Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
The TGL recently kicked off its second season, and it announced its plans to expand after teaming up with the LPGA to welcome some new golfers into the fold. It’s unclear if that will include Nelly Korda, who made a pretty valid point about an opportunity the league failed to take advantage of.
In 2022, the PGA Tour announced it was gearing up to launch what is officially known as the “TMRW Golf League.” The organization that’s more commonly referred to as TGL was supposed to kick off its inaugural season toward the end of 2023, but it was forced to postpone its launch for a year after storm damage hampered the construction of its state-of-the-art simulator facility in Palm Beach, Florida.
By most accounts, TGL’s first season was a successful one on the ratings front and offered a pretty entertaining product where some of the best golfers on the planet got the chance to let their hair down in the fairly friendly match play competitions that feature some pretty creative virtual holes.
The league is currently comprised of six teams that each boast four golfers who do their thing on the PGA Tour, but it will be expanding its scope at the end of the year when LPGA players get the chance to get in on the action for the first time. However, one of its most notable members seems to be a bit torn about the way the situation was handled.
Nelly Korda says TGL should have opted for a co-ed format instead of launching a separate women’s league
Earlier this month, we learned the WTGL will be launching at the end of 2026 shortly before the league revealed a star-studded lineup of early commits from the LPGA, including current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, Charley Hull, and Lexi Thompson.
As things currently stand, that lineup does not include Nelly Korda, who is second only to Thitikul in the rankings. That could end up changing, but on Tuesday, she made it pretty clear the new league has left her feeling pretty divided while speaking with the media ahead of this week’s HGV Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona in Orlando.
According to Golf Week, Korda asserted LPGA golfers should have been involved in the flagship league from the start, saying:
“I have mixed feelings on it if I’m being very honest, and I’m surprised no other girls have, or no one’s really spoken out about it.
I think it’s a huge and unbelievable miss that we’re not playing alongside the men. There’s no greater way to grow the game, and it would have been revolutionary. It would have been the first time, I think, that men and women are on the same playing field, playing for the same exact amount of money.
But I also think it’s great that we are getting this opportunity, so that’s my mixed feelings.”
It’s no secret the LPGA has an exposure problem, and it’s hard to think of a better way to shine a spotlight on its players than allowing them to regularly compete alongside some of the biggest names on the PGA Tour.
You have to imagine the circuit will organize a competition that allows TGL and WTGL teams to go head-to-head at some point, and if it doesn’t, that would also be another huge miss.