PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Opening night of TGL was a blowout. On the scoreboard. To the eardrums. It was golf but louder than that other tour that claimed to be louder.

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“This is golf. But it’s not traditional golf,” said Tiger Woods, one of the co-founders of TMRW Sports that created the new simulator-based stadium golf concept that premiered Tuesday night on ESPN and other media outlets around the world. “It’s hard to believe this dream came to reality, and we’re going to take golf into the next stratosphere.”

That sounded like more than a slight exaggeration, but it seemed appropriate on a night when a lot of hype and energy and a constant stream of driving pop music beats filled SoFi Center. If you actually wanted to hear the sound of a club contacting a golf ball, you were in the wrong place.

Wyndham Clark of The Bay Golf Club enters the arena during player introductions.

Mike Ehrmann/TGL

The first match in TGL history—which began 15 minutes late after a delay and rather drawn-out player introductions—saw a dominating effort by the trio of Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg representing the Bay Golf Club. Aberg won the first hole with a 10-foot birdie putt and Bay Club never looked back with a stunningly easy 9-2 victory over New York Golf Club’s Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele.

One observer called it “carnival golf,” but it wasn’t that. With the music unceasing, it felt like a rock concert with the stage act swinging golf clubs in what Fowler later called “a glorified man cave.” The golf looked real enough and the players were genuinely engaged in the outcome. They cheered each shot hit into the giant screen. Whether in attendance at the arena or watching on television, fans were fed a full slate of statistics like ball speed and launch angle, plenty of things to sate the techie appetite.

The match was so one-sided that New York didn’t get on the board until the ninth hole. By then, Bay Club had built a 6-0 lead and seemed to handle the synthetic green and its ever-changing slopes much more adeptly, especially Aberg, who holed a 32-footer for birdie on the fifth hole that had his teammates celebrating excitedly.

Bay Club threw out the first “hammer,” as Clark sized up a 7-footer for par. Before Clark could putt, Schauffele got in his way and pretended to read the putt for him. Wrongly, of course. But Clark ignored him and poured it in, and the rout was on. (Which, interestingly, was a total reversal from their rehearsal match the day before when NYGC led 6-0 after three holes.)

Bay Club completed the blowout when Lowry won the par-five 10th hole against Fowler in the first singles match to extend its lead to an insurmountable 7-1. Rickie conceded Lowry’s eight-footer for birdie, but the crowd didn’t know it. He then told Lowry to putt, and when the Irishman did, Rickie dropped the flagstick in front of the ball. A schtick with the flagstick. You won’t see that anywhere else.

Xander Schauffele reacts on the third green.

Brennan Asplen/TGL

With Bay Club having secured the first point in the TGL standings, the match continued through the full scheduled 15 holes. Those “dead” holes matter for more than just extra live action; the first tiebreaker at the end of the season is determined by total holes won, but the boys didn’t seem to take it very seriously. The six of them genuinely appeared to be having fun, though Schauffele admitted his enthusiasm had waned as Bay Club pulled away. They do still want to win.

Fans in attendance seemed genuinely juiced, and when the shot clock ventured south of 10 seconds, the crowd counted down the seconds. That seemed to affect Fitzpatrick on the second hole as he rushed a 10-footer for birdie that could have won a point. The use of one of the team’s four timeouts would have been a smart move. Where was Andy Reid when you need him?

Late in the match the “Hammer” rule came into question. Each seat in the SoFi Center was provided with a yellow “hammer” flag so that spectators could encourage the use of the press that increases the point total for that hole to two points. But it was only applied twice. Only the team in control of it can use it, and as their lead continued to grow, the Bay Club members had no incentive throw down the hammer. Schauffele asked on-air for Mike McCarley, who is a TMRW co-founder with Woods and Rory McIlroy, to review that portion of the competition. Something for next year?

Woods and his Jupiter Links Golf Club take the stage next week against Los Angeles Golf Club at 7 p.m. ET. Having played in only five PGA Tour events last year—and few healthy because of a gnawing back injury—he was eager to get out there.

“I’m excited to do something like this,” he said on the ESPN broadcast. “I’m part of the playing process. I haven’t been part of the playing process in the while. This is showcasing golf … and we hope we can bring this to a lot of fans.”

The showcase was a darn good party the first night, even if the match was a bust.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com