Former NFL star Jason Kelce is serving as a TGL special guest commentator on ESPN for the three-match regular-season finale at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Day one of the golf event was on Sunday night, featuring Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links against Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common, and Kelce showed off some unique reporting.
Kelce went below the green to give ESPN viewers an underground look at the TGL operation, and he provided a detailed explanation of how the rotating green works.
Jason Kelce doing in depth reporting from below the green 😂
Watch @JupiterLinksGC and @bostoncommontgl battle it out on ESPN and the ESPN App ⛳ pic.twitter.com/stdiEfNoTV
— ESPN (@espn) March 2, 2026
“I’m down here in the bowels of the green here at TGL, and probably the most innovative aspect of this entire thing,” Kelce said. “A lot of us have been on simulators, we’ve seen the screens; not many of us have seen something of this technological scale. This is a 41-yard turntable that, after every hole, is going to turn and move. It’s literally on wheels.”
“Take a look at these things,” Kelce continued. “It moves after every hole in a match, specifically the virtual hole that the pros are playing upstairs. There are actuators and motors here that are going to change the contours and undulations, and slopes to match the green specifically and precisely to the hole that these guys are playing above it. It is ridiculous. I don’t know how this happens. They’ve got some pretty good engineers.”
Kelce wasn’t done down there.
We’re gonna be fielding calls from OSHA if @JasonKelce isn’t careful under our rotating green pic.twitter.com/zZcrwFmJEw
— TGL (@TGL) March 2, 2026
“There it goes, the turntable is moving,” Kelce said, while ducking down to avoid it. “These are the motors. There are eight of these total that are controlling this entire thing, and these are what’s moving this thing sideways. And as it moves, you can see the spring moving up and down with the curvatures of the actual green itself. And then this wheel right here is the thing that’s actually connected to the computer that’s telling it, within a fraction of a degree, when to stop and be perfectly set for the next hole.”
“Keep your head low so we’re not dodging calls from OSHA for the next two hours,” play-by-play announcer Matt Barrie said.
When above ground, Kelce brought some of his ultimate hype man traits to the broadcast.
Jason Kelce showing off his chugging skills at @TGL tonight 😂 pic.twitter.com/YyNOzDq8ap
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 2, 2026
Jason Kelce now has a birds-eye view at SoFi Center 😂🦅 pic.twitter.com/rCU9m7vjyq
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 2, 2026
ESPN is looking for ways to maximize the usage of Kelce, a Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles, beyond just his NFL analyst responsibilities on Monday Night Countdown. Kelce isn’t interested in pursuing a second season of his late-night show, They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce. In January, he served as an ESPN special correspondent for the NHL Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
As Awful Announcing Drew Lerner recently explained, the TGL has proven it’s here to stay in Year 2. And perhaps this will be a way for ESPN to look to use Kelce more in the future.
Kelce will continue that role for the next two days, at least, with the TGL three-match regular-season finale set to continue Monday and Tuesday on ESPN.