I’ve always been skeptical of TGL.
Not because I don’t think it’s good for golf. On the contrary, I do think alternative golf formats are much more inclusive and less boring than the standard PGA Tour fodder.
That said, I’ve always wondered if it would have staying power. An ESPN timeslot helps, sure, but it only gets you so far.
So when I was invited by Genesis, the first founding sponsor of TGL, to attend a match, I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve tuned in a time or two but was left with the notion that attending in person would be a better experience.
I was wrong, at least in part. Let me explain.
1. The venue is much better in person
The cameras and production, while done very well, don’t paint a clear enough picture of just how expansive the playing space is. The screen is freakin’ massive. The rotating putting green is a sight to behold. Every seat in the house has a view of every shot.
The SoFi Center and everything it houses makes for a great place to attend a sporting event. Heck, if I could rent it out for a day like Josh Allen did for his birthday, I totally would.
2. The live entertainment needs some juice
For my money, Roger Steele did about the best he could with the in-game entertainment. It’s hard to get a crowd juiced up for the player warmups when there are basically 10 people in the seats 15 minutes before the match kicks off.
I thought that bringing out some kids and getting them involved in the action was a nice touch. At times, the in-house DJ felt a little overbearing, especially when you’re trying to listen to the pros chat with one another.
I’m not sure I have a good solution here. But Steele conducting the wave with the crowd isn’t the best way to get the fans involved, IMO.
The crowd never matched Steele’s energy, which made the whole thing feel a little lifeless (to no fault of his own).
3. The in-house audio needs a fix, fast!
The part of TGL that everyone is fascinated with, including me, is hearing the players talk among themselves. We rarely get mic’d-up moments on the Tour so it’s cool to hear them banter and bash each other.
The only problem is that I couldn’t hear them. When attending in person, they give the audience Bluetooth headphones to listen to the broadcast. But when you’ve got hundreds of people trying to connect to a pair of headphones with the same name, it’s impossible to tell which pair you’re connecting to.
I started to get audio from some random person’s phone and had to shut mine off. Not one was I able to tune into the broadcast from my device, and the music in the arena made it impossible to hear the players in real time, even though I was sitting in the very front near the teeing area.
4. TGL is better on TV
And now we’ve reached the crux of my article. I went into the experience wondering if it’d be better in person. I left wondering why anyone, save fans of certain players or teams, would attend in person.
Palm Beach isn’t the easiest to get to. Tickets aren’t all that cheap. And watching players hit shots into a simulator is just as exciting in person as it is on a screen. Where the television broadcast wins out is, again, the audio. You get the mic’d-up moments that I wasn’t able to capture in the arena.
Would I attend a TGL event in the future? Probably not. I’ll stick with having it on the TV on the weeknights where my BYU Cougars aren’t playing another Big 12 powerhouse.
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