What TGL's new hole designs reveal about golf and travel

The “T” in TGL doesn’t stand for travel. But on the cusp of its second season, the professional indoor simulator league has adopted some distinctly tour-like elements. The venue remains the same: the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. But in every match, each team will play a custom-designed hole inspired by the city it represents.

Tiger Woods’ team, for instance, will take on a par-5 called “The Jup Life,” with an island green and a virtual rendering of Jupiter’s red lighthouse looming in the background. Rory McIlroy’s squad, meanwhile, will contend with “Storrowed,” a snaking par-5 framed by the Charles River and Storrow Drive.

You get the picture: fanciful holes, real-world landmarks.

On the most obvious level, the idea is branding. Anchoring each team to a recognizable place underscores civic identity and, in theory, helps cultivate fan loyalty. But there’s something else going on here, too. Like all thoughtful golf architects, the designers behind these holes - among them Gil Hanse, Beau Welling and Agustín Pizá - are trying to create a sense of place.

Which is central to golf’s appeal. The best courses are transportive. They take you on a journey through a memorable landscape, shaped by unmistakably local features. Every round can feel like a form of travel, even when the terrain is imagined, the landmarks are digital, and you’re watching from your couch.

Or can it? As technology mediates more of daily life, the line between the physical and the virtual keeps blurring. Fiction borrows from reality, and reality increasingly resembles a simulation. In that sense, TGL’s new holes feel very much of their time - and in step with where golf finds itself these days, a traditional game testing its boundaries and experimenting with new formats.

Simulation has its limits, though. I grew up in Boston, and as much as I appreciate a digital rendering of my hometown, I also know I’m not really on Storrow Drive if I can’t hear a Mass-hole honking or imagine a delivery truck about to wedge itself under an overpass. And I’m not sure I’m in L.A., either, if there’s no smog, brake lights or creeping anxiety about being late. TGL’s L.A. hole, dubbed “Showtime,” has the ocean and a play on the Hollywood sign, but none of the rest.

In that sense, the virtual league works as form of primetime escapism, and I have no doubt it signals where parts of the game are headed. In the future, more golfers will “play” with headsets on and "travel" instantly to far-flung courses. But more than anything, the league’s new holes sharpen my appreciation for what can’t be replicated. A virtual lighthouse can frame a shot nicely. It can’t give you wind off the water or the salt in the air. That’s another way of saying that I might tune in to TGL for the spectacle, but I'll look elsewhere for my golf and travel.

There's no faking the real thing.

3 things I’m thinking

7 Mile Beach Opens: I'd heard about this project for so long that I'd begun to think it might be a simulation. But this is real: After multiple delays, 7 Mile Beach, a Mike Clayton and DeVries design on a dreamy coastal site in Tasmania is officially open. It tops my wish list for 2026.

Rodeo Dunes rides on: This first 18-hole course is finished, and a second is in the works, along with a 7.5-acre Himalayas-style putting course, slated for completion in 2027, when the clubhouse is also expected to be ready. Amid a blizzard of activity at Rodeo Dunes, in the chop hills less than an hour from downtown Denver, ownership has put out a call for "founders" - a membership program whose benefits include free play for spouses and children and half-price green fees for accompanied guests, among many other perks. The founders deposit is $95,000 through Dec. 31. More info here.

Travel Planning Tips? As I map out my own 2026 travel plans (St. George, Utah, the Dominican Republic and New Zealand are already on the docket), I'd welcome thoughts on public-access courses and destinations that deserve more attention. It's a big world with more than 58,000 courses, so I know my coverage has plenty of gaps. Any suggestions on which I need to fill first? My email is [email protected].

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