New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has reached an agreement to purchase the fourth team in TGL, the new golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Cohen’s first major golf investment, the franchise will have rights in the New York market when the league begins play in January. The team doesn’t yet have a name and will be managed by Cohen Private Ventures, his family office.
Four of the inaugural six teams have now been sold, with New York joining groups in Los Angeles (Alexis Ohanian/Serena Williams/Venus Williams), Boston (Fenway Sports Group) and Atlanta (Arthur Blank’s AMBSE). The league is a product TMRW Sports, a firm launched last year by Woods, McIlroy and media executive Mike McCarley.
For Cohen, the investment is an opportunity to back a tech-forward league that has the support of some of golf’s biggest names and is positioning itself to better reflect the ways golf participation is changing.
“It’s an innovative concept that combines technology, data and a competitive team format in primetime on Mondays,” Andrew B. Cohen, co-founder of Cohen Private Ventures, said in an interview. “Given the way golf is played now, both in simulators and on the course, I think it’s going to combine all those elements.”
Both sides declined to comment on the financial specifics. Andrew B. Cohen, who is not related to Steve Cohen, said he is also joining as a minority investor. Each founding club will hold a 3% stake in the single-entity league, and will participate in TGL-wide revenue sharing, according to an investor deck viewed earlier this year by Sportico.
TMRW has clearly prioritized wealthy owners with prominent sports experience for its first four teams. The money they spend will serve as start-up capital to get the league off the ground.
“We want to have people who will be great business partners in the boardroom, but compete with each other out on the field of play,” McCarley said in an interview. “That’s important.”
TGL will begin play this January, with all matches taking place in a custom venue now under construction on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Florida. The plan is to mix play on a 3,000-square-foot simulator with competition on a large tech-laden green, which can be maneuvered into different topographies and orientations. Full Swing was recently named the group’s main technology partner.
While the golfers themselves won’t play games in their home markets, McCarley said it was important for TGL’s original teams to represent some of the country’s biggest cities.
“We obviously want to be in the right media markets, and in the right areas where fanbases will be able to lean into supporting their team and some natural rivalries that exist amongst fans in other sports,” he said. “That points you to some of these major markets. So it was a factor, but not the only factor. The quality of the ownership group is also very important as well.”
Twelve golfers have already committed to TGL, including Woods, McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler. The golfers, who will be assigned to specific teams in the coming months, will share in a player equity pool that holds 10% of the league.
“The fact that the top athletes in the sport have come together to participate and support the league is unusual,” Andrew B. Cohen said. “They’re global superstars. They’re some of the most recognizable athletes in the world.”
Unlike the first three team owners, Steve Cohen was not part of the original celebrity-laden investment group backing TMRW Sports.
