TGL Ratings Hold Steady Despite ESPN Schedule Shift

TV ratings for TGL, the indoor team golf league cofounded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, are a little tough to judge as the second season got off to an earlier start than the inaugural campaign.

The season opener on Dec. 28 drew 646,000 viewers on ABC, while the second match of the season on Jan. 2 garnered 354,000 viewers on ESPN2. That average audience of 500,000 viewers is in line with Season 1’s average of 513,000, which dipped to 498,000 when factoring in playoff matches. 

Last year, TGL started in prime time on Jan. 7, which was a Tuesday. This season began on a Sunday afternoon with Atlanta Drive Golf Club facing New York Golf Club in a rematch of the inaugural TGL finals. And while the league got its first network broadcast slot on ABC, it went head-to-head with Week 17 NFL action. 

Match 2—featuring McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf against Los Angeles Golf Club—on ESPN2, which traditionally gets fewer viewers than the flagship ESPN channel, was TGL’s first Friday night primetime broadcast. The audience of 354,000 was 17% higher than what ESPN2 matches averaged in Season 1 (303,000 viewers).

Atlanta and The Bay Golf Club played in Match 3 on Tuesday night on ESPN. Viewership for the broadcast, which will be available later this week, will be a more cut-and-dry comparison to last season, which had the majority of its matches on ESPN on weeknights. 

Eight of the remaining 12 regular-season matches will be on ESPN, with the other four on ESPN2. All matches are streamed on the ESPN app for users with the new ESPN Unlimited plan.

The most-watched TGL match remains Woods’s debut for Jupiter Links Golf Club in Season 1, which drew just over 1 million viewers on ESPN. 

Billionaire Marc Lasry, owner of The Bay Golf Club, previously told Front Office Sports that initial expectations for TGL matches were much lower, with league stakeholders hoping they could pull 250,000 viewers per match.

At the end of 2026, WTGL will launch featuring LPGA Tour stars. There is no media-rights deal for that women’s league yet, and ESPN’s TGL deal expires after this season.