The debut of the TGL indoor golf league this week drew nearly a million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen data reported Thursday by Front Office Sports.
Although co-founders of the league Tiger Woods AND Rory McIlroy were not held, Tuesday’s broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. EST attracted an average of 919,000 viewers.
According to Sports Media Watch, this is a larger audience than any LIV Golf broadcast on The CW in 2023 and 2024, and larger than last week’s PGA Tour season opener (The Sentry) on the Golf Channel and NBC. .
Last year at this time on ESPN, the Duke-Pittsburgh men’s college basketball game drew 717,000 viewers.
Tuesday night featured the first 15-hole TGL match, with Bay Golf Club defeating New York Golf Club 9-2 at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Woods and McIlroy attended the game and joined ESPN announcer Matt Barrie, who was seated in the booth.
Woods’ first match in the six-team TGL league will be when his Jupiter Links golf club takes on Los Angeles Golf Club on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. On January 27, McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf team will face Woods’ team.
The 15-game regular season will last until March 4, followed by the playoffs later that month.
