Tiger Woods delivers huge TGL viewership spike

Tiger Woods and his TGL team were brushed aside on Tuesday night, but the match still recorded a huge viewership spike.

It was revealed that an overall average for the league’s opening match was 919,000 viewers on ESPN, as The Bay Golf Club thrashed New York.

While Jupiter Links suffered a similar fate in week two, losing 12-1, TGL was watched by more than one million viewers and even topped NBA ratings.

Woods was making his first golf appearance since the PNC Championship and December and, according to Sports Business Journal, fans were keen to tune in.

Tuesday’s match peaked at 1.13 million viewers from 8:30-8:45pm Eastern Time (ET), shortly before the contest was wrapped up at 8.50pm.

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The figures represent a nine percent rise from TGL’s official debut and looked even more impressive given it was competing against the Cavaliers-Pacers game on TNT.

It attracted 956,000 viewers, followed by 853,000 viewers for the Nuggets-Mavericks game that followed.

TGL also nearly doubled the 587,000 viewers for Duke’s win against Miami in a men’s basketball game on ESPN afterwards.

With all eyes on Woods, 49, he walked down the tunnel to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and immediately threw down the hammer before teeing off.

Things only went downhill from there although the 15-time major champion was the lone Jupiter Links player to secure a point – a mere consolation on the eighth hole.

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“We were entertaining,” Woods said. “We hit a lot of shots. I think the people here, they got to see how bad pros can be. It was just a boat race. Oh, my goodness. But we had a great time.

“We hit six penalty areas, I had two shots out of a bunker and Kis nearly killed someone.

“I don’t know how much (skill) was evident; I don’t have any golf skills. Hey, this is a start of a new year. We had a great time. Hopefully people tuned in for the entire broadcast.”

New York Golf Club and Atlanta Drive are up next, with Rory McIlroy’s debut scheduled one week later – against Woods and Jupiter Links.

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.