[PHOTO: Brennan Asplen/TGL]
By most measures, the inaugural season of the TGL, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s golf simulator league, would be deemed a success. TV ratings in America have been stronger than expected, and frequently better than what ESPN had been airing in those time slots a year ago. A mid-season fix to the Hammer rule has made for more dramatic matches, and players have learned what it takes to play the shots needed to succeed given the big technology involved at SoFi Center. As the final regular-season match is set for today (Australian time), plans for Season 2 and beyond are well under way.
There is however, one mulligan Tiger and Rory probably wouldn’t mind having: neither of the co-founders will have their team competing in the playoffs later this month.
With a loss yesterday to the New York Golf Club, 10-6, not only was McIlroy’s Boston Common squad knocked out of postseason contention, so was Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club, which plays today against Atlanta Drive in the regular-season finale.
Woods is still scheduled to compete tonight along with Max Homa and Tom Kim as they compete against Billy Horschel, Lucas Glover and Nick Dunlap, a one-match fill-in for today.
The playoff bracket is as follows:
No.1: Los Angeles Golf Club
No.2/3: The Bay Golf Club
No.2/3: Atlanta Drive
No.4: New York Golf Club
McIlroy wasn’t asked directly about missing the playoffs, but did comment about how he felt the start-up endeavour he helped bring to life did in Year 1.
“It’s been a lot of fun being in here, competing against the best players in the world, competing with some of the best players in the world,” McIlroy said on Monday. “Look, I’ve been sort of a part of this since it was just an idea, so to see it come to life this year and to see the reception to it, that’s been really, really cool and something that I know I’m very proud of and all the team behind this concept are very proud of, as well.”
Mind you, McIlroy is of course a bit biased, but he also wasn’t afraid to say that he felt the TGL concept found an audience.
“I think that’s the cool thing about this, as well, is you’ve got the semi-finals in a couple of weeks’ time and then the final and then it’s gone for nine months. Hopefully by the time January rolls around again, people are excited to watch it,” McIlroy said. “After the next few weeks, we’ll let the major-championship season kick in and obviously have people be super interested in that, but January, February, March when there’s not a ton going on at nighttime, especially up in [America’s] north-east, I think it’s a fun thing for people to be able to sit down and watch on a Monday and Tuesday night.”
