Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL reached over 3.2M unique viewers on opening night: Reports

Modified Jan 09, 2025 06:24 GMT

Syndication: Palm Beach Post - Source: Imagn — Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL reached over 3.2M unique viewers (Source: Imagn)

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods's TGL garnered over 3.2 million unique viewers on its debut night, as per Zoomph. The tech-infused golf league averaged 1.2 million viewers during the two hours of play and peaked at 1.41 million viewers.

The first TGL match was played on Tuesday, January 7, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, between New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club. The viewership was twice as high as that of the recent Sentry 2025's final round. As per Yahoo Sports, the Sentry averaged 461,000 viewers in the final round.

As per Zoomph, the viewers' numbers also surpassed the college and NBA basketball.

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Talking about the TGL's first match, Tiger Woods said (via Reuters):

"Considering this was just a dream conjured up, Rory and I were talking about it; it's hard to believe that dream came into reality and we are able to take golf into another stratosphere, really. It's not traditional golf, yes, but it is golf and that's the main thing and providing a different type of atmosphere."

Co-founder Rory McIlroy said during the broadcast:

"It's absolutely amazing to see this come to fruition."

The next TGL match will be played next week between Los Angeles Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links Golf Club on Tuesday, January 14 at 7 p.m. ET at SoFi Center, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Who won the opening match of TGL ft. New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club?

The opening match of TGL was won by the Bay Golf Club by 9-2 in a dominant display. PGA Tour players Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark, and Ludvig Aberg competed for the Bay Golf Club (BAY). They defeated New York Golf Club (NY) featuring Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, and Xander Schauffele.

Shane Lowry played the first shot in TGL's history. BAY won five of the first six holes and were up by 6-0. NY gained its first point on the final hole of the triples format i.e., ninth. Lowry, Clark, and Aberg won their first single duel and comfortably won the match.

Here's a hole-by-hole score of the first TGL match: