TGL season preview, lingering questions

Test 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 focus on 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 fairly 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 standard viewers and sufficient novelty to seize a contemporary 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 gives for the varied 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 gear editor (@JR_HIRSHey): Agree Jess, will there be sufficient banter to make it attention-grabbing? All of us bear in mind how overestimated the primary Match between Tiger and Phil was, however it actually wasn’t that nice of TV as a result of Tiger and Phil have been being opponents, 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 grew to become successful. Will the entire idea of a simulator league be sufficient to lighten issues up between some usually steely opponents? We’ll see.

The first match will function 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 group’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 standard match, I wouldn’t name this a area that’s destined to maneuver the needle considerably. However after all it’s not a standard match. At this early stage, old school curiosity ought to be sufficient to get folks to tune in. Would extra folks tune in if Tiger Woods have been taking part in? Positive. 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 sphere 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. Except for Lowry, I don’t see this opening solid as a lot of a hot-take-spewing, yuk-it-up sort. However possibly I’ll be pleasantly shocked! 

Hirsh: Yea I’m actually taken with TGL and like the concept, however I’m undecided I just like the technique of not placing Tiger within the first match. I get that the concept, as our James Colgan reported again in October, is to make use of strategically place Woods’ debut someday after the broadcasting community, ESPN, hosts an NFL playoff sport to cross-promote it. However, everyone knows Tiger is the needle. Rickie Fowler might be the one participant an informal golf fan will acknowledge. Even after Schauffele received 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 attainable 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 identify. And if it will get talked up — as opposed broadly mocked — on social media. It’ll undoubtedly assist if the matches are shut and the pictures appear appropriately difficult. Past that, it comes right down to intangibles. In a single respect, TGL appears to test the precise bins for our time. It’s high-tech and meant to be fast-moving. It’s obtained celebrities connected 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 at all times work after they’re introduced collectively. The magic components is tough to forecast. At the very least for me. When Survivor first aired, I assumed, Who would watch this rubbish? Exhibits 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 positive: The golf is just half of the package deal. To remain , we want a motive 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 file as a result of I stated this above, however I actually suppose it’s going to return right down to the banter. Gamers are mic’d up, is that going to be truly helpful? If the fellows are lose and taking swipes at one another in the course of the match, whereas there may be nonetheless an clearly excessive stage of competitors, that might 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 form 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 youngsters 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 typically sufficient that it doesn’t appear credible. There’s an apparent threat in reside TV. My litmus check after the primary airing might be to ask my youngsters and their pals, 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 group 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 digital camera rolling. If they’ll’t faucet into being themselves — or in the event that they do succeed at being themselves, however it’s simply not that attention-grabbing — I can’t see this endeavor turning into a screaming success. 

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

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

Sens: Collin Morikawa appears to be like 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 strategy to. He had a couple of brief sport glitches. But it surely nonetheless took a record-number of birdies to beat him. 

Marksbury: Takeaway No. 1: Maui is at all times a welcome sight in January. These vistas are actually unmatched. And so far as participant performances go, this week was an important reminder about how extremely proficient Hideki is. Thirty-five underneath, a brand new scoring file (!!!). That’s unbelievable! I believe he tends to fly underneath the radar typically, whilst a significant champion (although not for our betting skilled Brady Kannon, who’s 1/1 on profitable picks to this point this 12 months!). I’ll say I’m a bit of shocked by Xander. He has a superb file on the Plantation course, with a win in 2019 and three different high 10s since then. He was T30 this week — his worst end ever — and was by no means actually within the dialog.

Hirsh: Exhausting to not be impressed when Hideki averages only one birdie shy of 1 each different gap. I don’t care how “simple” 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. Might the fifth gap be switched to a par-4? Yea in all probability (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 wonderful and extoic resort course with solely the 60 finest gamers from final 12 months invited. Allow them to make some birdies!