TGL season preview, lingering questions

Examine in each week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most well liked matters within the sport, and be part of the dialog by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we preview the primary match and season of Tiger Woods’ TGL simulator league and talk about what the league must do to succeed.

Lastly, after a year-long delay and months of hype selling the tech-infused golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the primary match of the inaugural TGL golf season kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday on ESPN. What’s your greatest query mark you need answered as you tune-in for opening night time?

Josh Sens, senior author (@joshsens). It’s a reasonably fundamental query that applies to a number of leisure in our fractured, distracted age. Will or not it’s enjoyable and fast-moving and really feel genuinely new and thrilling, with sufficient golf to win over a conventional viewers and sufficient novelty to seize a recent one whereas incomes the approval of the ‘web?’ Or will it comes off like a contrived and cynical cash-grab, which has been the case with a number of different televised golf ideas?

Jessica Marksbury, senior editor (@jess_marksbury): Josh, spot on. The most important promoting level with a format like that is the showcase it presents for the assorted related personalities. I’m questioning simply how free these guys are keen to be. As a result of merely watching them launch pictures right into a simulator for a few hours isn’t going to be sufficient of a draw for me.

Jack Hirsh, affiliate tools editor (@JR_HIRSHey): Agree Jess, will there be sufficient banter to make it attention-grabbing? All of us keep in mind how overrated the primary Match between Tiger and Phil was, nevertheless it actually wasn’t that nice of TV as a result of Tiger and Phil have been being rivals, not entertaining and the banter between the 2 wasn’t that good. It wasn’t till The Match II when Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have been added to liven issues up that the collection turned a hit. Will the entire idea of a simulator league be sufficient to lighten issues up between some usually steely rivals? We’ll see.

The first match will characteristic the New York Golf Membership (Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler) in opposition to The Bay Golf Membership (Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Shane Lowry). (Three of every crew’s 4 gamers compete in a match.) Does the primary match have sufficient star energy to get the general public ?

Sens: If this have been a conventional match, I wouldn’t name this a subject that’s destined to maneuver the needle considerably. However in fact it’s not a conventional match. At this early stage, old style curiosity needs to be sufficient to get folks to tune in. Would extra folks tune in if Tiger Woods have been taking part in? Certain. However this schedule wasn’t made by coin flip. It was thought out. By not that includes Woods within the debut, my guess is that TGL is saving its powder for when the inaugural novelty wears off. The organizers perceive that the sector itself might be not an important issue this week.

Marksbury: Agree. We’ll be tuning in regardless! However the novelty issue will solely final so lengthy. Aside from Lowry, I don’t see this opening solid as a lot of a hot-take-spewing, yuk-it-up kind. However possibly I’ll be pleasantly shocked! 

Hirsh: Yea I’m actually fascinated about TGL and like the thought, however I’m undecided I just like the technique of not placing Tiger within the first match. I get that the thought, as our James Colgan reported again in October, is to make use of strategically place Woods’ debut at some point after the broadcasting community, ESPN, hosts an NFL playoff recreation to cross-promote it. However, everyone knows Tiger is the needle. Rickie Fowler might be the one participant an off-the-cuff golf fan will acknowledge. Even after Schauffele gained two majors final 12 months, I nonetheless don’t suppose his model has reached previous avid golf followers. Shouldn’t TGL use Tiger as a lot as doable to seize the eye of non-avid golf followers with a brand new idea?

End this thought: the TGL will flourish if…

Sens: If it has drawing energy past its novelty and Tiger’s title. And if it will get talked up — as opposed broadly mocked — on social media. It’s going to undoubtedly assist if the matches are shut and the pictures appear appropriately difficult. Past that, it comes all the way down to intangibles. In a single respect, TGL appears to examine the fitting bins for our time. It’s high-tech and meant to be fast-moving. It’s received celebrities hooked up to it, and well-liked broadcasters calling the motion. Oh, and you’ll gamble on it. However components that appear nice in isolation don’t all the time work once they’re introduced collectively. The magic formulation is tough to forecast. No less than for me. When Survivor first aired, I assumed, Who would watch this rubbish? Reveals how a lot I do know.

Marksbury: I’ve watched a good bit of different golf in latest months, from Golfzon Tour’s simulator matches on YouTube to a lighted, high-stakes par-3 match right here in Phoenix. And one factor is for certain: The golf is simply half of the package deal. To remain , we’d like a purpose to purchase in to rivalries, personalities and storylines. All of it has to matter. So I hope there’s loads of that to chew on with TGL. 

Hirsh: Name me a damaged document as a result of I mentioned this above, however I actually suppose it’s going to come back all the way down to the banter. Gamers are mic’d up, is that going to be really helpful? If the blokes are lose and taking swipes at one another in the course of the match, whereas there’s nonetheless an clearly excessive stage of competitors, that may very well be enjoyable. Everyone seems to be entertained at their golf course by the man who can stroll out with no observe and casually shoot 67 whereas trashing speaking the crap out of everybody. That’s the type of golf I wanna see.

And wrestle if…

Sens: Right here, I’ll rehash a few of my solutions from above. If the banter is lame, as the children say, if the matches are blowouts, and if main names and whiz-bang tech aren’t sufficient to maintain curiosity. Additionally: if the tech glitches usually sufficient that it doesn’t appear credible. There’s an apparent danger in stay TV. My litmus take a look at after the primary airing might be to ask my youngsters and their associates, who’re of their teenagers and twenties. In the event that they deem it ‘cringy,’ I’ll take that as an indication of hassle.

Marksbury: My hope is that listening to the crew interactions will really feel like being a fly on the wall within the matches these guys routinely play in opposition to one another with out digicam rolling. If they will’t faucet into being themselves — or in the event that they do succeed at being themselves, nevertheless it’s simply not that attention-grabbing — I can’t see this endeavor changing into a screaming success. 

Hirsh: I agree Jess, if every match finally ends up like the primary Tiger-Phil match, then TGL may die rapidly. Now we have to see a facet of those guys we’ve by no means seen earlier than and we’ll get a golf product not like something we’ve seen earlier than. If the gamers deal with this as enterprise as regular, it is not going to work.

Hideki Matsuyama gained the season-opening Sentry, beating Collin Morikawa by three with a PGA Tour document rating of 35 beneath. Anybody impress you? Shock you? What was your takeaway from Week 1 of the marathon 2025 PGA Tour season?

Sens: Collin Morikawa seems to be hungry to get that third main, after a few shut calls final 12 months. He didn’t win however I dig his new Sam Snead-esque pre-shot routine and the ball placing it gave solution to. He had a couple of quick recreation glitches. But it surely nonetheless took a record-number of birdies to beat him. 

Marksbury: Takeaway No. 1: Maui is all the time a welcome sight in January. These vistas are really unmatched. And so far as participant performances go, this week was a terrific reminder about how extremely gifted Hideki is. Thirty-five beneath, a brand new scoring document (!!!). That’s unbelievable! I believe he tends to fly beneath the radar generally, at the same time as a serious champion (although not for our betting professional Brady Kannon, who’s 1/1 on profitable picks up to now this 12 months!). I’ll say I’m a bit of shocked by Xander. He has a wonderful document on the Plantation course, with a win in 2019 and three different prime 10s since then. He was T30 this week — his worst end ever — and was by no means actually within the dialog.

Hirsh: Laborious to not be impressed when Hideki averages only one birdie shy of 1 each different gap. I don’t care how “straightforward” that golf course performed, this match was by no means actually meant to kick the crap out of those guys and that course would kick the crap out everybody studying this story from these tees. May the fifth gap be switched to a par-4? Yea most likely (it averaged 4.1 this week), however par is simply an arbitrary quantity anyway. It’s the primary match of the 12 months at a gorgeous and extoic resort course with solely the 60 greatest gamers from final 12 months invited. Allow them to make some birdies!

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