The premiere of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL Golf averaged 919,000 viewers via ESPN’s flagship network Tuesday night and found a younger audience than golf’s typical audience as its organizers intended.
While the Launch of the TGL didn’t feature any of the founders — among the best-known duffers who appeared in the inaugural game were Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler — the two-hour telecast overshadowed his introduction to college basketball. Duke’s 76-47 dismantling of Pitt averaged 751,000 viewers.
ESPN did not disclose the number of additional impressions gleaned through its namesake streaming service. That said, the TV show peaked at 1.1 million viewers during the 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET segment, which is when the action officially began. (The first 15 minutes were reserved for interviews and table setting.)
If the TGL format gives rise to ill-advised comparisons to standard golf broadcasts, Tuesday’s debut yielded much higher numbers than we’re used to seeing from another relatively new entity. In September, Jon Rahm’s victory in the final round of the LIV Golf championship tournament attracted just 89,000 viewers on the CW. The Saturday edition performed a little better, with an average audience of 134,000 linear viewers.
Most recently, the final round of the PGA Tour Tournament of Champions, aka The Sentry, averaged 461,000 viewers on Golf Channel.
As for the demonstrations, the opening of the TGL brought together an average of 402,270 adults aged 18 to 49, which represents 44% of the total participation on television. For a televised golf event, the audience was remarkably young; For comparison, last Sunday’s PGA round attracted 80,454 adults under 50, with demo dollar fans accounting for just 17% of total deliveries.
While golf primarily attracts a male audience, the TGL premiere was even more of a dude fest than usual. According to Nielsen, 77% of the under-50 crowd was male, while 67% of the demo shown by the PGA on Sunday was male.
Although TGL organizers will have to iron out a few kinks before next Tuesday’s match (the DJ Khaled interview aired before anyone had even taken a practice shot was practically an invitation to turn off the set), the TV show might as well on Jan. 14 is expected to post even bigger numbers, as Woods will make his debut with the Jupiter Links crew. Although watching the winner of 15-ball majors on a screen is an unusual proposition for sports purists, virtual golf is better than no golf at all. Woods has played in a handful of tournaments since he was injured in a car accident in 2021, and he missed the cut in his last three majors.
McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf team will make its first appearance on January 27. Their opponents: Woods and the Jupiter ensemble. ESPN will promote TGL’s fourth telecast during its coverage of the College Football Playoff national championship game.
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