Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s joint-venture TMRW Sports is set to become a much more jointed venture thanks to investment from an incredible array of pro athletes. The likes of Stephen Curry, Serena Williams, Sidney Crosby and myriad others are buying in, as announced Wednesday morning by the company.
All together the group of athletes total eight NBA championships, eight MVP titles, 42 grand slam titles. They’ve got a bunch of F1 race victories, NFL Pro Bowls, Olympic medals, even Emmy and Grammy awards. Where do we start?
Williams, Curry and Crosby are living legends in their own sports, joined in the same capacity by Diana Taurasi from the WNBA. There’s Shohei Otani, international MLB star, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz from the ever-popular F1 racing series. There’s Josh Allen, the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and future NFL Hall-of-Famer Larry Fitzgerald. On the entertainment side of things, Justin Timberlake brings in some muscle from Hollywood. It remains unclear how much each has invested in the startup but what’s clear is that a lot of them are doing it. And a lot of them are obsessed with golf.
“From the very beginning our plan has been to partner with the best-in-class in every way imaginable,” said Mike McCarley, TMRW CEO, “and Tiger, Rory, and I value the support of this unrivaled team of investors, advisors, and ambassadors who believe in our vision to harness technology to create progressive approaches to sports. Their combined broad reach and cultural relevance will expand potential opportunities and fanbases for TMRW projects. Plus, many share a passion for golf that only adds more fuel to TGL, our first project in partnership with the PGA Tour.”
That last line is perhaps what matters most. The idea of TMRW sports was launched in August to bring to the sports world, “technology-focused ventures that feature progressive approaches to sports, media and entertainment.” The concept was announced during BMW Championship week on the PGA Tour, where Woods also flew in to lead a small meeting among the best players in the world on how the PGA Tour schedule and payment structure would change moving forward. As the upstart league LIV Golf and the PGA Tour continue down divergent paths, TMRW Sports is certainly aligning its major golf figures with the PGA Tour.
As for progressive ventures in golf, that means a virtual golf league called TGL. The format will include six teams of three PGA Tour players competing head-to-head over 18-hole matches on Monday nights during the Tour season. The setting will be an intimate, tech-infused arena of sorts that appears to incorporate simulated full-swing shots and potentially real short game shots in front of a live audience. According to a description from TMRW, it is expected to wrap matches all within a 2-hour, primetime television window. The series is expected to launch in January 2024 and is set to include a semi-final and final series of matches following the regular season. You can find the full list of investors below.
