We’re less than a week away from TGL’s second campaign.
I’m wondering how interested you all are in watching this time around.
TGL’s opening act at the beginning of 2025 was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, we saw a handful of viral moments and some genuinely entertaining golf that led to respectable TV ratings. On the other hand, there were several technical issues, too many blowout matches and, at times, a general state of apathy among golf fans.
Here is what I wrote earlier this year after the season ended:
“My final grade for TGL is a B-minus. While the league is a net positive for professional golf, it feels like it has a high floor with a low ceiling.
TGL was additive at times, creating viral moments and fun matches that occasionally shined an interesting light on player personalities. The finale was fun. The league is relatively harmless and totally unserious. If you don’t want to watch, you aren’t passing on much. However, enough people watched to give confidence that TGL will be a part of the pro golf landscape for at least another few years.
At the same time, TGL regularly made me cringe. Between faulty sim readings, the monotony of watching balls being hit into a screen and the whole thing feeling very forced from a comedic perspective, I kept having the urge to change the channel.”
The positives? Decent TV ratings, fast play, viral moments, the hammer rule worked and the golf community showed a lot of support.
The negatives? Unreliable tech, inconsistent entertainment, a clunky broadcast, boring players and the golf trying a little too hard to be serious.
What will the second season look like?
There are some significant changes coming to TGL.
Hole designs will have more risk-reward elements, graphics have been updated, the green complex is significantly larger and matches are being played on a wider variety of days.
In 2027, a seventh team will begin play as Motor City GC gives Detroit a squad. You can expect more teams—and potentially more arenas—to enter the equation over time.
For now, we’re wondering what kind of juice TGL will have.
Yes, it does have the benefit of a great TV contract and trusted owners with deep pockets. Yes, it does have the player talent.
But in this world of YouTube golf events like the Internet Invitational, is TGL going to be entertaining enough?
The novelty aspect is gone. Every golf fan knows what TGL is about at this point.
What is going to keep people watching? Maybe it’s something to have on as background noise during a Tuesday night in the dead of winter. Could it be more?
The bar is pretty low for how many people need to watch in order for this to be an improvement on previous ESPN programming. TGL has met and even exceeded that low bar.
The question now is about what kind of ceiling TGL has. Is it going to evolve into a consistently entertaining product or will this have all the energy of the Arena Football League?
For the moment, I will reiterate that TGL seems like a “high floor, low ceiling” kind of deal. It will be intermittently entertaining, so you can take it or leave it.
I’ll be watching because I’m a golf sicko (and I have a newborn, so might as well teach him about hammer strategy early in life).
TGL schedule for 2026
The first match will be taking place next Sunday, Dec. 28, at 3 p.m. EST between Atlanta Drive GC and New York GC. This is a rematch of the title series from last season (Atlanta won). You can catch that on ABC, the only time this season that TGL won’t be on ESPN or ESPN2.
As a reminder, here is how the teams set up:
- Atlanta Drive (Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover)
- Boston Common (Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott)
- Jupiter Links (Tiger Woods, Tom Kim, Max Homa, Kevin Kisner)
- Los Angeles (Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Sahith Theegala, Justin Rose)
- New York (Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young)
- The Bay (Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry)
Now here is the whole schedule:
The top four teams in the SoFi Cup Standings will advance to the playoffs. After the Players Championship finishes on March 15, we’ll get a semifinals doubleheader on Tuesday, March 17.
The following Monday and Tuesday will be the championship series, a best-of-three finale.
Is this enough for you to watch?
Let me know how much you plan to watch. If it’s not something our readers are interested in, we won’t waste your time (or our time) by covering it closely.
Top Photo Caption: Atlanta Drive GC won the inaugural TGL crown. (GETTY IMAGES/Cliff Hawkins)
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