Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy’s professional golf league will debut on January 7

The inaugural season of TGL presented by SoFi, the technology-enabled golf league led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will begin Jan. 7 on ESPN, the league announced Monday.

New York Golf Club, led by two-time major champion Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler, will compete against The Bay Golf Club, comprised of Ludwig Åberg and Wyndham Clark, in the first round of the TGL on Jan. 7 (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) and ESPN+).

“In partnership with ESPN, our season will complement the PGA TOUR’s FedEx Cup Season with a fast-paced team competition that aims to attract a wide variety of sports fans with features, such as a shot clock, familiar to fans of other sports,” TMRW Sports CEO and founder Mike McCarley said in a statement. “TGL’s two-hour matches are perfect for prime time and will help bring more fans closer to the biggest names in golf.”

Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club will face Los Angeles Golf Club in the second round on Jan. 14 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN+).

Woods, 48, announced on Sept. 13 that he had yet another surgery on his lower back to try to relieve the pain that has plagued him this season. It was his sixth lower back surgery in the last 10 years.

The 15-time champion did not say how long his recovery would take.

Three out of four players from each team will compete in two-hour TGL matches. Woods’ partners are Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner.

Woods’ team will play McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf in the fourth round on Jan. 27 (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN+). US Ryder Cup team captain Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama will also compete for McIlroy’s team.

Each of TGL’s 15 regular season games will air on ESPN or ESPN2 and will be broadcast on ESPN+. There will be a Presidents Day tripleheader on ESPN and ESPN2 on Feb. 17.

The final week of the regular season will feature a match between what the circuit hopes will be regional rivals: Bay Golf Club vs. Los Angeles Golf Club; New York Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf; and Jupiter Links Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC.

The top four teams will compete in the semifinals on March 17-18. The winners will compete in the SoFi Cup best-of-three finals on March 24-25.