TGL
TGL suffers large ratings drop in Week 3

Megan Briggs/TGL
TGL suffered a ratings drop in its third week.
The Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy-led indoor simulator league received mostly positive reviews during its debut in early January, and drew a little more than 900,000 viewers for the inaugural telecast. Woods made his first TGL outing in Week 2, and brought a slight ratings bump to one million viewers, although sources familiar with the matter tell Golf Digest that ESPN was hoping for a bigger Tiger boost.
Without Woods in Week 3, however, TGL viewership declined by more than 30 percent for a matchup between the Atlanta Drive (featuring Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay) and the New York Golf Club (Cam Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler), bringing in an audience of 682,000.
Conversely, after Week 2’s muted raise, sources tell Golf Digest, ESPN leadership feared a lower number. And despite the drop, TGL’s Week 3 audience still falls in line with ESPN’s average ratings for college basketball in its respective time slot. Also of note is, per Nielsen: TGL’s average aged viewer is 14 years younger than the average PGA Tour viewer.
TGL’s next matchup features Woods against Rory McIlroy’s team, which should spur an uptick from Week 3’s ratings. However, ESPN’s concern is with weeks without Woods and McIlroy, particularly as the novelty of TGL potenially fades. Sources also tell Golf Digest that ESPN is trying to fine-tune its presentational tone, hoping to inject more levity into the broadcast while subduing the, at times, serious overtones that have bogged down the early shows in the opinions of some.
TGL has 12 more regular-season shows, followed by two semifinal presentations on March 17 and 18 followed by a two-show finale on March 24 and 25.
The ratings come two days after Thomas penned a letter to PGA Tour membership, imploring players to embrace new methods of appealing to audiences as the tour struggles with its own ratings drop.