Masters champion Tiger Woods of the United States on the No. 17 hole during practice round 1 prior to the start of the 2024 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Monday, April 8, 2024.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are desperately hoping the new TGL indoor league can fill a gap in the market and rival LIV Golf when it launches in Florida on January 7.

Questions unrelated to the launch of the TGL indoor league were not allowed but Rory McIlroy still couldn’t resist having a crack at the PGA of America’s decision to pay the US team to play in next year’s Ryder Cup.

The tech-infused league tees off at the purpose-built SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College — a 97-yard x 50 yard “field of play” where players will hit long shots at a screen but pitch, chip and putt in a 22,475-square-foot short game area that transforms between holes.

The opening match will see New York Golf Club — featuring Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young — take on The Bay Golf Club’s quartet of Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee.

McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf side (McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott) will not tee it up until January 27, when fans will be hoping to see a showdown between the Holywood star and Woods, who is the skipper of a Jupiter Links GC outfit that also features Max Homa, Kevin Kisner and Tom Kim.

But both Woods and McIlroy see TGL as a potential rival to LIV Golf in the battle for a golf’s new, younger demographic.

“Yeah, it's going to be great,” Woods said at the PNC Championship, where he tees it up with his son Charlie today in an event where Padraig and Paddy Harrington also play.

“This is what we've been shooting for. We're trying to bring a new demographic to this game of golf, and it's going to be exciting.

“I was blown away at the amount of moving parts there is to this. There's a lot of moving parts, but as a showcase, it's going to be unbelievable on TV. I hope that we can invigorate the game because it definitely needs it right now.”

McIlroy couldn’t resist a dig at the US Ryder Cup team when asked about the novelty of team golf.

“Yeah, absolutely,” McIlroy said when asked if TGL could rival LIV given that each team is affiliated with a big city.

“You go back to the Ryder Cup. Team golf has been around since 1927 in the professional game.”

When it was pointed out to McIlroy that the likes of Walter Hagen and Ted Ray weren’t paid to play in 1927, McIlroy quipped: “Some of us still don't get paid!”

Joking aside, the world number three is hoping his Boston Common side will gain momentum among hardcore Boston sports fans, which is why they’ve spent the last year filming a new five-part docuseries "unCOMMON: Building a Boston Sports Team," which has been following McIlroy and his Boston Common golf teammates behind the scenes for the past 12 months.

“What TGL has done a good job of is trying to locate the different teams in cities or geographies where you can really plug into the wider sports fans of that city,” McIlroy said.

“So obviously with Boston Common and everyone knowing, I guess, the intensity in which Boston fans support their teams, trying to plug into that.

“Obviously, Fenway owns the team. So, plugging into the sort of Red Sox fans and obviously everyone else, whether it be the Celtics or the Bruins or the Patriots, I think that to me at least gives you a connection to something, which is great.

“Now that we've got Keegan as well, which is amazing, Keegan's from that area. So, he's so proud to be playing for a Boston sports team. So, we have that in our favour as well.

“But I think that's what TGL has done maybe a little bit better to connect with certain fan bases than, say, LIV, for example.

“But I see this as all being complementary. Obviously, there's only so many weeks in the year. There's only so much golf we can all play. But I say this as being complementary to everything else that is going on in the world of golf.”

TFL is not designed to replace PGA Tour golf.

“I'm still a traditionalist in a lot of ways,” McIlroy said. “There's no replicating championship golf. I think that's always going to be around. It always will be around.

“But I think there are certain things that we can do to innovate and try to maybe try to appeal to a different and younger demographic, especially trying to condense it into a time frame that is a little bit more digestible and putting it on at a time where we're maybe going to get a few more eyeballs as well.

“So, we sort of tried to think of everything. And the proof will be in pudding January 7th when it kicks off, but we're excited about the possibilities of it.”

The docuseries, which was produced by Fenway Sports Group and NBC’s GolfPass, is a Netflix-style product that catalogues a difficult first year for TGL, which saw the league postponed for 12 months following the collapse of the original venue in Florida after a storm, to the loss Tyrrell Hatton to LIV and his replacement by Masters winner Matsuyama.

“Obviously there's been a few ups and downs with the TGL journey to get to this point,” McIlroy said of the new league. “But I'm on the record saying that it has been a blessing in disguise.”

The delay has given the backers the chance to re-think the venue which not only features huge screens, it also combines artificial turf with “real Bermuda grass for the fairways, real Bermuda rough” and the same sand Augusta uses in its bunkers.

“Once you get within 40 yards of the green, then you transition to the green zone where all of that is artificial turf,” McIlroy explained. “But I still feel like the ball reacts very realistically on the green.

“We toyed around with the idea of using real grass and real turf on the green, but with the rotating green and then obviously with the jacks underneath and the ability to change slopes, we were afraid if we used real turf that that turf could crack and break.”

McIlroy has already played a couple of practice matches at the SoFi Center and he insists it’s not a gimmick exhibition but something that will be highly competitive.

“Look, we're all competitors at the end of the day,” he said. “We want to win. And even going back to the Showdown on Tuesday night, we're trying to provide entertainment for people.”

Given the size of the investment and the pressure to give team investors bang for their buck, McIlroy admits he’s “nervous” about an enterprise that’s trying to tap into a new golf demographic.

“I get nervous all the time, especially when it's something that you really care about,” he said. “I was nervous on Tuesday night before starting. I get nervous quite a bit.”

He added: “I’m a competitor at the end of the day, and I want to make sure that when I step in that arena that I'm as prepared as possible. And I'm obviously playing for a team and I want that team to win. That's a big part of it, too.”

Woods also believes the delay to TGL has been a positive in the long run and allowed the organisers to create something special.

“Yeah, I hadn't seen it with everything in it,” the said of the SoFi Center. “I had seen the shell, but I hadn't seen it with all the tech in it, and yes, it is incredible, absolutely incredible.

“The rotating green blew me away. I've never seen a rotating green, so that's a new experience, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun for not just us but also the fan experience.”

As for his game and his health, Woods admitted he’s very rusty after undergoing back surgery in September and does not know when he’ll play competitively again.

“Yeah, my leg is what it is,” said Woods had a microdiscectomy on his lower back. “It's still here, and it is what it is.

“But this year, I struggled a lot with my back, and that's why I had the procedure done. It's a lot better, but I still have a long way to go.”

He is expecting his son Charlie, who he says has grown three to four inches and beaten him over nine holes this year, to put the ball in play off the tee this weekend

“Well, hopefully I don't have to hit any drivers, and so he drives it in play, we go out there, hit iron shots, he makes all the putts, and I just am a good backup,” Woods said.

“He's grown so much since last year. I think he's put on three and a half, four inches in height. It's been a moving target. He got stronger, faster, heavier. He's a typical teenager.”

As for bragging rights in the family, Woods Jnr still has to win over 18 holes.

“Yeah, he beat me for nine holes, has yet to beat me for 18 holes yet,” Woods said. “That day is coming, I'm just prolonging it as long as I possibly can.”

As for the hype surrounding his son, Woods said: “I think he's doing a great job. In this day and age, everyone is basically media with all the phones. Being constantly filmed and constantly just -- people watching him, that's just part of his generation, and that's part of the world that he has to manoeuvre through.

“I try and do the best job I possibly can as a parent. I'm always here for him. But at the end of the day, I just want him just to be himself and have his own life.”