As the world of men’s professional golf tries to sort itself out, ESPN bet on an upstart league featuring the sport in primetime.
TGL, the tech-infused golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s joint venture TMRW Sports, will tee off its inaugural season on Tuesday, January 7th. The league was initially set to debut in January of this year before a power failure caused structural damage at the facility that was supposed to host the league.
The TGL will air on ESPN and ESPN2 in primetime windows between January and March. The two channels will air 15 regular season matches, all of which will be streamed on ESPN+. The entire postseason (up to five matches) will also air on ESPN or ESPN2.
The league will play its matches on Mondays and Tuesdays to complement the PGA Tour’s Thursday to Sunday-schedule. Broadcast windows will be two hours in length and feature two of TGL’s six teams competing head-to-head.
ESPN will seemingly give TGL every opportunity for success, evidenced by the network’s decision to schedule Tiger Woods’ TGL debut immediately following its NFL Wild Card Game on January 14th, traditionally ESPN’s most-watched telecast of the year.
Later in the season, ESPN will air a Presidents’ Day tripleheader on a day that is typically underserved on the sports calendar. The league will also try to draft off the momentum created by The Players’ Championship, the flagship event on the PGA Tour, by starting its playoffs on the Monday following that tournament.
TGL certainly offers a novel setup for golf fans. Full matches played on hyper-realistic simulator screens in conjunction with realistic short game areas sound entertaining on paper. The value proposition is clear: Condense a full golf match into a short, digestible television window. Attract some of the sport’s most recognizable stars. Play during times when there is little competition for live sports.
It is one of the more interesting television experiments in recent memory. While leagues have continually tried to introduce new one-off events in a play to drive viewership, such as NASCAR’s street race in Chicago or MLB’s Rickwood Field game, no sport has completely altered its format and structure quite like TGL plans to do.
It’ll be interesting to see what constitutes success for the league. Given the star-studded backing of Woods and McIlroy and incredibly favorable television windows, TGL won’t fail because of the lack of exposure. But in order for viewers to stick around, the television product will have to be compelling. Golf has proven to be a sport that can successfully accommodate weird formats for television (see TNT’s The Match). However, taking the sport off the course entirely is a new ballgame.
Time will tell whether TGL has the staying power to be a real player in golf’s new world order.
[ESPN]
