Will the day come when the whole world goes crazy for the screen golf league? ‘TGL’, a screen golf league jointly founded by Tiger Woods (USA) and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), was recently launched by Adam Scott (Australia) and Colin Morikawa (USA), along with Woods, McIlroy, Jon Rahm (Spain) and Justin. It was revealed that he had signed a contract following Thomas (USA). With a large number of PGA tour stars joining the show, the world’s attention is focused on the new contents.
However, from our point of view, we can say that the screen golf league is not a completely new content. This is because the G Tour, a screen golf tour by Golfzon, has already been held in Korea for the 12th year this year. The 2023 G-Tour men’s and women’s regular tour begins on the 28th at the ‘2023 Shinhan Investment & Securities G-Tour Men’s Tournament 1st Final (total prize money of 70 million won)’ held at the Golf Zone Zoimaru in Daejeon.
First held in 2012, G Tour has grown steadily over the past 10 years. The total prize money in the first season was 800 million won (18 competitions), but in 2019, just before the corona pandemic, it increased to 1.5 billion won (21 competitions). As the number of competitions decreased in the aftermath of the corona, the total prize money decreased to 1.1 billion won (14 competitions) in 2020 and 800 million won (11 competitions) in 2021, but 1.2 billion won (15 competitions) last year when it entered endemic, This year, it is on the rise again with 1.3 billion won (16 competitions).
Interest in the G Tour is also growing. Since the total prize money for each tournament for men and women is similar to that of the domestic professional golf 2nd tour, many players are knocking on the door of the G-Tour. According to Golfzon, the first tournament in 2023 broke the record for the largest number of participants (200 men and 100 women). The number of KLPGA tour players from the G Tour, such as Park Dan-yu (28) in 2022 and Kim Ha-ni (24) in 2023, is also on the rise. This season, all matches will be broadcast live on TV, portals and YouTube, as well as global transmission to eight Southeast Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, through an online video service (OTT). 안전놀이터
An official from Golfzon said, “G Tour is a screen golf tour, but the prize money is not small. Explained. Han Ji-min (25), who is recording 6 victories in her G-Tour career, said, “It definitely feels like the tournament has grown in size as the number of sponsors has increased.
There is also a unique rule that only applies to G-Tour. At a local screen golf course, if you fall into a bunker, you can hit it on the fairway mat, but at G-Tour, you must place the ball right in the middle of the bunker mat. Depending on the equipment, you may need to have at least half of the balls buried. In addition to this, rules that apply only to the G Tour include prohibition of wearing plus products (caddy balls), prohibition of using direction keys when putting, prohibition of showing the putt line, and mandatory wearing of hats.
Meanwhile, Golfzon launched the G Tour website. Here, you can conveniently check various information related to the G Tour, including competitions, players, past records, photos and videos, and events. Golfzon explains that it has improved the accessibility of watching screen golf tournaments through a monitoring function that allows you to check the live video of the tournament and the leaderboard at a glance.