Tiger-less TGL suffers big ratings drop in Week 3

Nearly a million viewers tuned in to see the debut match of the TGL with co-founders Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on hand for the star-studded debut two weeks ago.

The new league then topped the 1 million viewer mark for Woods' debut last week.

On Tuesday night with Woods and McIlroy idle, TGL suffered a dramatic drop in viewership with an audience of 682,000, per Nielsen.

That represents a decline of 32 percent for a match that saw Justin Thomas' Atlanta Drive team hand the New York Golf Club is second loss on the season. New York was without its biggest star as Xander Schauffele has withdrawn from two PGA Tour events due to a medical issue, and instead featured Cam Young alongside Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Despite the significant decline, Golf Digest reported that ESPN leadership feared even lower numbers after Woods' debut match produced only a modest bump over Week 1. And the TGL's ratings have so far outpaced those for PGA Tour events to begin the year.

TGL's average of 869,000 viewers through three weeks represents a 50 percent increase over ESPN's comparable time slot in 2024, according to sports business reporter Joe Pompliano. He also reported that the median age of a TGL viewer is 51 -- younger than the NHL (52), F1 (53), NFL (54) and MLB (60).

The next major litmus test for TGL comes next week, when Woods' Jupiter Links Golf Club team takes on Rory McIlroy in Boston Common's debut match.

The regular season runs for 15 weeks and will be followed by a two-show finale March 24-25.

--Field Level Media