TGL season preview, lingering questions

Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we preview the first match and season of Tiger Woods’ TGL simulator league and discuss what the league needs to do to succeed.

Finally, after a year-long delay and months of hype promoting the tech-infused golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the first match of the inaugural TGL golf season kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday on ESPN. What’s your biggest question mark you want answered as you tune-in for opening night?

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens). It’s a pretty basic question that applies to a lot of entertainment in our fractured, distracted age. Will it be fun and fast-moving and feel genuinely new and exciting, with enough golf to win over a traditional audience and enough novelty to capture a fresh one while earning the approval of the ‘internet?’ Or will it comes off like a contrived and cynical cash-grab, which has been the case with a lot of other televised golf concepts?

Jessica Marksbury, senior editor (@jess_marksbury): Josh, spot on. The biggest selling point with a format like this is the showcase it offers for the various associated personalities. I’m wondering just how loose these guys are willing to be. Because simply watching them launch shots into a simulator for a couple of hours isn’t going to be enough of a draw for me.

Jack Hirsh, associate equipment editor (@JR_HIRSHey): Agree Jess, will there be enough banter to make it interesting? We all remember how hyped up the first Match between Tiger and Phil was, but it really wasn’t that great of TV because Tiger and Phil were being competitors, not entertaining and the banter between the two wasn’t that good. It wasn’t until The Match II when Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were added to liven things up that the series became a success. Will the whole concept of a simulator league be enough to lighten things up between some normally steely competitors? We’ll see.

The first match will feature the New York Golf Club (Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler) against The Bay Golf Club (Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Shane Lowry). (Three of each team’s four players compete in a match.) Does the first match have enough star power to get the public interested?

Sens: If this were a traditional tournament, I wouldn’t call this a field that is destined to move the needle significantly. But of course it’s not a traditional tournament. At this early stage, old-fashioned curiosity should be enough to get people to tune in. Would more people tune in if Tiger Woods were playing? Sure. But this schedule wasn’t made by coin flip. It was thought out. By not featuring Woods in the debut, my guess is that TGL is saving its powder for when the inaugural novelty wears off. The organizers understand that the field itself is probably not the most important factor this week.

Marksbury: Agree. We’ll be tuning in regardless! But the novelty factor will only last so long. With the exception of Lowry, I don’t see this opening cast as much of a hot-take-spewing, yuk-it-up type. But maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised! 

Hirsh: Yea I’m really interested in TGL and like the idea, but I’m not sure I like the strategy of not putting Tiger in the first match. I get that the idea, as our James Colgan reported back in October, is to use strategically place Woods’ debut one day after the broadcasting network, ESPN, hosts an NFL playoff game to cross-promote it. But, we all know Tiger is the needle. Rickie Fowler is probably the only player a casual golf fan will recognize. Even after Schauffele won two majors last year, I still don’t think his brand has reached past avid golf fans. Shouldn’t TGL use Tiger as much as possible to capture the attention of non-avid golf fans with a new concept?

Finish this thought: the TGL will flourish if…

Sens: If it has drawing power beyond its novelty and Tiger’s name. And if it gets talked up — as opposed widely mocked — on social media. It will definitely help if the matches are close and the shots seem appropriately challenging. Beyond that, it comes down to intangibles. In one respect, TGL seems to check the right boxes for our time. It’s high-tech and meant to be fast-moving. It’s got celebrities attached to it, and well-liked broadcasters calling the action. Oh, and you can gamble on it. But elements that seem great in isolation don’t always work when they’re brought together. The magic formula is hard to forecast. At least for me. When Survivor first aired, I thought, Who would watch this garbage? Shows how much I know.

Marksbury: I’ve watched a fair bit of alternative golf in recent months, from Golfzon Tour’s simulator matches on YouTube to a lighted, high-stakes par-3 tournament here in Phoenix. And one thing is for sure: The golf is only part of the package. To stay interested, we need a reason to buy in to rivalries, personalities and storylines. It all has to matter. So I hope there’s plenty of that to chew on with TGL. 

Hirsh: Call me a broken record because I said this above, but I really think it’s going to come down to the banter. Players are mic’d up, is that going to be actually useful? If the guys are lose and taking swipes at each other during the match, while there is still an obviously high level of competition, that could be fun. Everyone is entertained at their golf course by the guy who can walk out with no practice and casually shoot 67 while trashing talking the crap out of everyone. That’s the kind of golf I wanna see.

And struggle if…

Sens: Here, I’ll rehash some of my answers from above. If the banter is lame, as the kids say, if the matches are blowouts, and if leading names and whiz-bang tech aren’t enough to sustain interest. Also: if the tech glitches often enough that it doesn’t seem credible. There’s an obvious risk in live TV. My litmus test after the first airing will be to ask my kids and their friends, who are in their teens and twenties. If they deem it ‘cringy,’ I’ll take that as a sign of trouble.

Marksbury: My hope is that listening to the team interactions will feel like being a fly on the wall in the matches these guys routinely play against each other without camera rolling. If they can’t tap into being themselves — or if they do succeed at being themselves, but it’s just not that interesting — I can’t see this endeavor becoming a screaming success. 

Hirsh: I agree Jess, if each match ends up like the first Tiger-Phil match, then TGL could die quickly. We have to see a side of these guys we’ve never seen before and we’ll get a golf product unlike anything we’ve seen before. If the players treat this as business as usual, it will not work.

Hideki Matsuyama won the season-opening Sentry, beating Collin Morikawa by three with a PGA Tour record score of 35 under. Anyone impress you? Surprise you? What was your takeaway from Week 1 of the marathon 2025 PGA Tour season?

Sens: Collin Morikawa looks hungry to get that third major, after a couple of close calls last year. He didn’t win but I dig his new Sam Snead-esque pre-shot routine and the ball striking it gave way to. He had a few short game glitches. But it still took a record-number of birdies to beat him. 

Marksbury: Takeaway No. 1: Maui is always a welcome sight in January. Those vistas are truly unmatched. And as far as player performances go, this week was a great reminder about how incredibly talented Hideki is. Thirty-five under, a new scoring record (!!!). That’s unbelievable! I think he tends to fly under the radar sometimes, even as a major champion (though not for our betting expert Brady Kannon, who’s 1/1 on winning picks so far this year!). I will say I’m a little surprised by Xander. He has an excellent record at the Plantation course, with a win in 2019 and three other top 10s since then. He was T30 this week — his worst finish ever — and was never really in the conversation.

Hirsh: Hard to not be impressed when Hideki averages just one birdie shy of one every other hole. I don’t care how “easy” that golf course played, this tournament was never really intended to kick the crap out of these guys and that course would kick the crap out everyone reading this story from those tees. Could the 5th hole be switched to a par-4? Yea probably (it averaged 4.1 this week), but par is just an arbitrary number anyway. It’s the first tournament of the year at a beautiful and extoic resort course with only the 60 best players from last year invited. Let them make some birdies!

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