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17 September 2026 · 9 min read

TGL, Tiger Woods and 110 venues in Switzerland: why indoor golf is no longer a winter substitute

Since Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy started playing for a title in a simulator, indoor golf has been a sport of its own. What TGL showed in its second season, and how much of it has already arrived in Switzerland.

TGL, Tiger Woods and 110 venues in Switzerland: why indoor golf is no longer a winter substitute — post image

On 25 March 2026 the Los Angeles Golf Club beat Jupiter Links Golf Club in the TGL final and took the league's second title. The match was played in a hall, into a screen of roughly 19 by 16 metres, and the ball Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy hit that evening never flew further than the wall. Three years ago that would have been a show. Today it is a league with six teams, a season from December to March and an arena of its own.

What TGL is

TGL is the indoor league Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy founded with the PGA Tour. Six teams of four tour players each, among them Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg, play at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The second season ran from 28 December 2025 to 25 March 2026 (Wikipedia, 2026 TGL season).

The technology behind it comes from Full Swing, one of the makers whose systems also stand in Swiss lounges. The long shots go into the screen, the short ones onto a real green: for the second season it was enlarged by 38 percent to about 490 square metres, with twelve hole locations instead of seven and gentler slopes, because the first season had shown that a green with too much tilt turns the game into a lottery (Sports Illustrated).

How a match is played

The rulebook is the real reason the league works. It takes out of golf exactly what is dull on television and leaves the rest standing.

  • 15 holes, two parts. Holes 1 to 9 are played by three players per team in alternate shot, holes 10 to 15 as singles, each player against one opponent over two holes.
  • One point per hole. Win the hole and you take a point; a halved hole gives nobody anything. All 15 holes are played, even when the match is decided before that.
  • 40 seconds. From the moment the ball is on the ground, a player has 40 seconds to hit it. Going over costs a penalty stroke.
  • Three hammers. Each team may raise the value of a hole by one point three times a match. The opponent can throw the hammer back, which turns a hole into a risk.
  • Extra time on the green. If the match is level, the teams chip alternately until one has the two balls closest to the pin.

The numbers are public (Wikipedia, TGL). What is interesting about them is not the hall but the clock: 40 seconds is roughly what a shot in a simulator takes anyway, because no ball has to be found and no fairway walked. TGL did not speed golf up; it took the format that is fast indoors by itself.

Why that matters for Switzerland

Not because of the show. Because TGL has legitimised the format that has long been running in Switzerland: golf in a hall, into a screen, with numbers for every shot, as a thing in its own right and not a stopgap for winter.

The federation, Swiss Golf, counts in its Facts & Figures over 108,000 licensed golfers, 98 clubs, 35 driving ranges and 29 indoor facilities. When we researched every indoor venue in the country one by one in September 2026, against its website, the commercial register and the federal geoportal, we arrived at 110. Plus 16 driving ranges with ball-flight tracking. The difference is not the federation's mistake; it counts what belongs to its clubs. It shows where the growth is happening: outside the clubs, in lounges, studios, hotels and fitness centres, across 21 cantons.

78 of the 110 venues run TrackMan, the radar the tour uses too. 81 offer coaching. And the median for an hour is CHF 50, per bay, for up to four people. That is the second difference to the league in Florida: there 24 professionals play, here anyone can rent a bay.

Where the 126 venues are

The 110 indoor venues and the 16 driving ranges with ball-flight tracking are spread over 21 cantons. Ten of them have four or more:

CantonIndoorTracked rangeTotal
Zurich25429
Vaud11112
Valais11112
Aargau9211
Graubünden9110
Bern819
St Gallen808
Lucerne527
Ticino516
Solothurn and Zug2 and 32 and 14 and 4

Fribourg has three, Basel-Stadt and Geneva two each, and Basel-Landschaft, Glarus, Jura, Neuchâtel, Schaffhausen, Thurgau and Uri one each. Five cantons have none: Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Innerrhoden, Nidwalden, Obwalden and Schwyz. If you live there, the canton overview or the map names the nearest venue with the distance in kilometres.

What indoor golf has become

Three things have shifted in recent years. First, the technology: a simulator now measures ball speed, spin and launch angle more accurately than any eye ever could, and systems like TrackMan and Foresight are the same ones tour players use to fit their clubs. Second, the software: Pebble Beach, St Andrews and Valderrama sit on hard drives in Zurich, Sion and Chur, mapped to the metre. Third, the audience: the person walking into a simulator is more and more often not a golfer with a handicap but someone who wants an evening with friends and discovers along the way that they like the sport.

TGL turned those three things into a television format. The Swiss venues turned them into a winter that is no longer one. Where each one stands is on the map, and which are open right now is in the list of venues open now.

The format in a Swiss bay

The best thing about the TGL rules is that they work in any venue that rents an hour. Four people, one bay, two teams: that is the evening organised.

  1. Nine holes of alternate shot. Within the team whoever is up hits, even when the previous shot left the ball in a bunker. This is the part that gets the most laughs.
  2. Six holes of singles. After that each player takes on one opponent for two holes. If one of you has a handicap and the other does not, give a shot per hole; the software will do the maths on request.
  3. Let the clock run. Forty seconds from the moment the ball is down. A phone on the shelf is enough, and suddenly an hour is enough for all 15 holes.
  4. One hammer each. Once in the evening everyone may double the value of a hole, before the shot. Nothing more is needed to make the last hole matter.

Which course is on the screen hardly matters; a short par-3 layout gets four people through an evening faster than St Andrews. Venues with several bays often offer exactly this as a tournament night, and what such an evening costs a company is in A company event in a golf simulator, and 81 of the 110 venues have a professional in the house who could run a league. If you are looking for a venue with more than one bay, filter the venue list.

More on this: Topgolf in Switzerland, Indoor golf in Switzerland 2026.

What is still missing

A league. In the United States and Britain there are simulator leagues in which teams play each other over the winter, with tables and play-offs. In Switzerland individual venues run tournaments and league nights, but a national format connecting the 110 venues does not exist. It would be the most obvious thing the sport here does not have yet. Whoever builds one will find the addresses with us.

What a Swiss format would need is not a hall but an agreement: the same software, the same settings for wind and green speed, a net result by handicap so that a 28 has a chance against a 6, and one evening a week through the winter. The technology has been in the rooms for years; 78 of the 110 venues run the same measuring system.

Until that exists, the list of venues is the beginning: if you want a round against somebody, the nearest bay is on the map, and what an hour costs is on the price overview.

Frequently asked questions

What is TGL?

The indoor golf league of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy with the PGA Tour: six teams of tour players, played at the SoFi Center in Florida into a screen and on a real green, from December to March.

How many indoor golf venues are there in Switzerland?

110 venues with a simulator across 21 cantons, plus 16 driving ranges with ball-flight tracking, as of September 2026. The federation Swiss Golf counts 29 indoor facilities in its statistics because it lists only those of its clubs.

Who plays in TGL?

Among others Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg. The 2026 champion was the Los Angeles Golf Club.

How does TGL scoring work?

Every hole won is worth one point, a halved hole nothing. Holes 1 to 9 are alternate shot, holes 10 to 15 are singles. Three times a match a team may throw the hammer and raise a hole's value by one point; a tied match is decided by chips to the pin.

Can I play the TGL rules at a Swiss venue?

Yes, they need nothing but a bay and four people: nine holes of alternate shot, six holes of singles, 40 seconds a shot and one hammer each. Venues with several bays often offer this as a tournament night; the addresses are on the map.

Sources