PALM BEACH GARDENS — As the Bay Golf Club was explaining its easy victory over New York GC on the opening night of TGL, Shane Lowry, the entertaining Irishman, was asked how they make sure this league is more than a novelty the first few weeks.
“We’ve got Tiger Woods next week,” he said. “So we’ll do all right next week, I know that.”
And while this high-tech, indoor golf experiment cooked up by Tiger and Rory McIlroy got off to a rousing start Tuesday at SoFi Center, that’s all the main actors really can be certain about after one week.
More: Tiger Woods’ TGL opening night a big hit for fans at SoFi Center
What we know is Tuesday’s unveiling was a success. No behind the scenes disasters. No live TV missteps. An enthusiastic crowd and most importantly, a thumbs up from the players Phil Mickelson and LIV would envy.
It was as good a start as Mike McCarley and his team from TMRW Sports and TGL could have hoped for.
And the television ratings were encouraging. The ESPN broadcast was the most-watched sporting event on TV Tuesday night with higher viewership than the NBA and college basketball.
TV viewership topped 1 million for TGL debut
TGL attracted an average of 919,000 viewers for the two-hour telecast, peaking at 1.1 million between 9:15 and 9:30. The Bay clinching the match with five holes remaining did not help. But also there has to be a curiosity curve, which will make the ratings for the first non-opening night and non-Tiger broadcast more of a barometer.
By comparison, the PGA Tour averaged 2.8 million viewers for its Sunday final rounds during the 2024 season, 2.2 million when the four majors are excluded. TGL’s debut doubled the ratings for Sunday’s final round of The Sentry on Golf Channel.
LIV Golf’s individual championship held Sept. 13-15 and won by Jon Rahm drew 89,000 viewers on that Sunday when it was up against the NFL, and 134,000 on Saturday when it was opposite college football.
“I think it’s the future of golf and it’s really cool to be a part of,” The Bay’s Ludvig Aberg said.
Players enjoyed fans’ energy inside arena
As for the fan experience, TGL clearly understands its space in the entertainment bubble. With music heightening the party vibe, the 1,500 spectators who packed the arena played along with a DJ and emcee. They were encouraged to cheer good shots and needed no encouragement to express their displeasure with the not-so-good shots.
It may not have been Ryder Cup or Waste Management mania from the gallery, but with an intimate crowd looking to be entertained along with seeing golf balls flying into a large screen and a green that rotates from hole-to-hole, the players certainly knew this would be different.
“It’s cool playing in a stadium,” Aberg said. “The crowd gets going a little bit more. The energy is different from a regular golf tournament. But it’s so much fun and gets you going a little bit more.”
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What’s missing in the arena that the viewer watching from home experiences is the strategy and banter they can hear with each player mic’d up. That, as much as anything, adds to the uniqueness. All the major sports league’s do it now, but they replay snippets of mainly boring rah-rah speeches or interactions.
With TGL, all six golfers are heard on the telecast, at least when the broadcasters are not talking over them. And on a night like Tuesday, when Tiger and Rory took turns in the television booth, they too held conversations on open mics with their peers.
Rickie Fowler says SoFi Center is a ‘glorified man cave’
What’s the future of TGL? That’s the big question. It is too early to know much more than next Tuesday will be another sellout with Tiger playing for the first time in the league that is staged about 15 miles from his Jupiter Island home.
But for those who are all in with this concept, the expectation is it will grow. Already, plans are underway for expansion in Year 2.
“There’s a lot that’s been put into it to make this possible,” said Rickie Fowler, who along with Xander Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick were on the losing New York team Tuesday.
“But it’s also a little bit of a gamble or an experiment at the same time. This isn’t necessarily about being great golf. You want to have the fans (to) have fun and create a good experience. But I think the biggest driver is how it does on TV and how people view it. If it does well there, it’s kind of the sky’s the limit with what you could do as far as you can put up arenas in different places.”
Something Fowler would not mind. In fact, he already may be planning his own personal event at SoFi.
“I want to come in here with a group of buddies and just have some fun,” he said. “It’s a glorified man cave in a way.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy TGL was a hit in person and on television
