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The announcement that Tiger Woods is poised to return to competitive golf during Tuesday night’s TGL Finals has prompted media partner ESPN to quickly increase its Woods-related content.
ESPN will televise the 50-year-old superstar’s return as he joins his Jupiter Links TGL team in Match 2 of the best-of-three TGL Finals (7 p.m. ET). ESPN is adding new content to Tuesday’s 2 p.m. edition of SportsCenter to herald Woods’s return. That includes:
- Matt Barrie, ESPN’s top TGL announcer, will analyze the five-time Masters champion’s return with analyst Roberto Castro. SportsCenter will also have new video of Woods, as well as a timeline of his TGL history. And Castro will break down specific holes Woods is playing on Tuesday. Barrie, Castro, and Marty Smith make up ESPN’s lead TGL announce team. As Barrie said in a statement to Front Office Sports: “It’s really all you could ask for to end the season. Tiger makes his return to competitive golf to try and lead his team to a championship. And I can’t wait to showcase it all day on SportsCenter and be on the call in the building tonight on ESPN. Tiger remains the needle and biggest draw in the sport.”
- Reporter Mark Schlabach is also set to appear on SC to talk about what a Tiger comeback could mean to the wider game of golf.
- Once the 2 p.m. SC wraps, look for more Woods updates throughout the day across ESPN studio programming.
Woods has previously sat out all of the ongoing TGL season while recovering from back surgery. He last played in a TGL event on March 4, 2025.
Woods’s comeback couldn’t come at a better time for TGL, as ESPN’s initial media rights deal with the startup indoor team golf league founded by Woods and Rory McIlroy expires after the finals. TGL will likely be seeking a rights increase in the months ahead. A healthy and competitive Woods would make those rights infinitely more valuable. The most-watched match in TGL history was Woods’s league debut last January, when 1.05 million viewers tuned into ESPN to see the 15-time major champion in action.
CBS Sports and Amazon will also be watching with eager interest. CBS, ESPN, and for the first time, Amazon Prime Video, will televise the 2026 Masters Tournament from April 9-12. If Woods tees it up at Augusta National Golf Club, TV ratings and streaming numbers will go through the roof.
Woods last played in the Masters in 2024. He made the cut that year but was not a factor on the weekend, finishing in 60th place.
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