Despite a wholly noncompetitive golf match, TGL rode Tiger Woods to a ratings increase in Week 2.
The tech-infused simulator golf league averaged one million viewers for its second-ever match, per ESPN PR. Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club let the match get out of hand early and never recovered against Los Angeles Golf Club. Woods’ team lost 12-1 in a match that was decided after the 11th hole.
Tuesday’s telecast increased its audience by 9% from TGL’s debut match last week which averaged 919,000 viewers. Woods did not play, but was in attendance for the league’s first broadcast. The audience peaked at 1.1 million viewers during the 8:30 p.m. ET quarter-hour, when the match was largely already over.
The match was Tuesday’s most-watched single-network sporting event on cable, with the TNT/truTV Cleveland Cavaliers-Indiana Pacers game game slightly outrating it (1.033 million versus 1.005 million) with the truTV simulcast factored in. The TGL broadcast slightly beat out the later TNT/truTV Denver Nuggets-Dallas Mavericks game. It also beat the numerous college basketball games on linear television Tuesday night.
The league is off to a strong start despite neither of its first two matches being competitive at all. Without the mystique of a new league’s debut or a Tiger Woods appearance to fall back on next week, it’ll be interesting to see how TGL holds up in Week 3 when Atlanta Drive Golf Club (Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas) takes on New York Golf Club (Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schaufelle and Cameron Young).
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.