TGL’s turf management, overseen by Tanner Coffman, is a hidden marvel of indoor agronomy that ensures the high-tech league feels authentically golf.
When most fans watch TGL, their eyes lock onto the giant simulator screens, the team rivalries, and the electric atmosphere inside the SoFi Center. The focus is on the technology, the format, and the star players. But one of the league’s most critical and innovative components happens right underfoot.
The success of TGL hinges on a fundamental truth: for all its futuristic optics, the golf must feel real. The ball must react predictably. The turf must provide the same feedback players expect on a PGA Tour course. If the surface feels off, the entire product wobbles. This is the quiet, intense domain of Tanner Coffman, Director of Turf Management for TMRW Sports and TGL.
A Superintendent’s Job, Just in a Whole New World
Coffman’s role shares a core philosophy with a traditional golf course superintendent but operates on an entirely different plane. “Being the Director of Turf Management is a lot like your traditional golf course Superintendent role,” Coffman explained. “Many people only see the day-to-day cycles of mowing, watering, and fertilizing, but there’s so much more behind the scenes.”
The “behind the scenes” in TGL’s controlled indoor environment demands coordination with tech teams, broadcast crews, and building management, all while ensuring elite-level playability. The most striking element is Coffman’s on-site mini sod farm—a 6,000 sq. ft. facility where he grows and prepares over 20 trays of tee boxes at varying heights and recovery stages.
These trays are moved into the arena, maintained under grow lights and air systems, and after use, they are not discarded. “These trays, once used, are rehabilitated to full health and coverage in the sod farm until they can be used once again,” Coffman said. This is not a novelty; it’s a full agronomic cycle built for prime-time competition as detailed in the original report.
Even Artificial Turf Needs a Superintendent’s Touch
A common misconception is that artificial turf requires less maintenance. At TGL, nothing could be further from the truth. “Despite the short-game area being artificial turf, that doesn’t mean there is no extensive maintenance required to keep it playing to tour standards,” Coffman stated.
His responsibilities include deep-cleaning the turf, brushing fibers, managing infill materials, and rolling for perfect smoothness. The goal is consistency: the surface must feel honest enough that Tour players won’t question their shots. During matches, his staff operates in parallel—changing pins and sweeping bunker sand while players hit into the simulator, then filling divots and cleaning floor LEDs when players putt.
“This behind-the-scenes magic keeps the field of play looking brand new, despite however many holes we have played,” Coffman said. Success here is often invisible—the ultimate sign of a flawless operation.
The Science of Trust
Coffman’s background spans golf courses, soccer fields, and major baseball stadiums. That experience taught him how athletes physiologically and psychologically interact with surfaces. “In stadiums, I focused a lot of time and energy learning about the surface to player interactions,” he noted.
At TGL, he applies that expertise to the golf ball’s interaction with the ground. “Similar to how a football player’s body lands on the turf and reacts in a certain way, so does a golf ball,” he explained. The physics are deliberate: energy return from the ground on impact, blade grit affecting spin momentum, and shock absorption from a wedge’s slide through the turf are all calculated data sets.
Ultimately, this science serves one purpose: trust. “These guys know their swings, they know exactly what kind of resistance they should feel for each shot,” Coffman said. “Coming into this arena and having all those player expectations met is my main goal.” TGL’s viability as a serious competitive platform depends on this unshakable trust.
Small Pieces of Turf, Big-Time Demands
For all the high-tech elements, some of Coffman’s greatest challenges are humblingly practical. Each playing plot is a mere 9’x9’, turning standard golf course maintenance into a feat of precision. “One of the most complicated aspects of my job is actually finding ways to do typical golf course maintenance on plots of grass that are only 9’x9’,” he said.
Equipment designed for vast courses is useless here. Aeration, verti-cutting, topdressing, and mowing require hand tools and residential-grade machinery, demanding far more manual labor. “I have found many great residential products to help accomplish these goals, but they require a little more grunt work than just hopping on a tractor,” Coffman added. The futuristic arena still runs on elbow grease.
Why Tahoma 31 Was the Right Fit
The choice of grass was non-negotiable. TGL required a Bermuda grass variety that met three strict criteria: playability comparable to championship courses, television aesthetic appeal, and resilience under a relentless schedule of growth, maintenance, and recovery. Tahoma 31 emerged as the clear answer.
“Tahoma 31 checks all of those boxes,” Coffman affirmed. The grass endures a bizarre existence—suspended in a 3-inch rootzone, routinely transported from Florida’s heat into an air-conditioned arena, and subjected to daily practice and match play. “Specifically, I have done a lot of research on stress management,” Coffman said. This is not a normal life for grass, but then, TGL is not a normal setting.
Meet the Grasshopper
TGL’s turf operation has an internal nickname: the “Grasshopper.” This is the rapid tray-swap system that replaces fairway and rough sections between holes. “The turf swap system truly has become the star of the show for fans that arrive early enough to see that process,” Coffman said.
The system’s genius lies in its seamlessness. “Once everything is in place and you walk over those trays, you would never know that those are removed and replaced multiple times a week,” Coffman explained. “No noise, no vibration, just a solid tee box that feels and plays as if you were at your local driving range.” It’s a complex ballet of agronomy and engineering designed to vanish from the player’s consciousness.
Only Scratching the Surface
Coffman views this not as a finished project but as a prototype for something larger. “I think the turf industry is in the infant stages of a massive shift into the future,” he said. “On one hand, we are seeing huge advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence, and data collection. On the other hand, we see groups like TGL pushing the limits of just how far we can push natural grass.”
His closing line captures the ethos perfectly: “As innovative as we have positioned ourselves to be, we are only scratching the surface.” TGL’s turf is more than a maintenance story—it’s about making a radical new version of golf feel undeniably real by mastering the ground beneath the players’ feet.
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