TGL indoor golf league to add Detroit team for 2027

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two months after the inaugural TGL season, the indoor golf league has expanded.

Motor City Golf Club representing Detroit will be the seventh team in TGL, the league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as part of their TMRW Sports entertainment company.

Motor City will not start playing until 2027.

It will join teams that represent Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Jupiter, Florida. Atlanta, with Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas, won the inaugural title.

The Motor City ownership group is led by Middle West Partners. The principals are Michael Hamp, Peter Hamp and Kevin Kelleher, all with Detroit roots. The Hamp family has been longtime co-owners of the Detroit Lions.

“This is a great moment for Detroit sports and a proud moment for me personally,” Michael Hamp said. “My grandfather, William Clay Ford Sr., was an avid golfer, and I believe bringing a new format of the game he loved would make him really proud.”

The ownership group includes Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton and Jordan Rose, president of Arizona-based Rose Law Group.

Each team features four players (Woods is with Jupiter, McIlroy with Boston).

A group representing Dallas was working on a bid last month. With Detroit not starting until 2027, it was unlikely for TGL to start next year with more than its current six teams.

The amazing year of Luke Clanton hit another high note when the Florida State junior was selected for the Ben Hogan Award as the top college player based on performances in college, amateur and professional events.

Clanton is the No. 1 player in the amateur ranking and No. 1 in the PGA Tour University, already securing a PGA Tour card after the NCAAs end next week.

Clanton already has two runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, at the John Deere Classic and the RSM Classic, and he has two other top 10s playing on sponsor exemptions. Not since Jack Nicklaus in 1961 has an amateur had at least three top 10s on the PGA Tour in the same season.

He has four wins this year at Florida State, most recently at the NCAA regional. The NCAA Championship starts later this week at La Costa Resort north of San Diego.

Clanton is the second Florida State player to win the award, joining John Pak in 2021.

Most of the LIV Golf League players at the PGA Championship had a logo on their sleeve that suggests a new sponsorship for the Saudi-funded league. Sports Business Journal and Athlon Sports are reporting that Salesforce, a Dow 30 company, is signing an umbrella partnership.

LIV Golf does not resume until June 6 in Virginia.

The reports say Salesforce, which specializes in customer relationship management technology, would be the largest deal for LIV since it began in 2022.

Asked about the logo at the PGA Championship, Bryson DeChambeau told Athlon, “It’s the first of many potential sponsors that are looking at LIV, LIV’s not going anywhere for a long time.

“And I think that Salesforce sees the potential partnership with LIV and what we can do globally, around the world.”

Sergio Garcia took bogey on his final hole of U.S. Open qualifying on Monday that cost the Spaniard a spot in what turned out to be a 7-for-1 playoff for the last of seven spots at Bent Tree in Dallas.

That ends a streak of 25 consecutive U.S. Open appearances for Garcia that began in 2000 at Pebble Beach. His streak nearly ended last year, but he got into the field at Pinehurst No. 2 as an alternate.

He had played in 82 consecutive majors — dating to Carnoustie in 1999 — until he tested positive for the coronavirus and missed the 2020 Masters. He was eligible for 94 straight majors until joining LIV, dropping in the world ranking and missing the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

Adam Scott has played 93 straight majors dating to the 2001 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and he is guaranteed to be in the next three majors.

Still safe is the streak set by Jack Nicklaus. He played in 146 consecutive majors, and he was eligible for 154 in a row.

A couple of players on different continents are piling up victories.

One of them is Mimi Rhodes of England, who helped Wake Forest to the NCAA title in 2023 and played on the winning Curtis Cup team for Great Britain & Ireland last year. She turned pro after the Curtis Cup, earned a Ladies European Tour card and now has won three of her last four starts on the LET.

She has moved up nearly 1,000 spots to No. 88 in the women's world ranking.

And then there's Luis Carrera of Mexico, who was his country's No. 1 junior before going to Sam Houston State and then finishing at Central Florida. He is listed as a LIV Golf alternate, though he has yet to play.

Carrera went down to the Sunshine Tour in South Africa and has won the last two tournaments.

The U.S. Open again held a qualifying site in Japan. Now the Japan Golf Tour is coming to America.

The Japan Golf Tour will hold first and second stages for its 2025 qualifying school in the United States for the first time.

The tour anticipates about 100 players going to first stage on June 29 at Oak Valley in Beaumont, California, 72 holes with no cut and roughly 35 players advancing. The second stage, also at Oak Valley, is July 7.

Between 15 and 20 players advance out of the second stage. The third stage is Dec. 2-5 at three sites in Japan, with the final stage at Chiba Isumi the following week.

“This is part of our initiatives to create new playing opportunities and easier access for golfers in the Americas to take the first steps to qualify and compete on the Japan Golf Tour in 2026,” said Yutaka Morohoshi, the tour’s chairman. “The journey for aspiring golfers can now begin in California next month.”

Bryson DeChambeau is now on a list with Dustin Johnson, Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead for being a runner-up in the PGA Championship in consecutive starts. ... Hideki Matsuyama missed the cut at the PGA Championship to end his streak at 19 consecutive cuts in the majors. The current active streak now belongs to Xander Schauffele at 13 straight. Scottie Scheffler is next at 12 in a row. ... ESPN said its live telecast of the second round at the PGA Championship averaged 1.3 million viewers, with a peak of 1.8 million in the final 15 minutes when Scheffler was capping off his five-hole stretch at 5 under. That was down from an average of 1.6 million viewers for the second round last year, when coverage included Tiger Woods' entire round. It also was the day Scheffler was arrested. ... Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley tied for eighth in the PGA Championship and made $454,781, enough to make him the 21st player to surpass $50 million in career earnings.

Dating to 2017, every winner of the PGA Championship is a multiple major champion — Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Phil Mickelson, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler.

“I’ve got to learn how to be a little more precise with the wind, not let the wind affect the ball as much. It’s a tough task to do because I hit it so high and the ball just kind of moves in the air. I’ve got to figure that out.” — Bryson DeChambeau.

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

Bryson DeChambeau reacts after missing a putt on the 16th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Adam Scott, of Australia, checks the wind on the second hole during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Sergio Garcia, of Spain, putts on the 14th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Friday, May 16, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

FILE - Luke Clanton hits on the third hole during the final round of the Cognizant Classic golf tournament, Sunday, March 2, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - Rory McIlroy of Boston Common Golf watches a digital projection of his shot on the 13th hole during a match of the TMRW Golf League (TGL) against Jupiter Links Golf Club, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)