A logical reason why Tiger Woods is NOT playing the first TGL match
Tiger Woods’ first TGL start won’t come until the second week of the league.
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After many months of waiting, the Tiger Woods golf league has a schedule for week 1.
The weird part?
Tiger Woods is not in it.
Huh?
Yes, when the action begins at the brand-new TGL from the new SoFi Center in West Palm Beach in January, it will feature a match between the league’s biggest stars: New York Golf Club (owned by Xander Schauffele, Cam Young, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler) and Bay Golf Club (Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee and Shane Lowry). Neither Woods nor Rory McIlroy will take part in the first week, which will be broadcast on ESPN at 9 pm on Tuesday, January 7 – a decision that leaves the simulator-focused golf league starting in the world under a group of well-liked but unloved players. the very stars that move the needle.
We apologize for your confusion. Wasn’t the purpose of the new league to increase Tiger Woods’ television presence in his post-full-time career? Hasn’t this league captured the sustained attention of the sports-watching world? Did I know that Tiger Woods was an integral part of the long-term audience success, or did I care?
As it turns out, the answer makes more sense than it seems.
While the league still has every hope of delivering a high-profile, prime-time telecast in Week 1, TGL has put Woods’ first competitive appearance in Week 2 for a very clever reason: The NFL.
The second week of TGL’s broadcast — which will feature Woods’ Jupiter Links GC against Collin Morikawa’s LAGC — has the benefit of a rare gift in sports television: an NFL promotion. The telecast will be broadcast on Tuesday, January 14 at 7 pm on ESPN, one day exactly after the last game of the weekend of the NFL wild card playing on the same network and at the same time.
Of course, the 7pm window on Tuesday is not realistic a dream slot during the loading of the sports calendar, but an early television window at a time when many sports fans will be especially familiar with their televisions. Other: broadcasts are broadcast daily after the NFL is giving TGL what will be a full night of Tiger promotion to one of the biggest television audiences of the sports year.
In other words, Tiger’s decision aims to bring in a major league star at the moment whose TV audience will be much larger. That makes a lot of sense from a business and competitive perspective. More importantly, however, it shows that TGL understands the biggest hurdle facing the league in year 1: converting its early viewers to followers.
There are other, similar big TV challenges for the first season of TGL. Like starting a schedule-watching routine that revolves around dates, networks and times; to cultivate a sense of loyalty among teams that will never play home games in front of the cities they represent; and delivering a highly entertaining viewing experience in front of an audience of only 1,500 or more. But these challenges all speak to a common thread that Tiger’s week 2 is trying to address: in a sports league, TV ratings are currency.
Thankfully, for Tiger Woods, TV viewing is not a given. At least, that’s what the last 25 years of TV golf viewing data tell us. The hope is that the same is true of a new pro golf product in 2025.
For once, that means Tiger comes second. But with TGL, that can be a good thing.
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