Look, we’re not going to say that TGL, the tech-infused indoor golf league, is playing right in the middle… but Tiger Woods pulled out for his TGL debut in “Eye of the Tiger.” It’s about as safe and as discreet as it gets.
Woods helped create TGL, and his appearance on the new league’s second night was the main draw. But even though he had more majors than everyone on the course combined and quadruples, Woods couldn’t rally his Jupiter Links Golf Club to victory, losing to LA Golf Club 12-1.
Tuesday night was just the second time Woods has played competitive golf, in any form, since the 2024 Open Championship. And like that previous event — the PNC Parent-Child Championship, where Woods was playing with his son Charlie and using a cart in December – TGL was a low-impact, stress-free variation of golf.
Woods claimed the honor of teeing off to start the evening and scored his first drive. Unfortunately, this was the best performance he and Jupiter had at the start of the holes. Kevin Kisner, one of Woods’ two teammates, played like he was ready for the broadcast booth. Max Homa, Jupiter’s third, was steadier but didn’t get much work as Los Angeles posted a 5-0 lead through the first three holes.
With team owners Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian in attendance, the Los Angeles trio – Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala – produced a combination of precise approaches, long putts and Jupiter errors to quickly take the head. Rose in particular seemed to relish the crowd element, relying on her Ryder Cup attitude to stand up to a clearly pro-Tiger crowd.
Woods was clearly more in the mood to play; he threw the hammer – doubling the point value of the hole – before even teeing off. After making a long putt on 5, Woods called a timeout to try to ice Rose before a tying putt. (It didn’t work; Rose made the putt, waving a finger Mutombo-style at his opponents and the booing crowd.)
Jupiter eventually won the 6th on a concession to get on the board, but Theegala holed a long putt on No. 7 to split the hole and break the fragile momentum Jupiter had. Rose followed up with a long clutch putt on No. 8 to win the hole and give LAGC a 6-1 lead.
TGL’s nine-hole triple play shrouded in an unfamiliar spectacle: Woods misses a par putt to split the hole. With the hammer in play, that gave LAGC an 8-1 lead heading into singles.
On his final hole of the evening, Kisner provided the most ridiculous moment of the match, drilling the flag during an attempted sand save. And then he almost rolled into the long comebacker, but still gave up the hole.
Theegala closed the match with a magnificent tee shot conceded by Homa, and LAGC secured the most dominant victory in TGL’s two-match history.
Despite its internal audience, TGL is primarily a television-based company and from that perspective the product still needs improvement. ESPN doesn’t seem to have decided yet whether the tone should be serious or jovial, and so the coverage oscillates between reverential and silly. TGL should be the equivalent of a televised beer pong match, not a PGA Tour event, and ESPN should lean into that weirdness rather than, say, earnestly trying to compare LAGC to the Dynasty of Lakers.
TGL also brings one of the most interesting elements of indoor PGA Tour broadcasts: interviews with sponsor executives. It doesn’t matter in this case that the leaders are famous athletes; a segment with Serena Williams – who clearly has little interest in golf – was a tough listen.
The public, too, does not express itself well on television. In the arena, the fans are noisy and the music pulsates; on television, the echoes and gaps are much more apparent. Golf fans who watched TGL were a little pleased, however, that the Duke-Miami game was moved to ESPN News for the end of TGL; too often, golf has been subordinated to college basketball in the broadcast hierarchy.
TGL returns next week with Xander Schauffele’s New York Golf Club playing Justin Thomas’ Atlanta Drive Golf Club. New York lost in a blowout in TGL’s first game; Atlanta hasn’t played yet. Woods’ Jupiter Links is set to return Jan. 27 when Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf Club debuts.
