This week was crucial for TGL, and the league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy certainly delivered.
The tech-powered arena league boldly staked a claim to make Presidents Day its own in its debut season, with three matches being played in the space of a few hours. With all of the matches going down to the last hole and one going to overtime, it could scarcely have gone better for TGL, its broadcaster ESPN and title sponsor SoFi.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have received a double boost for TGL (Image: Megan Briggs/TGL/TGL via Getty Images)
The financial services giant’s CEO, Anthony Noto, made clear his delight at TGL’s rapid progress. The 15-hole made-for-TV matches have exceeded ESPN’s viewership expectations, and SoFi’s long-held desire to invest in golf has been vindicated.
Heading into this week’s matches, TGL averaged more than 800,000 viewers. According to Sports Business Journal, ESPN would have been happy with figures around 500,000. The numbers for this week’s four matches, which concluded on Tuesday with a blowout loss for Woods’ Jupiter Links team, could be slightly less given two were played outside of primetime, but the verdict from viewers was overwhelmingly positive.
Despite imperfections with the simulator technology being used and other issues needing ironing out, the traction gained by TGL since its launch in January is impressive. And Noto, whose firm had been looking to invest in traditional golf tournaments before the TGL opportunity arose, has seen the gamble quickly pay off.
SoFi boss Anthony Noto says TGL has been a ‘home run’ success ( Image: Megan Briggs/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images)
“We’re really pleased. It’s exceeded our expectations on the audience,” Noto told Golf Digest. “The enthusiasm from the players has been incredibly robust. There are things we’re going to have tweak to make sure it’s competitive every week like any other sports league would. But so far, it’s been really above expectations. We’re really happy with it.”
From the moment he first saw a match played at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Noto was convinced the product would be a success. He did not expect, however for it to be an instant “home run.”
“We went there and did a mock game with Korn Ferry Tour pros, and instantly I knew it was going to be a hit because the adrenaline you have in playing TGL is consistent,” he added.
“It doesn’t go up every four or five minutes when you have a shot, but you have to be paying attention every second of the match, and you’re focused on what the person in front of you is doing, what the person behind you will do based on your own swing. And so you’re engaged the entire time, and the two hours fly by. It’s a different format, but it still requires them to play the game of golf with great s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁.
“Our member base loves it. The golfers love it, [and] the audience. It’s been a huge success and really popular; people love that we’re doing it. The audience is twice as big as we thought it would be. The fact that it’s doing two times whatever else they would do during those slots on ESPN and two times what we thought, that’s a home run and we’re just getting started.”
