Tiger Woods falls in TGL debut, broadcast still rocky in the new league’s second night

Look, we’re not going to say that TGL, the technology-infused indoor golf league, plays right in the middle … but Tiger Woods walked out for his TGL debut to “Eye of the Tiger.” It’s about as safe and on the nose as you can get.

Woods helped create the TGL, and his performance on the new league’s second night was key. But despite having more majors than everyone else on the course combined and quadruple, Woods couldn’t rally his Jupiter Links Golf Club to victory as he fell to LA Golf Club 12-1.

Tuesday night was just the second time Woods has played competitive golf, in any form, since the 2024 Open Championship. And like the previous event — the parent-child PNC Championship, where Woods played with son Charlie and used a cart in December — the TGL was a low-impact, low-stress version of golf.

Woods claimed the honor of taking the tee to start the night, and birdied his opening drive. Unfortunately, that was the best he and Jupiter did for the early hole stretch. Kevin Kisner, one of Woods’ two teammates, played like he was ready for the broadcast booth. Max Homa, Jupiter’s third, was steadier but wasn’t given much to work with as LA led 5-0 through the first three holes.

With team owners Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian in attendance, LA’s trio – Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala – rode a combination of pinpoint approaches, long putts and Jupiter errors to the early lead. Rose in particular seemed to enjoy the crowd element, drawing on his Ryder Cup attitude to cope with a decidedly pro-Tiger crowd.

Woods was clearly more in the mood for gamesmanship; he dropped the hammer – doubling the point value of the hole – before he even teed off. After rolling in a long putt on the 5th, Woods called a timeout in an attempt to ice Rose before a straight putt. (It didn’t work, Rose drilled the putt and wagged a Mutombo-like finger at his opponents and the booing crowd.)

Jupiter finally won the 6th on a concession to get on the board, but Theegala drained a long putt at no. 7 to split the gap and seize the fragile momentum Jupiter managed. Rose followed it up with a clutch long putt on No. 8 to bridge the gap and stake LAGC to a 6-1 lead.

The nine-hole triple leg of the TGL wrapped up with an unfamiliar sight: Woods needs a couple of putts to share the hole. With the hammer in play, it gave LAGC an 8-1 lead heading into the singles.

On his final hole of the night, Kisner provided the most ridiculous moment of the match, drilling the flagpole on a sand save attempt. And then he almost rolled in the long comebacker, but still surrendered the hole.

Theegala closed out the match with a magnificent tee shot that Homa collected and LAGC stormed to the most dominant victory in TGL’s two-match history.

Despite the internal audience, TGL is primarily a TV-based company, and from that perspective, the product still needs work. ESPN doesn’t seem to have decided yet whether the tone of this should be serious or jovial, and so the coverage flips between the reverent and the silly. TGL should be the equivalent of a televised beer pong match, not a PGA Tour event, and ESPN should lean into that weirdness instead of, say, seriously trying to compare the LAGC to the Lakers dynasty.

TGL also brings one of the creepiest elements of PGA Tour broadcasts indoors: interviews with sponsor executives. It doesn’t really matter in this case that the leaders are famous athletes; a segment featuring Serena Williams – who clearly has little interest in golf – was a tough listen.

Audiences don’t translate well to TV either. In the arena, the fans are loud and the music is pulsating; on TV the echoes and empty spaces are much more apparent. However, golf fans watching TGL got some satisfaction out of the fact that the Duke-Miami game was moved to ESPN News for the end of TGL; too often, golf has been subordinate to college basketball in the broadcast hierarchy.

TGL returns next week with Xander Schauffele’s New York Golf Club playing Justin Thomas’ Atlanta Drive Golf Club. New York lost in a blowout in TGL’s first game; Atlanta has yet to play. Woods’ Jupiter Links is scheduled to return on January 27 when Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf Club makes its debut.