Rory McIlroy almost matched the legendary Tiger Woods skillset during his early professional golf career years. He recorded 24 PGA Tour and 16 DP World Tour titles including four major titles. Both of them had been pretty vocal about each other in public and backed them during their respective worst times. The Northern Irishman recently gave an interview in a podcast, The Overlap, on YouTube. McIlroy spoke about multiple topics such as his major victories, his stance on LIV Golf, his relationship with Tiger Woods, and their upcoming tech-based league called TGL.
Rory McIlroy described his bond with the 15-time major champion, Tiger Woods. He shared how the legendary golfer had been nice to his family and him. He stated that Woods had been so influential on him that he sometimes felt that the latter looked out to him as a “little brother”.
“I’ve, you know, forged a good relationship with him. I almost… I feel like sometimes he [Tiger Woods] sees me as like a little brother in a way. He can relate to me. He’s trying to help me out,” McIlroy said.
Rory McIlroy recalled his interactions with the legendary golfer at the home of Tiger Woods. He said that learning golf skills from the 82-time PGA Tour champion was real luck and he was fortunate to have him on his side.
“I’ve been over to his house a couple of times. And he’ll show me shots and, you know, things. ‘Oh! this is what I try to do or this is what I feel’. And I feel like I’m really lucky that, you know, I’ve been able to learn those things from him. And… and the fact that he is so open with me and wants to share because I don’t feel like he’s like that with everyone. So, pretty… pretty lucky.”
“It’s Going to Replace What the NFL” – Rory McIlroy Digs Deeper About His Upcoming TGL With Tiger WoodsRory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were all set to launch the first season of their upcoming tech-based league, the TGL in January 2024. However, after a power supply failure in the SoFi Center caused the arena to collapse, the planned league was postponed to 2025.
While speaking in the podcast, The Overlap, on YouTube, Rory McIlroy revealed that the TGL would aim to kick off the PGA Tour weekend and will be a “Prime Time” show in America. It would run exactly after an NFL match stops on television.
“It’s going to be Monday night’s Prime Time in America. So, it’s going to replace what the NFL,” McIlroy said. “When NFL stops, we’re going to sort of take that slot on Monday nights. And it’s going to be a kickoff to the week on the PGA Tour,” McIlroy added.
Rory McIlroy explained how the upcoming TGL would have six teams with four players each. He added that it would be played in an indoor arena and that the technology would make it more interactive for the Television viewership.
“There’s right now, there’s six teams, four players on a team. And it’s an indoor… it’s an indoor arena where anything inside of 50 yards. You play like onto a green that can rotate, it can… the slopes can change,” McIlroy explained further.
“It’s a made-for-TV. But anything outside 50 yards you hit into this massive, basically, a massive simulator. It’s like at the size of an IMAX screen. Just more Tech involved in terms of like ball speeds and launch angles and spin rates and sort of trying to make it a more interactive for people.”
With the kind of bond, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods share with each other, it would be interesting to see how their newly planned tech-based TGL would perform when it commences. In a press release shared by them earlier in November 2023, they revealed that the tech-based league would have its inaugura
