Woods and McIlroy’s TMRW Sports unveils star investors

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have unveiled an elite list of stars as investors in their company TMRW Sports, including Stephen Curry, Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Justin Timberlake.

15-times major winner Woods and current world number one McIlroy launched TMRW Sports in August with the goal of creating a high-tech golf league which would appeal to the next generation of golf fans.

The roster of what TMRW calls its “cultural icon investors” includes tennis and soccer stars, Formula One drivers and even a 10-times Grammy Award winner. The biggest names include Serena Williams, Andy Murray, Stephen Curry, Lewis Hamilton, Gareth Bale, Alex Morgan, and avid golfer and music star Justin Timberlake.

From basketball, Curry is one of five NBA or WNBA players along with Chris Paul, Jayson Tatum, Andre Iguodala and Diana Taurasi, while seven-times F1 world champion Hamilton and fellow driver Lando Norris have signed on as well.

Also involved, Josh Allen, Tony Romo and Larry Fitzgerald are among former or current NFL players, while the MLB is represented by Shohei Ohtani and Trea Turner. Sidney Crosby (NHL), Williams and Murray (tennis), Kanoa Igarashi (surfing) and Tyler Blevins (gaming) are also on the list along with soccer stars Morgan and Bale.

Sports club owners have also got involved, including Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Philadelphia 76ers co-owner David Blitzer, Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf, and Fenway Sports Group’s John Henry and Tom Werner, owners of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C.

TMRW also has several institutional investors, including Connect Ventures, 25madison, Excel Sports Management and TGR Ventures.

Mike McCarley, CEO and co-founder of TMRW Sports, said: “We wanted a group of people who have a vision for how technology can help make sports more accessible and culturally relevant and attract new and different groups of fans – and that’s ultimately younger fans, and families.”

On Twitter, Woods said: “I’m excited to welcome a strong group of investors across sports and entertainment to @TMRWSports. And first up to join me and @McIlroyRory on the team: F1 great @LewisHamilton.”

McIlroy added: “By joining forces with Tiger, Mike, and other TMRW Sports partners, we can shape the way that media and technology improve the sports experience. In a world where technology provides us with so many choices for using our time, we want to make sports more accessible for as many people as possible.”

Golf’s high-tech future

The new high-tech golf league – called TGL – will be run by TMRW Sports and will feature six three-man teams made up of PGA Tour players.

They will compete on a virtual-technology course with a cinema-sized screen to play their drives and approaches in to, combined with a tech-infused short-game complex, in a new new custom-built stadium setting.

The different teams will go head-to-head in a league format over the course of 15 Monday nights throughout the season, each playing five matches and just one match every week. Each of the 18-hole events will take just two hours to complete.

The contests, which will take place in partnership with the PGA Tour and as a supplement to the regular PGA Tour schedule, will start in January 2024 and will be followed by semi-finals and a final.

TMRW Sports was seemingly launched as part of the PGA Tour’s response to the formation of the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf series which has managed to lure big stars including Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau to its new venture.

Woods, and particularly McIlroy, have been the PGA Tour’s most vocal supporters following LIV Golf’s formation.