include Brooks Colton, Pavel Tsar, Jake Valentine, Charlie Woods, and Tyler Bruneau.
After winning the title, Charlie Woods teamed with his dad to take fifth place at the PNC Championship in Orlando.
Greg Lovett and Emilee Smarr of the Palm Beach Post contributed to this post.
Hovland’s move gives this county half of the world’s top 10 golfers in the current ranking and 10 of the top 30.
Palm Beach County in Florida has added another top 10 golfer in the world among its residents.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland, ranked No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, recently moved from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Palm Beach Gardens, where he is living with a friend. Hovland is scouting the area for the best place to buy.
Hovland’s move gives Palm Beach County half of the world’s top 10 golfers in the current ranking and 10 of the top 30.
Hovland, 26, had lived in Stillwater since arriving at Oklahoma State University. When asked about the move after his pro-am Wednesday before the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, he compared the weather in the Midwest to South Florida.
“The weather is a big one,” he said. “It’s just hard to beat it for golf, especially this time of year. This has kind of been a rough winter in Stillwater. Just not great for practicing. Even though I love Oklahoma. Summertime it’s great, and I certainly miss the people there.”
Stillwater’s average temperature from December through January is in the 50s. The city had three consecutive days in January when the low was below zero.
Hovland also was drawn by the proximity to international airports, especially Miami which has nonstop flights to Oslo.
“I do find it easier if I want to go back home to Norway, it’s a direct flight from Miami,” he said. “I can have family and friends come down and hang out. It’s a little bit harder for them to come to Stillwater, and, yeah, there’s not much to do there either. So at least in Florida, there’s a little bit more we can do.”
Hovland is the reigning FedEx Cup champion, which earned him $18 million, and has won six times on the PGA Tour. He joins fellow top 10 golfers Rory McIlroy (No. 2), Xander Schauffele (5), Patrick Cantlay (6) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (9) as residents of northern Palm Beach County. Hovland, McIlroy and Fitzpatrick were part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team, as were Jupiter residents Shane Lowry (54) and team captain Luke Donald.
Keegan Bradley (15), Cameron Young (21), Justin Thomas (23), Matthieu Pavon (24) and Brooks Koepka (30) round out top 30 county residents in the current ranking.
Others of note include Rickie Fowler, Daniel Berger, Gary Woodland, Eric Cole, Lucas Glover and Matt Kuchar.
Koepka leads a long list of LIV golfers in the area, among them Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson, Anirban Lahiri, Joaquin Niemann, Mito Pereira, Charl Schwartzel, Peter Uihlein and Matthew Wolff.
Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els and Justin Leonard are among those on the PGA Tour Champions living in the county.
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@gannett.com.
They want a return to the world-class fields regularly seen until about five years ago.
Todd Fleming believes the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches has all the ingredients to become a premier stop on the PGA Tour.
Why else would the 45-year-old leave a job as vice president for global sales at Legends, a company that specializes in solutions for sports organizations and venues?
Fleming, who spent two years as the manager of ticket sales for the Miami Heat in the 2000s, is Cognizant’s new executive director. He will take over running the event after this year’s tournament concludes.
Cognizant will be held Feb. 29-March 3 at PGA National.
“I know we will build a championship this community can take immense pride in, as well as our players,” said Fleming, who worked 14 years at Legends. “This has tremendous potential to be a marquee event on the Tour each and every year.”
Cognizant replaced Honda as the title sponsor of the event that has been held in Palm Beach Gardens the last two decades and at PGA National since 2007. Joie Chitwood, hired by the PGA Tour in May to run the 2026 Presidents Cup, was asked to step in this year on an interim basis to help the event through the transition.
The Tour’s Championship Management division will take over operations of the event.
“The PGA Tour doesn’t do the acquisitions in taking over rights and control of an event if they don’t believe in the marketplace and believe there is a real opportunity for growth,” Fleming said.
Matt Rapp, senior vice-president of the PGA Tour’s Championship Management Division, spoke about the Tour’s desire to continue the event’s growth outside the ropes started by former executive directors Ken Kennerly and Andrew George. They also want a return to the world-class fields regularly seen until about five years ago.
Todd Fleming has been named executive director of the Cognizant Classic.
With Rory McIlory and Rickie Fowler heading the early entries – and the Tour adjusting the schedule in Cognizant’s favor – this year’s tournament is off to a good start.
“The work that’s been done with this event to this point has been incredible,” Fleming said. “You got to build on that.”
While attendance, charitable contributions and the build-out continue to grow, Fleming said the goal also is to stage an event golfers are “juiced up” to play.
“When you’re on the golf course, you’re talking to guys next to you,” Fleming said about the pros. “If we get the right mixture of atmosphere, amenities, the right product and spectator enhancements these guys are going to talk to each other.”
Once that happens, then it’s up to Fleming and his team to “be revolutionary” in how they can think outside the ropes.
“Then we nailed it,” he said. “Then it’s blue sky after that. If we can get this thing going, there is no question in my mind people want to be in this marketplace.”
Eric Cole tees off at the 17th hole during the third round of the 2023 Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo: Andres Leiva/Palm Beach Post)
Fly on the wall for ’24 Cognizant
Fleming will be on site for this year’s tournament.
“I’ll be a fly on the wall and get as much knowledge as I can,” he said. “Shadowing and listening as much as possible. There’s still some things we have to evolve, make sure we’re putting on an event the community and Palm Beach County is proud of.”
A graduate of the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, where he was a point guard on the basketball team, Fleming has a reputation as a leader, communicator and motivator.
In 2018, he was named one of Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40.” Prior to joining Legends, he worked in business operations for the Charlotte Bobcats, Dallas Cowboys, New Jersey Nets, Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. His two-year stint in Miami started in 2004.
While at Legends, Fleming helped complete the Yankees’ $40 million renovation to Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, assisted the Chargers in their move to Los Angeles and helped a company win the right to sell premium seats for the Raiders’ new stadium in Las Vegas.
“Todd’s track record at Legends speaks for itself,” Rapp said. “His vast experience in establishing new partnerships across the sports landscape is perfect for our long-term goals in South Florida as we look to create a best-in-class tournament atmosphere catered for our top PGA Tour players, partners and fans.”
Fleming and his family will move from their current home in Austin, Texas, to Palm Beach County following the 2023-24 school year.
“We are in the perfect epicenter,” Fleming said about growing Cognizant before adding that Palm Beach County needs to be a destination for people who want to see “great golf and have an experience.
“We have an opportunity to do that. We’re going to go all in.”
The Cognizant (formerly Honda) Classic has not featured a golfer ranked among the top two in nearly a decade.
The Cognizant Classic has not featured a golfer ranked among the top two in the world in nearly a decade.
That likely will end in 2024.
Rory McIlroy, a Jupiter, Florida, resident and world No. 2, has committed to the event formerly known as the Honda Classic. McIlroy, the 2012 champion, has not played in the tournament held at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, since 2018.
“It’s always good to come back to a tournament where you’ve won and had success before, and even better when it’s a bit of a home game,” McIlroy, 34, said. “PGA National is a great test of golf and the fan support and incredible crowds make for an exciting atmosphere throughout the week for the players.”
Cognizant will be held Feb. 29-March 3.
Cognizant has not had a golfer ranked in the top 10 the week of the event in the past three years and none in the top two since McIlroy was No. 1 in the world when he played in 2015. The 2023 field included four of the top 30 golfers, none higher than 18th.
McIlroy joins fellow Jupiter resident Rickie Fowler, No. 27 in the Official World Golf Ranking, as the first two announced commitments.
Rickie Fowler (white shirt) and Rory McIlroy walk the first fairway during the final round of the CJ Cup golf tournament. (Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
With the PGA Tour adjusting the 2024 schedule to add a week between the West Coast Swing and Cognizant, which is the start of the Florida Swing, the hope is the field receives a boost.
Cognizant signed a six-year deal as the new title sponsor last month and the PGA Tour’s Championship Management division now is running the event.
McIlroy’s ties to the area run deep. He and Tiger Woods launched TGL, a virtual golf league that will be held in Palm Beach Gardens on the campus of Palm Beach State College. The start of the league has been delayed until January 2025 after the venue’s roof collapsed in November.
McIlroy coming off Dubai win
McIlroy is coming off a victory at the Dubai Desert Classic last Sunday, an event he has won a record four times. He won twice on the PGA Tour in 18 starts last season, giving him 24 career tour victories, including four majors.
McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, led the victorious 2023 European Ryder Cup team with four victories. He won his Sunday singles match over Sam Burns, teamed with Tommy Fleetwood for two more wins and Matt Fitzpatrick for another.
McIlroy’s lone loss, in which he was teamed with Fitzpatrick, was filled with drama. McIlroy was angered when Patrick Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, overdid his celebration after Cantlay drained a long putt that ended up clinching the match. LaCava distracted McIlroy as he was lining up a potential tying putt during a chaotic scene in which the entire U.S. team was waving its caps, a reaction to the fans who had taunted Cantlay the entire day.
Then, as he was leaving the club, McIlroy was yelling and pointing at Jim “Bones” Mackay, Justin Thomas’ caddie and a close friend of LaCava’s. He had to be held back and shoved into a car by Shane Lowry. The scene went viral.
The 2012 Honda was McIlroy’s third PGA Tour win. He carded a 12-under 268 and held off a Sunday charge from Woods, who tied for second two shots behind.
The victory allowed McIlroy to rise to world No. 1 for the first time in his career. He has spent 122 weeks atop the world ranking. McIlroy has been ranked in the top three every week but one since June 2022.
Grounds and hospitality tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.
Tom D’Angelo can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @tomdangelo44.
Fowler skipped last year’s event after making 13 consecutive starts. He’s returning in 2024.
One of the PGA Tour’s most recognizable names who makes his home in Palm Beach County is returning to the Cognizant Classic.
Rickie Fowler skipped last year’s event after making 13 consecutive starts. The Jupiter, Florida, resident is returning in 2024, possibly a sign the field could see a significant upgrade.
Fowler is No. 27 in the Official World Golf rankings and coming off a year in which he had eight top 10 finishes and won the Rocket Mortgage Classic, his sixth PGA Tour victory and first in more than four years. He also was a member of the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost to Europe in Rome.
“As one of the most exciting players on the PGA Tour, he is a tremendous addition to our field and is sure to generate a plethora of excitement for our partners and fans during tournament week,” Cognizant executive director Joie Chitwood said.
Fowler, 35, won the Cognizant in 2017 with a four-shot victory over Gary Woodland and Morgan Hoffmann. Two years later, he finished tied for second, one shot behind Keith Mitchell.
Rickie Fowler of the United States celebrates winning on the 18th green during the final round of The Honda Classic at PGA National Resort and Spa on February 26, 2017, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Cognizant, formerly known as the Honda Classic, will be held Feb. 29-March 3 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens.
With the PGA Tour adjusting the 2024 schedule to add a week between the West Coast Swing and Cognizant, the start of the Florida Swing, the hope is the field receives a boost.
The 2023 field included four of the top 30 golfers in the world rankings at the time, its fewest in at least a decade. None in the top 10 played for the third consecutive year.
Tom D’Angelo is a sports columnist, reporter at the Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @tomdangelo44.
Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around South Florida.
Call it South Florida or be more specific and call it southeastern Florida, one thing is for certain: The area stretching south along the coast from Port St. Lucie to Miami is packed with golf courses.
But which are the best? If you’re willing to drive a bit, there are several courses in this region that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in Florida. All the courses listed below are within reasonable driving distance of cities such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Jupiter.
But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, which list Florida courses that might be a full day’s drive away from South Florida (which is not to be confused with southwest Florida, such as Naples, which is considered by most Floridians to be a distinct region).
None of this is to say there aren’t plenty of other worthy public-access courses to play around South Florida. There are. These are only the layouts ranked among the very best in the whole state that happen to be in South Florida.
There is one course worth mentioning that isn’t on the best-in-state list yet, but surely will be in years to come. Architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner recently renovated the former West Palm Beach Golf Course into the Park, complete with 18 holes and a short, lit par-3 course. The main 18 didn’t open in time to appear on various Golfweek’s Best lists in 2023.
Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.
Included with each course is its position in Florida on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.
A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.
A Florida motorist on Saturday captured video footage showing a car being flipped by a tornado on a North Palm Beach highway.
As severe weather hammered parts of Florida on Saturday, a motorist captured video footage showing a car being flipped by a tornado on a North Palm Beach highway.
The accompanying footage was captured by a woman identified as Daphne N. and shared via Twitter by Jennifer Collins, a meteorologist for CBS12.
The 6-second clip shows the car’s rear end being lifted before the entire car flips and lands back on the highway.
“This is why vehicles are not a safe place to be during a tornado warning,” Collins stated. “Lots of damage in the area. This is US-1 north of PGA Blvd.”
It was not clear if anyone in the vehicle was injured.
The storm damaged homes and toppled trees. Residents were instructed to avoid fallen power lines.
The New York Times reported that police and fire rescue crews were patrolling North Palm Beach after the tornado touched down at about 5:45 p.m.
The National Weather Service in Miami confirmed that a tornado had struck near Palm Beach Gardens.
At the time, no injuries were reported by the village of North Palm Beach.
Carroll just got done speaking with some reporters. Here are a few notes from that conversation.
The annual NFL owners meetings are currently taking place in Palm Beach, Florida. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider are among the front office executives speaking with the media today.
Carroll just got done speaking with some reporters. Here are a few notes from that conversation.
