Season 2 of TGL, the indoor team golf league headlined by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, is set to commence later this month. Ahead of its sophomore season, TGL debuted a new golf hole designed by renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse, a man that is on the Mt. Rushmore of modern day golf architects.
If you are tapped into the golf world on social media then you have seen by now that somehow every person in the community has a strong opinion on the new Gil Hanse golf hole design. Among them, there appear to be two main camps: those that think this is a masterfully designed hole and those that are angry it isn’t surrounded by a volcano spewing lava or with a green protected by a moat filled with sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads.
New Gil Hanse Designed TGL Hole Is Polarizing
First up, here is the new hole Gil Hanse designed for TGL ahead of season 2:
TGL
It is stunning! The hole’s name is ‘Stone & Steeple’ and it is set to a New England backdrop. It is a 590-yard par-5 with Sahara-style bunkering, a stone wall that challenges players to be accurate all up the left and when going at the green. Any shot left of that wall is dead (hence the graveyard).
Gil Hanse is a genius. His original course designs include The Apogee Club, Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, Kinsale, Ohoopee Match Club, The Cradle at Pinehurst, and Streamsong Black.
He has also restored and renovated many of the most prestigious and historic courses in America. Among those are Baltusrol (Lower and Upper), Fishers Island Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Merion GC (East and West), Oakland Hills, Oakmont, Olympic Club, Winged Foot, Yale Golf Course, and many more.
So this is a big deal that he would design an all original hole for TGL. It is also a very cool project. Yet somehow everyone in the golf world has something to say!
Some Golfers Love The New Gil Hanse Design
Among those that are on Gil Hanse’s side is Rick of ‘Top 100 Rick’ who on X wrote “this golf hole is really showing how few golfers are golf course architecture nerds. This golf hole is freaking awesome. And if you don’t get it? That’s totally fine. But if you do decide to study GCA a bit, you can only enrich your golf experiences.”
Okay, but do you really need an understanding of golf course architecture in order to appreciate this hole? I think not. But there are plenty of other posts on social media praising the new hole design.
Then there are others… Some offer up constructive ideas. Like PGA Tour star Michael Kim who threw out this idea on X: “How about a course where we let first tee kids design some holes so we can have some weird and fun holes?”
That would be awesome! It’s a no-brainer. An easy way to get kids who are already interested and active in the golf world learning about golf course architecture. The official TGL account even responded to him so I have a hunch we will see something like this done for season 3.
The Haters Are Out In Full Force
Then there are the countless people in the golf world who are frustrated that TGL’s virtual golf holes don’t mimic golf simulators or video games from the 90s and 00s. They want to be hitting into outlandish scenarios that are not possible in the real world.
On the one hand, there is some merit to this. A virtual golf league making its own real has limitless possibilities. But on the other hand, everyone seems to be thinking along the same lines which ultimately shows a lack of imagination.
Here are the top replies on X to the TGL announcement:
Among all the replies the only one I really saw that had me nodding along in agreement was someone asking when TGL would be enhancing the graphics for a more realistic/lifelike experience. As things stand, it all still very much looks computer generated.
If the plan is to use golf’s best course architects to create masterpieces then they should do it in a way that does justice to the designs with hyper-realism.
Speaking about new new TGL partnership, Gil Hanse said “starting with a relatively blank slate for TGL has been liberating. Designing holes for TGL has given us an opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and step into other aspects of golf course design in the virtual world.”
He added “on a few of our TGL holes, we decided to honor the concepts, thoughts, and styles of some of the greatest designers from golf history like A.W. Tillinghast, Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross. It will be gratifying to see virtual representations of those concepts and theories broadcast, not only on television, but on this huge screen as our designs challenge the best players in the world.”
All of this will be amazing to see on TV and in the arena for the fortunate few. But yeah, it would be pretty cool to see Tiger Woods hitting a 2-iron into a tiny green surrounded by angry tiger sharks. Of course I would like to see that.
Why can’t we have both?