The Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy-led TGL is back in action. After a week’s rest, (for the competition, not the players!) the simulator-driven league is up and running at the SoFi Center in Florida. The Presidents’ Day’s action featured a triple header with Atlanta Drive Golf Club playing twice against Bay Golf Club and Los Angeles Golf Club.
The day’s action had a dramatic start, indeed. Two teams with a 100% record, Atlanta Drive GC and Los Angeles Golf Club, played each other and it all came to a head in the second overtime in TGL’s history, with the highlight being a hole out from Los Angeles player Tommy Fleetwood. He was heavily involved from the start of the match. At one point, things seemed smooth for LAGC taking a commanding 5-2 lead over Atlanta Drive’s line-up of Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, and Patrick Cantlay.
Atlanta Drive fought back. The scoreboard looked like 5-5 on the penultimate hole when Cantlay left himself two feet for a birdie at the par-3 14th. There was even more drama at the 15th, with JT needing to chip in for Birdie to take the match to overtime. After having the flag removed, he rose to the occasion, the match was tied at 5-5 and TGL had its second overtime. Atlanta Drive took an early lead. JT then piled further pressure on LA when he got to within eight feet. Then came Fleetwood, who judged his effort brilliantly, landed the ball perfectly on the green, and watched it disappear into the hole to level things up. It was Atlanta who won at last, though.
Before the match play unfolded, English golfer Tommy Fleetwood was taking practice shots at a 312-yard par 4 hole. One tee shot was falling a bit short of the green, but as it landed it bounced off a rock right outside the green, before trickling into the hole, much to the delight of the Brit. The Los Angeles Golf Club player then took to X to share a video of the shot and posed the question to the golfing fans on X, “Golf simulator ace during practice. Does this count?”
Add this to the hole-in-one debate
Golf simulator ace during practice. Does this count? pic.twitter.com/mRDt3exvCD
— Tommy Fleetwood (@TommyFleetwood1) February 17, 2025
Although the question was posed as a calculated jibe, the fans were very vocal about their disinterest in treating as an ace. They were not amused. One fan gave a simple answer to the question asked by Fleetwood. “Big fat NOPE!,” the fan stated. The capitalization and the exclamation drove the point through. And it is not just one user. There were plenty.
Fans mock the simulator experience at Tiger Woods’s TGL
Some fans still can’t digest the golfing experience the simulator is providing. After all, it’s very different from the actual golf. Netizens do not care, it should not count as a real ace, well because it did not happen on the course. “Sorry, simulator holes in one don’t count,” they commented. “No. A simulator NEVER counts,” said another. “All simulator ace’s don’t count,” wrote another person, clearly not a TGL fan.
Another fan acknowledged the effort, with the caveat that it would have been a better experience for both the golfer and the viewers if it had happened in real life. Just ask Ludvig Aberg or Keegan Bradley, both of whom delivered stunning aces at the recently concluded Genesis Invitational. “If this happened on tour it would be the most epic shot of all time.”
While TGL does provide good entertainment, it is further away from the real thing, at least according to most of the fans. This could mostly be because of the league’s previous issues with the simulator. During the initial days of TGL, Golfweek reported that the simulator was exaggerating movements on shots multiple times during the debut match featuring Tiger Woods. Golfweek gave the technology some leeway stating, “Mishits will happen in a simulator, especially in an arena setting that players are not used to at all.”
However, fans seem unconvinced. The simulator still feels artificial and is similar to scoring a goal in EA Sports FC rather than on the field. One fan accurately put it, “An ace on a sim is like running sub4 on a treadmill, you aint really running.”
While Tommy Fleetwood’s feat is amazing, the consensus is that it is still not the real thing. Conditions like weather, surface roughness and such cannot be accurately brought into action in a technological setting. And this is where the fans disagree with the concept. While, it is entertaining, in its way, it is not close to the real thing. What do you think?
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