Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams are building a mini-sports empire in Los Angeles

July 2024 · 3 minute read
2023-06-08T20:21:29Z

Add another Los Angeles sports team to the list: The Los Angeles Golf Club. 

In a city with two teams in each of the major professional sports leagues – the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS — Reddit cofounder and founder of the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian, and his former tennis superstar wife, Serena Williams, are giving Angeleno sports fans a new club to cheer on.

The couple, along with Williams' sister Venus, have bought the first golf team for TGL, a new league developed by golf greats, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. 

Ohanian and the Williams sisters are the first to buy a TGL golf league team. Ohanian and Williams are making a name for themselves in the Los Angeles sports scene. Ohanian is already the principal owner and founding investor of LA's National Women's Soccer League team, Angel City FC. Williams and a host of celebrities like Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, and Christina Aguilera are also investors in the football club. 

"We see tremendous opportunities to leverage technology to bring golf closer to its fans and to provide an immersive and interactive experience that will captivate both seasoned golf enthusiasts and new fans," Ohanian said in a press release.

Through her namesake VC firm, Serena Ventures, Williams has invested in a few sports-centric startups like Athletic Club Momento, a soccer-focused auction house that looks for match-worn shirts from players to auction off to fans, and OpenSponsorship, a digital marketplace that finds sponsorship for pro sports teams.

Alexis Ohanian said in a tweet that their daughter Olympia is also a co-owner of the new golf team. He and Serena Williams are now expecting their second child. Charles Krupa/AP

TGL, the golf league, is the brainchild of TMRW Sports Group (pronounced as Tomorrow Sports) in partnership with the PGA Tour. Woods and McIlroy cofounded the company along with sports executive Mike McCarley, who helmed NBC Sports' golf division and was president of the Golf Channel. 

The golf league will feature six teams of three PGA Tour players including Woods, McIIroy, Justin Thomas, and Jon Rahm, this year's winner of the Masters. The 15 regular-season Monday night matches are scheduled to begin in January 2024, and interested viewers will be able to watch all the golf shots live on TV during a two-hour primetime TV broadcast. 

And what the league says will set it apart is its tech-enabled, "virtual" golf venue built in Palm Beach, Florida. The teams will compete in a sort of fancy golf simulator where pro players, and not retired grandpas, play.

A rendering of the TGL golf league venue in Florida. TGL

Earlier this week, the PGA Tour shocked the sports world by merging with rival Saudi Arabia-backed league, LIV Golf. The emergence of LIV in the past year and a half created riffs among pro golf players, who criticized pros like Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka for leaving the PGA Tour to join LIV for a chance to win larger prizes than they could ever earn on the PGA Tour circuit. And the PGA Tour suspended those defecting players, which caused a stream of litigation.

There's still quite a bit of confusion and head-scratching after the merger's announcement. Many are still curious about how it came about and why. Though it appears LIV Golf's status has been rising in recent months, buoyed by recent strong performances by Brooks Koepka, a player who signed with the organization and tied for second at the Masters and won the PGA Championship this year. 

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