With only one week left in its first regular season, TGL, the simulator golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, has been a success.
After more than a year of hype, the high-tech venture faced big expectations under an even bigger spotlight when it debuted in January.
The start was bumpy. The matches were mostly blowouts, the “Hammer” was underutilized and the entertainment dipped once singles started. However, the benefit of being a startup is the ability to adapt quickly. TGL has done that on a few fronts. They have decreased the slope of the high-tech green, tweaked the distance of the tee boxes and altered “Hammer” rules to give the matches a different competitive wrinkle.
As a result, the last few weeks of TGL have shown the best of what the league can be. The matches have been competitive, the golf has gotten better as players have figured out the tech, the stars have completely bought in and it’s attracting interest from a wide swath of people.
With the playoffs on deck, TGL is set up nicely for a big second season that could see the league expand and bring in more of the world’s best golfers. Tony Finau just played on a one-match contract for Los Angeles Golf Club and raved about the experience. Jason Day and Brooks Koepka (who knows what the future of reunification holds) have been in attendance. The league should also look into adding LPGA players as they look to the future.
A strong playoff season would do the league wonders as it looks to capitalize on its new-found momentum. There’s just one problem: TGL’s two biggest needle-movers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture with one match to go.
As TGL looks to build to a crescendo at the end of its inaugural season, it would greatly benefit the league to have both Woods and McIlroy’s teams in the playoffs.
That will no longer be possible as Los Angeles Golf Club, Bay Golf and the Atlanta Drive have all clinched playoff spots with one week to go. That leaves one spot between New York Golf Club, McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf and Woods’ Jupiter Links.
McIlroy’s team has yet to win a match and will face New York in its season finale. Jupiter has only one match win, which was an overtime victory over Boston Common. At the moment, New York is in fourth place and has won more holes on the season than Boston and New York. If Boston beats New York, it will still need to hope Jupiter loses to Atlanta and that it finishes with more holes won than New York. Jupiter needs a win over Atlanta and for New York to lose in regulation.
The league would benefit from having McIlroy and/or Woods in a playoff setting. That would drive more eyeballs to the product’s final few weeks. Having the playoffs without either of the golf’s biggest names would be disappointing. (If this were the 1990s NBA, David Stern would put his thumb on the scale to find a way to get the marquee names in the playoffs to boost interest.)
The league will need competitive, high-level matches to balance the scales in McIlroy and Woods’ absence. To the other stars’ credit, the matches that haven’t involved Boston and Jupiter have been some of TGL’s finest moments of late.
Billy Horschel, Wyndham Clark, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose and other golf characters have started to shine in a competitive team format that is different from the week-to-week tournament grind of the PGA Tour. Sprinkle in the continued rise of Ludvig Aberg’s star, and TGL should be able to finish strong.
It’s just not how they would have drawn it up in the TMRW Sports boardroom.