Tiger Woods’ ex-coach gives his verdict on TGL - “The players hopefully loosen up”

Following the inaugural match of the TGL, Tiger Woods' former coach Hank Haney praised the tech-infused league, stating that it surpassed expectations. However, he added that he wanted players to loosen up more and engage in more banter with each other.

The TGL started on Tuesday, January 7, with Bay GC up against New York GC in the first match. Bay GC won comfortably, defeating New York 8-2 in the opener.

On Thursday, Haney took to X to praise Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's tech-infused league.

"Overall I thought TGL exceeded expectations and was a great start," he said. "I'm sure it will get even better as they tweak a few things around and the players hopefully loosen up and have more banter."

He also shared a couple of tweets earlier, providing his overall analysis of the TGL, where he mentioned the lack of banter in the first game.

"TGL was about what I hoped it would be," he wrote. "Really cool technology, kind of fun to watch, lots of improvements they can make and I'm sure they will but the tv ratings were pretty good and with Tiger next week will be even better."

All the banter that everyone says is going to happen on made for TV golf never happens," he added. "Somehow they need the TGL players to show their personalities and for the announcers to be quiet, then it will be more fun to watch. Just hitting golf shots isn’t going to get it."

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Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL garners over 3.2M unique viewership in the inaugural game

Bay Club golfer Wyndham Clark celebrates with Shane Lowry, right, with Ludvig Aberg behind him during a TGL match at SoFi Center (Image Source: Imagn)

The first game of the TGL garnered over 3.2 million unique viewers. As per Zoomph, an analytics website for sports and brands, the opening match between Bay GC and New York GC attracted over 3.2 million unique viewers and sustained 1.2 million viewers throughout the match, surpassing the viewership of college and NBA basketball games.

The next TGL match is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14, and will be between Tiger Woods Jupiter Links GC and Los Angeles GC. The tech-infused league features six teams, each comprising four players. Each team will play at least five matches before the top four teams from the league stage advance to the playoffs. Each match is played over 15 holes in the Triples and Singles format.