Never has the old golf adage “if you’re going to play bad, play fast” been taken to heart more than in TGL’s second foray onto the big stage. Tiger Woods emerged through red haze with the most spot-on musical introduction imaginable, immediately dropped the hammer, then embarked on some of the worst team golf ever to appear on national television. He combined with Max Homa and Kevin Kisner to firehose shot after shot into penalty areas and resemble something one might see at their local muni when weekend duffers grit their teeth and grind to break 100.
It was Kisner, though, who put a bold new twist on that phrase, channeling Aaron Judge-like power from the bunker with a shot that threatened to snap what may have been the only flagstick on hand. It was pure comedy, sending Woods into tears of laughter and further lightening the mood as the Los Angeles GC dotted I’s and crossed T’s in what has become the please-let’s-retain-eyeballs portion of the league’s sales pitch in back-to-back weeks. Kisner, who flashed a golf game that's perfect for a TV tower, followed his flagstick-rattler by almost chipping in for a miraculous save—one which the broadcast joked would have been among the greatest shots in golf history.
— TGL (@TGL) January 15, 2025
Two weeks in and we’re seeing TGL’s floor. If you believe the endeavor is a sprint, then there may be cause for concern. If you think it’s a marathon, there may be cause for optimism. Because just as a playoff series doesn't begin until the road team gets a win, Woods and McIlroy’s indoor jamboree will not truly start until there's a competitive match.
It’s hard to be patient in a world where everything is on demand. The thrill of sport is that anything can happen. Which means that there are no guarantees that the matches are going to be close enough to get the true competitive juices flowing. Yet it cannot be stressed enough that this was Week 2. TGL is a baby giraffe learning to walk. That means there are remedies and tweaks, rule changes and nudges to create actual crunch time.
Consider Keegan Bradley’s in-match interview with ESPN on Tuesday night.
“Think about any other sport,” he said to Marty Smith. “I’ve been on Tour for 15 years and then on the 15th year we're going to invent a whole new sport and you’re going to have to figure it out on the fly.”"
That is exactly what’s happening. Save for the recent pickleball craze it’s been a long time since a truly new endeavor was introduced to fans. And this one is very much a work in progress. Formats will be tweaked. This is a made-for-television product and ESPN will figure out better ways to make it work on television. Someone had to convince Dr. James Naismith that basketball players should be able to dribble. At some point the infield fly had to be conjured. Sports that have a 150-year head start on TGL are still introducing new innovations before every season.
This may seem like a daunting hill to climb. But if you allow a glass half-full mindset, perhaps the panacea doesn’t have to be conjured, it just has to be realized.
People have been thinking that the star of TGL is the technology when in actuality it may be simpler than that. What if, just like every other thing that keeps score, earnest competition is the star? Once a match is undecided late in regulation, we’ll know. We’ll see if the jokes subside and Tiger begins to prowl. Once that visceral feeling of something truly being on the line manifests, the broadcast can dial back the bells and whistles. The best athletes in the world wanting to win and establish a new legacy is simple and it’s evergreen.
Jointly, ESPN and TGL are throwing the kitchen sink at viewers. Some of that will feel wholly unnecessary once the will to win speaks for itself. They can scale down their messaging that this thing is awesome so fans can just feel it being awesome. It’s clear there needs to be a better translation of the in-arena vibe onto the screen. Everyone seems to be in no man’s land in terms of how serious we should be taking this.
Perhaps this is wrong but TGL should not feel like televised beer pong. It should feel like an NBA or NFL game where the actual outcome matters. There may be some resistance to this idea but the spectacle is already different enough from golf played on real grass. The opportunity this upstart project has is to convince the elite players that it's a second platform on which they can prove their game.
To that point it bears mention how refreshing it is to see guys who look like superheroes on Tour get absolutely humbled by the new-age course. Their willingness to fail on this stage, to take their lumps and not complain about the tech or the setup is crucial. Eventually, with that timeless drive to win, they’ll adapt and tailor their approach to meet the demands.
One couldn’t help but smile as Los Angeles could not put Jupiter away in time for ESPN to air the beginning of Miami-Duke. Golf has long been the Lindsay Buckingham of the sports diet, the easiest to bump and relegate to a harder-to-find platform. Consumers who wanted to get a look at Cooper Flagg had to wait while six golfers goofed around during garbage time.
But consider those viewers and why they’d be interested in that basketball game. They want to see a freshman phenom who is unrivaled at the top of his craft. Neutral parties tune in and hope that the contest is close for 40 minutes. It’s talent and it’s drama. A basic recipe that has stood the test of time and always will.
Right now TGL is all fun and games. In the future it can be fun and sports.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as TV Review: TGL Needs to Get Competitive to Reach Its Full Potential.
