Sophomore seasons are periods of adjustment for any startup league, and TGL is no exception. The novel concept from co-founders Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley hit on some key viewership goals in Year 1 in 2025, when it drew younger audiences and bigger numbers than what media partner ESPN had in similar windows the year prior.
Now, TGL has one eye on navigating Year 2 and another on monitoring its future media prospects. A few matches into the new season, the league continues to hover around a half-million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. That’s on par with what the league ended with last season.
“We got off to a good start,” McCarley said, “and I think some of the things that we’re still working through — and ESPN has been a very good thought partner on this — are when you do have the opportunity to be flexible on the schedule given the PGA Tour schedule. When are times that could be opportunistic for us to try and find the right audience? And I think we are very willing to experiment.”
But that flexibility has some drawbacks. One area TGL fans want improvement on is consistency with TV windows. The league started this season on a weekend on ABC opposite the NFL. Then there are Mondays vs. Tuesdays or ESPN vs. ESPN2. Also, some windows start at 5 pm ET, while others begin at 7 pm or 9 pm ET.
“One of the reasons why we designed the competitive format the way we did was that a two-hour format for a television window is interchangeable with any basketball game,” said McCarley, whose league in 2025 took the slots of many of those college basketball games in the same windows two years ago. “The audience is finding TGL, and the audience is coming back.”
Getting in on the ground floor
Matt Barrie, the voice of the TGL, is no stranger to ESPN’s golf programming, having done work around the Masters and other majors. When he saw that Woods, McIlroy and other marquee names were going to be a part of TGL, he knew he was in.
“I was trying to wrap my head around what it was and what it was going to be, and then I saw some of the names attached and I said, ‘All right, these are very successful people who don’t like losing,’” Barrie told SBJ. “I knew where the sport was headed. Simulators. Topgolf. Some of the other places that I knew the golf had started trying to venture into for a younger demographic and I thought it was cool. ... To be a part of a startup was probably the most fascinating part. It’s very, very difficult nowadays to be a part of something new, creating a new league, essentially creating a new sport. And so, I was jumping in full body just to be a part of something that no one had ever done before.”
Up next?
TGL’s deal with ESPN on the men’s side is up after this year, and McCarley notes the relationship has been solid. To that point, ESPN senior brass — including Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus and Roz Durant — all stayed after the CFP National Championship to take in the TGL match the following night, along with a number of folks from CAA, who are advising TGL on its media strategy.
With a women’s version of the league set to launch after the 2026 LPGA season, TGL is also in the hunt for a rights partner there. “We’ve been in pretty good conversations with a lot of different potential partners over the last couple months, and I think we have a pretty good sense this spring where we think that’ll land,” said McCarley, who noted a number of suitors have already come to the facility to take in a match.
Beyond men’s and women’s matches, TGL also lends itself well to the idea of crossover opportunities or celebrity matches. “It’s never too early to start talking about it, but I think we are focused on delivering what it is that we’ve signed up to deliver with our partners at the PGA Tour and our partners at the LPGA and the players,” McCarley said. “Are there opportunities for more and other types of formats down the road? Of course there are, but right now we have a good business.”
