I was in the gym tonight (no big deal) and they had that new golf simulator league thing on the tvs. I had my airpods in plus there was no sound, so I couldn’t really make out what they were showing when the above clip aired, but when I saw woods line up a shot and the camera rattle, I put 2 and 2 together and realized the guy hit the thing. 

I pulled the clip up on twitter shortly after and low and behold, he was basically requested to hit the camera and did so on command. 

They used to say that Greg Maddux’ command with a baseball was so pinpoint that he could hit the inside of a coffee mug if it was laid sideways in the strike zone.

Well, I think Tiger trumps that. 

The 15-time major winner decided to casually walk up to a 60-foot simulator screen and knock a golf ball dead-center into a tiny camera lens like it was absolutely nothing.

The guy is 49 years old and still pulling off trick shots that would take Jersey Jerry 25 years to pull off. 

(Sidebar – I’ve been seeing endless commercials for this TGL thing and seriously thought it was just a bunch of pro golfers playing matches on a simulator. Which sounded lame as fuck. After watching it for an hour or so tonight at the gym, it’s actually pretty cool. I read up on it a bit to write this and here’s what I got. It’s called TGL which stands for “Tomorrow’s Golf League” and it is the new high-tech golf league Tiger and Rory McIlroy launched to fuse the old-school vibe of golf with cutting-edge technology. Picture a massive simulator indoors, a big crowd, and some of the world’s best players decked out in sweet team gear going head-to-head. There are 24 PGA Tour players split between six teams. And it is part simulator, part actual golf. 

Some of the holes are straight out of a fever dream, which makes it a lot more challenging and interesting to watch than your standard simulator, or round on TV. 

They even did a “lava hole” straight out of Mario Golf

A great breakdown of it all with a ton of graphics and pictures can be found here)

The format is as follows-

Matches: Each team goes at it for 15 holes, split into a “triples” nine-hole session (three vs. three in a foursomes format) and a “singles” six-hole session (head-to-head). Every hole won = 1 point. The team with the most points wins.

Overtime: If there’s a tie, we get a penalty shootout-style challenge. Two shots closer than your opponent wins.

Season: Fifteen weeks of this madness, then playoffs, and eventually a best-of-three finals to crown the first TGL champ.

There’s a shot clock to keep the pace of play up, and they do some thing called “the hammer” where you can double your “bet” (I think) on that hole. (It’s like a skins round). 

They’re putting and chipping onto actual greens, but with one major caveat. TGL’s putting greens are divided into interchangeable modules. And it’s on a turntable. And it can change the undulations of the green and pin position. It’s pretty wild.

In between them explaining the rules, and how everything is done – 

 and showing the actual golf, 

they showed this cutaway of Woods and Rory talking to an exec and Tiger telling his story. 

He casually revealed he’d nailed that camera on his very first attempt when some poor soul said, “Bet you can’t.” That’s the level of accuracy we’re talking about here, with this guy. Even at this age. Even after injuries, surgeries, and who knows how many private plane rides with crutches in hand, the man can still basically call his shot like he’s Babe Ruth pointing to the bleachers.

Just further proof he can literally do whatever he wants with a golf club, whenever he feels like it.

Sure, injuries and Father Time have done their best to slow him down, but the PGA Tour literally created a “Lifetime Achievement exemption category” to keep him in signature events. That’s like telling LeBron James, “Hey man, we’re never not inviting you to the All-Star Game.” Tiger still moves the needle in golf like no one else, and for good reason: when he’s on the screen, we’re all paying attention. No matter if its The Masters, an pro-am event with his kid, or this new video game hybrid league he’s launching with McElroy (and playing in). 

All in all, this was pretty cool to watch on a wintery Tuesday night. It moved quickly, seemed like the crowd in attendance was loving it, (booing, chanting, and dinking plenty), and all I could think about was if this SoFi TGL Stadium or arena or whatever it’s called is open to the public, this would be a very very cool bachelor party spot. 

p.s. – 

tiger tiger woods yall

p.p.s. – look at these shots. and look at those crowds.