TGL Viewership Has Been Strong. Will That Last?

Through the first three weeks, TGL has been a solid success from a TV ratings standpoint.

The tech-infused simulator league averaged north of 1 million viewers last week when Tiger Woods made his TGL debut. The average ratings climbed about 9 percent from the first match.

Those who closely follow the sports TV rating business suggested TGL was hoping to reach around 750,000 viewers on opening night. The ESPN broadcast has easily surpassed that mark so far.

TGL has even beaten a pair of Duke men’s college basketball games—one that led into the golf and one that followed the golf.

It’s important to keep perspective on this. The average Sunday PGA Tour broadcast (not including majors) had an average audience of 2.2 million viewers last year. Although that figure was down 19 percent as golf TV ratings struggle, there is still a lot of value being on network TV during a weekend.

TGL has the benefit of being on ESPN in primetime but it is also on a weekday night. And it’s, you know, not golf on an actual course. A lot of people won’t be watching for that fact alone.

At the same time, TGL’s numbers have immediately dwarfed anything LIV has put together in three years. LIV’s best viewership numbers are nearly three times as small as TGL’s audience so far.

That has a lot to do with one being on ESPN and the other being on the CW (soon to be replaced by Fox Sports). But there is also a genuine curiosity for TGL which has brought in a lot of viewers to this point.

Is this sustainable?

TGL’s novelty is in danger of fading quickly

Last week, I wrote about how TGL’s opening night exceeded my expectations.

There were some positives including the fast pace and unique environment where the players seemed to be having fun. I also pointed out some negatives like how the broadcast came to a screeching halt in the second hour.

It was fun for one night but adjustments needed to be made—which is expected with any new venture—to unlock the full potential of an interesting concept.

After seeing the second and third matches, I admittedly have deeper concerns about TGL’s long-term sustainability. I just haven’t seen those adjustments. In fact, it feels like there has been some regression since the first night.

While it’s unlikely to completely flop—ESPN, Tiger, Rory McIlroy and the amount of money being pumped into this simply won’t allow that—TGL is going to need some TLC to avoid the novelty effect wearing off quickly.

People came for the first match to see what it was all about. And many came back for the second match to see Tiger walk into the arena through smoke as “Eye of the Tiger” blared in the background (a little too on the nose there, T-Dub).

What will bring people back when we are six, seven, eight weeks deep into this?

I don’t have a great answer.

My plea for TGL was that it should be more whimsical and slapstick. The holes should be completely unserious, bordering more on a skills competition that asks players to hit crazy shots. It should be chaotic and ridiculous like a Saturday Night Live skit.

Ultimately, it’s just not that interesting to see a golfer hit stock shots into a screen on repeat. It’s hard to be entertained by that, especially when the simulator clearly has a few errors. (Tiger hasn’t gone 30 yards long with a 100-yard wedge shot since he was eight years old. I highly doubt it was “the adrenaline” coming into play.)

The competition itself could be more compelling if the matches were close, but we haven’t seen much of that yet. All three matches have been blowouts, signaling that the format itself might be an issue.

However, there are disappointments beyond the lack of competitiveness. The tech errors are unfathomable given how much money went into this—and it was equally as frustrating to see so many duplicates of the same holes we’ve already watched. I was hoping TGL designers would start leaning into the absurdity of this virtual world a lot harder. I was hoping there would be very firm conditions with ridiculous hole designs.

Instead, we got the same (mostly bland) holes that look cool but haven’t produced much drama. And why are there empty virtual grandstands on these holes? They could create anything but keep choosing to have empty grandstands.

Make the guys hit crazy shots. Put the course in the middle of a city with buildings everywhere. Make it insane. Why not?

Perhaps most daunting about TGL is that it has become clear 15 holes are too many. Two hours is also too large of a TV window.

The second hours of these matches have been dire (outside of Kevin Kisner blading a bunker shot into the flagstick and making Tiger laugh). Both the player introductions and the intermission are too long which drags the show out.

These players are not particularly entertaining as personalities—I’m pretty sure Cameron Young went a full two hours without saying more than 10 words last night—which is why the shot clock-inspired pace can help carry some of the weight.

At the same time, we need a little more chaos.

The fans are a non-factor and the atmosphere seems pretty dead. There isn’t enough suspense in the shots being hit. The commentators aren’t funny.

These are elements that can make up the difference when matches are not competitive.

So far that hasn’t happened enough.

Will you continue (or start) watching TGL?

Out of morbid curiosity, I will continue to watch TGL for at least the next couple of matches. I want to see if they make changes. And how much more entertaining would it be if there is a close match?

Honestly, these are Tuesday nights in the dead of winter. A lot of us don’t have much better to do. Or at least I don’t. Golf Twitter has also been hilarious during these matches so that helps those of us who are chronically online.

I doubt TGL viewership will fall off a cliff because it’s primetime ESPN and casuals will watch when Tiger and Rory are involved.

But I am predicting TGL excitement will taper off considerably—and the ratings will cool off. It will make enough money to sustain itself but won’t be a total game-changer in the golf world.

It will be something to have as background noise on Tuesday nights. And that is better than nothing!

There is a reason YouTube golf is so attractive to viewers—it’s on-demand, edited, offers cool formats and features interesting personalities. A live broadcast with two hours of space to fill takes some of the magic out of any “YouTube golf feel” TGL was looking to attain.

My question to you is this: Will you continue to watch TGL? Or if you haven’t watched, what would make you start?

Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Tiger Woods reacts to hitting a wedge shot into the water during TGL’s second match (GETTY IMAGES/Brennan Asplen)