Indoor golf league created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has a loud, swift debut match

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Ludvig Aberg will be the answer to a trivia question: He made the first birdie in TGL history.

And with that, the indoor golf competition that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had envisioned for years was finally underway.

TGL had its debut match Tuesday night, with Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele of New York Golf Club taking on Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Aberg of The Bay Golf Club in the opener. The 15-hole match took just under two hours, which is exactly how TGL envisioned this to work. Final score: The Bay 9, New York 2.

“The last time I've had that much fun was probably last September,” Lowry said, turning toward Clark as he said that — the obvious reference being how he and Aberg were part of the European Ryder Cup team that beat Clark and the United States in the fall of 2023.

Yes, trash talk is part of TGL as well — even among teammates.

“Look, I had an amazing two hours,” Lowry said.

Lowry struck the first shot at 9:15 p.m. Four minutes later, the first hole in TGL history was complete when Aberg rolled in a 9-footer for the first point in league play. Yes, it moves that quickly.

“This was just a dream conjured up,” Woods said on the ESPN broadcast. “Rory and I were talking about it; it's hard to believe that dream came into reality and we were able to take golf into another stratosphere, really.”

Woods and McIlroy — part of the brain trust that put together this venture — were there, as expected. DJ Khaled was there too, milling about while players were warming up, showing off his swing with an imaginary club.

The venue is a 250,000-square-foot facility at Palm Beach State College. Players hit some shots into a video screen, some off real grass, some off turf, and the bunkers are not just real sand — it's sand from Augusta National Golf Club, the same sand Woods has at his home practice facility. It's super-high-tech, with data collected off every shot.

“Nobody had more fun than us,” Clark said.

Players wore microphones, there were betting options and fans surrounded the “course” in an intimate arena where music blared and noise was welcomed.

“A glorified man cave in a way,” Fowler said.

Once teams moved within 50 yards of the pin, they headed to a short-game complex — with a green that sits on a 41-yard-wide turntable and has about 600 devices underneath to change the contours. Players said it was difficult to make putts, which might be understandable.

Fans cheered. And they booed — a little, anyway. Schauffele heard those after he botched a chip, part of a night where not much went right for his team.

“I probably would have booed me too,” Schauffele said.

The players seemed to love it. Lowry had one-liner after one-liner. A couple of examples:

— “I'm going to be the Scottie Scheffler of indoor golf.”

— “A bit like myself. A bit chunky,” he said after one shot came up a touch short.

It ended with a 729-yard par-5 — a reachable 729-yard par-5, if that makes any sense. Handshakes and cheers all around when it was over, Lowry gave a big wave to the fans and the night was done.

“So much fun," Aberg said.

Woods loved it when some fans were, let's say, not exactly quiet as Clark lined up a putt on one of the early holes.

“You don't normally hear that at events,” Woods said. “You're going to hear that here.”

Woods is expected to debut for his Jupiter Links club on Jan. 14. McIlroy's debut could be Jan. 27 when Boston Common plays Jupiter Links. The regular season goes until March 4. There are 24 players — six teams of four — and the top four teams advance to the playoffs with a best-of-three championship series two weeks before the Masters.

Each team activates three players for a match, and the 15-hole competitions will be done in about two hours. It'll all be shown on ESPN platforms, often in prime time. The league has been in the works for a few years; the original plan was for it to start last year, but a storm slowed construction and organizers pushed the debut back to 2025.

“It's not traditional golf, yes,” Woods said. “But it is golf. And that's the main thing.”

And, as Fowler pointed out, the crowd in the arena is one thing, but how television viewers accept it will be the big test.

“If it does well there, the sky’s the limit with what you can do,” Fowler said. “You can put up arenas in different places. This is just the start.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Shane Lowry of The Bay Golf Club watches a shot on the tenth hole, during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, against New York Golf Club, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

CORRECTS CAPTION FROM NINTH HOLE TO TENTH - Rickie Fowler of New York Golf Club watches a shot on the tenth hole during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, against The Bay Golf Club, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The Bay Golf Club's Wyndham Clark, left, and teammates Ludvig Aberg, top, and Shane Lowry celebrate winning the third hole during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Matt Fitzpatrick of New York Golf Club reacts after a shot during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, against The Bay Golf Club, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Rickie Fowler of New York Golf Club, third left, shakes hands with Shane Lowry of The Bay Golf Club as the teams prepare for the start of the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The Bay Golf Club's Shane Lowry, left, and teammates react as they beat New York Golf Club on the third hole, during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Ludvig Aberg of the Bay Golf Club watches his shot projected on a digital screen during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, against New York Golf Club, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Competitors from the Bay Golf Club and New York Golf Club walk on the green during the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The SoFi Center is seen ahead of the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, between New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Tiger Woods, right, and Rory McIlroy and stand on the green as they watch New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club warmup for the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods stand on the green as they watch New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club warmup for the inaugural match of the TMRW Golf League, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. TGL features six teams of four players competing against each other in a tech-infused arena the size of a football field. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday's sentencing in his hush money case in New York.

Trump's lawyers turned to the nation's highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

Prosecutors were expected to file a response by Thursday morning.

Trump's team sought an immediate stay of the scheduled sentencing, saying it would wrongly restrict him as he prepares to take office. While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump's lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects.

The sentencing should be delayed as he appeals the conviction to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government," they argued.

The emergency motion is from lawyers John Sauer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court, and Todd Blanche, in line to be the second-ranking official at the Justice Department.

They also pointed to the Supreme Court ruling giving Trump and other presidents broad immunity from prosecutions over their actions in office, saying it supports their argument that his New York conviction should be overturned.

Their filing said the New York trial court “lacks authority to impose sentence and judgment on President Trump — or conduct any further criminal proceedings against him— until the resolution of his underlying appeal raising substantial claims of Presidential immunity, including by review in this Court if necessary.”

The Republican president-elect's spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement that the case was politically motivated and should be dismissed. Trump's lawyers said Trump was also asking New York's highest court for an emergency stay, but that court had not received a filing as of noon Wednesday.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, meanwhile, said it will respond in court papers. The emergency motion was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who hears appeals from New York.

Trump's convictions arose from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. He denies it.

The Supreme Court's immunity opinion came in a separate election interference case against him, but Trump’s lawyers say it means some of the evidence used against him in his hush money trial should have been shielded by presidential immunity. That includes testimony from some White House aides and social media posts made while he was in office.

Merchan has disagreed, finding they would qualify as personal business. The Supreme Court's immunity decision was largely about official acts of presidents while in office.

FILE - Judge Juan M. Merchan sits for a portrait in his chambers in New York, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Todd Blanche, attorney for President-elect Donald Trump departs court, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in Manhattan criminal court, April 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool, File)

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)