Since the Inception of the LIV Golf Tour there has been a shake-up within the game of professional golf. The PGA Tour has changed the way it structures the season and has increased prize funds while Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have helped create the eagerly-anticipated TGL golf league - an indoor team golf league with a unique concept of playing on a simulator but still off grass. However, it’s the NEXT Golf Tour that is flying under the radar to provide professional golfers the chance to play for some career-changing purses, playing some of the best courses in the world... well, sort of.
WATCH: Sam De'Ath plays in the first NEXT Golf Tour event powered by Trackman
The NEXT Golf Tour offers golfers the chance to compete in professional golf tournaments in a virtual setting. Powered by Trackman golf simulators, it allows golfers from around the world the chance to put their game to the test against hundreds (perhaps one day thousands) of others from a simulator location or what could be the comfort of your own home if you are lucky enough to have a home set-up.
While the first season of the NEXT Tour was certainly a success with the order of merit winner taking home over $80,000 and a DP World Tour tournament invitation, the second coming of this golf tour promises to be everything the first season was and more. What’s more impressive about this tour compared to the likes of other professional tours is the fact the purses for each event are currently funded by Trackman as well as the $130 entry fee to compete in each event. While the purses are relatively modest when compared to major professional tours, they are still not to be sniffed at. The first event of what is expected to be a stellar season on the NEXT Tour had a $190,000 purse, with $30,000 heading to the winner.
So how do these events actually work? Well to find out and gain first hand experience, I signed up to play in the first event of the season among some of the world's best aspiring young professionals as well as some who have already proven themselves at the highest level in the sport. While the fields for the NEXT Tour are predominantly made up of pros at the start of their professional journey, the first event of the season attracted the likes of Lucas Bjerregaard, a multiple DP World Tour winner formerly ranked 42nd in the world and Englishman Chris Wood, who won the BMW PGA Championship in 2016 and played in the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine later that year. The NEXT Golf Tour is open to both male and female golfers, professionals and amateurs and fully prides itself on providing an equal opportunities for everyone looking to pursue their dreams of making it to ‘the big leagues’’.
While this professional tour is held indoors with no grandstands or crowds, aside from maybe a few friends or family members, there are still far more similarities to playing outside golf than meets the eye. For most golfers, the experience of hitting golf balls inside on a simulator normally comes off the back of a fitting or indoor practice session on a virtual driving range - dead flat, a perfect lie and no wind. This is where I became genuinely impressed with the attention to detail that Trackman had thought of when it came to their simulator golf experience in this event.
The similarities actually began on the tee box. From the get-go I was able to map out exactly how I wanted to play the hole as if I were actually standing on the first tee at the Marco Simone Country Club, in Rome, in real time. The wind was gusting a little off the left, but for those unfamiliar with the course, the first hole is a strong par-four, dog-leg left, with an uphill approach to a tricky green. Because of the wind and my natural shot-shape, I was able to actually move my starting position to the right of the tee-box, to allow myself the feeling of playing more straight away as opposed to playing across the dog-leg and just as I drew up, I hit a pretty good shot that just cambered into the first-cut down on the left but did lead to a solid par - unfortunately this was about as good as it got!
A rough day from the tee on the virtual links resulted in me missing countless fairways and as you would on the course, I then had to navigate how my ball was sitting and then figure out a plan to attack the rest of the hole. On your screen, you are given both a power percentage as well as a spin level percentage, to which you can then work out how each club will launch the ball from said lie and react when landing onto the treacherous, slick greens. These shots played much like they would in real-life where you could genuinely notice how weak long irons launched out of the rough and I often saw the ball landing well short of the green. The percentages are cleverly calculated by Trackman using data from thousands of shots captured by real golfers in those scenarios out on a real course to make the experience as genuine as possible. Unfortunately for myself, this was also the same when it comes to the chipping at pitching. I found myself short-sided on countless occasions and needless to say did not possess the quality that Rory McIlroy showed when hitting that ridiculously good pitch shot from down on the left of the 17th green during the Ryder Cup.
Auto-Pro putt was activated for this season opening event and will continue on the next event in a few weeks time at Medinah Country Club. This is a system that allows ‘gimmies’ from inside 10ft and anything outside of this up to 65 feet will be given as a two-putt. But as from the third event of the NEXT Tour season, manual putting will be introduced which will add another dimension to this already impressive professional tour. After seeing the severity of the slopes and pace of the greens when chipping during my round, I can safely say I’m glad the auto-putt system was in place for my round.
As part of the rules, each competitor must download the Trackman Recorder app and set this up before the beginning of their round to ensure that all golfers are abiding by the rules and not manipulating any of the shots throughout their round. The recording of every shot is also automatically uploaded to the cloud and then entered onto the live leaderboard, where you can track every competitor's round and watch every shot they hit. This is a genius idea as it gives those playing in the event exposure and in-turn providing their sponsors with exposure via the website and social media channels.
After grinding my way round the outstanding Italian layout from the comfort of the stunning My Golf Matters studio facility in Wokingham, Berkshire I ended up posting a round of +7 (79) that was certainly in no danger of troubling the top end of the leaderboard. While I experienced a few minor technical issues, I think my rather average score, if anything, just highlights how good some of the professionals are playing this event, with the winning score coming in at -8. As I got off to a rough start, my attention turned to the side games on offer, where cash prizes can also be won. There was an aggregate nearest the pin for all the par-threes, a longest drive, longest birdie streak and most GIRs (greens in regulation). While I wish I could say I featured in one of these side games, my attempts also fell short of the money but these separate games were a great way to hold any golfers attention throughout the round if you happen to be struggling on the stroke-play based, main event.
The aim behind the NEXT Tour is to become the biggest professional golf tour in the world. By that I don’t mean trying to rival the likes of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, but purely from an event entry point of view - it has the ability to allow thousand of golfers to compete in one event. You get a 10-day window to compete and because the round takes less than an hour, it makes it more viable in today's fast-paced world. The quality is already there to see and there’s no denying that the NEXT Tour provides an exceptional opportunity for players who compete on developmental tours the chance to hone their skills during the off-season, without having to spend money on expenses such as travel and accommodation.
While the NEXT Golf Tour is still in its infancy, it is making huge strides to become a superb proving ground and platform for professional golfers to compete during the winter months, where competition has previously been sparse. As a former professional I would have loved the chance to play in this series during the winter months to stay sharp and have the chance to really change the trajectory of my career by playing for significant prize money. While the NEXT Tour is still independently funded by Trackman, I project some serious growth and wouldn’t be surprised if sponsors start jumping at the opportunity to be associated with this progressive, forward thinking professional golf tour.
