We live in what has become a virtual world. There is virtual work, virtual schooling, virtual meetings and even virtual relationships.
So why not make virtual golf the next big thing?
That’s what TGL is hoping to do starting this week. Maybe TGL (no, that doesn’t stand for Tiger’s Golf League) isn’t trying to replace the PGA Tour. But a new golf platform that might attract new fans to the game certainly demands at least a little look from the casual and even the hardcore fan.
The first TGL match will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN, and it promises to be “the first look at the dynamic, fast-paced, team competition within the custom-built SoFi Center.” Dynamic and fast-paced are hardly words that could be associated with the PGA Tour or even LIV golf these days. Maybe TGL will fulfill that promise thanks to a few rule changes.
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For instance, there is a shot clock – something green-grass golf needs. There is a team aspect of TGL with three-man teams facing off in different formats through the night.
Tuesday’s debut will feature the New York Golf Club of Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele against the Bay Golf Club of Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg. That’s a pretty strong roster, and the other teams with players such as Woods and Rory McIlroy aren’t even in play yet.
Participants will play virtual golf courses comprised of 15 holes. If you were expecting to see the golfers play virtual versions of Pebble Beach or Augusta National, well, that’s not happening. Still, there is a website for the league with virtual flyovers of virtual holes.
Will it work?
But there remain questions. Will real golf fans accept some of the best players in the world hitting into a simulator screen? And what about the allure of unofficial golf? The latest incarnation of prime-time golf was broadcast last month for TNT – The Showdown – and featured four of the biggest names in the game in McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. But the ratings were weak, with fewer than 700,000 watching golf under the lights.
What TGL could be is a big play for a new generation of golf fans. Maybe people who have been watching golf for decades will see simulator golf as nothing more than a gimmick, a way to get Tiger and Rory some screen time on ESPN. But there are at least two generations of golfers who have grown up playing games like Golden Tee at sports bars and playing PGA Tour-licensed golf games at home.
There are still other golfers who now consider venues like Top Golf as their version of golf. A tournament over four days at 72 holes with rounds approaching and surpassing five hours turns off a lot of new golfers. So does the idea that the best players in the world are playing in separate tours scattered around the world, with those players coming together only four times a year.
So as the PGA Tour specifically and golf in general struggles to engage or re-engage fans, we get TGL golf. Yes, it is real golfers, and yes it is a snazzy facility in Florida built specifically for this purpose. But at its heart, TGL is an experiment.
ESPN hopes it can capitalize on PGA Tour players. PGA Tour players hope they can capitalize on technology. And the PGA Tour hopes it can capitalize on the appeal of the players and technology to get new fans involved and old fans interested again.
There is big money behind TGL, and having the top players in the world sign on adds some legitimacy. But TGL’s long-term success is hardly guaranteed. The hardcore golf fan might well turn their back on the idea of simulator golf. They might be more interested in buying their own simulator than actually watching Tiger Woods play on one.
The proof will be in the ratings for TGL on ESPN, and whether those ratings hold steady when other teams with other players, like Woods and McIlroy, make their debuts in the league in the coming weeks. People will watch the first week out of curiosity. If it is a brave new world for golf, those fans will stay for the entire season.
Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, TGL seek new fans through virtual golf
