The fourth match in TGL history showcased the league’s key players and continued to attract impressive viewership figures for ESPN. On Monday night, Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club faced off against Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf, averaging 864,000 viewers during the 6:30 p.m. ET window. This audience represented a 27% increase compared to last week’s third match (682,000 viewers), although it fell short compared to the league’s inaugural matches, with 919,000 viewers for Match 1 and 1 million for Match 2.
Despite this, the contest peaked at 1.1 million viewers in the 8:30 p.m. ET quarter-hour, which ties the highest peak on record for any TGL match to date. This peak audience occurred during overtime, marking a first for the league after three weeks of lopsided contests. Such a trend is encouraging for TGL, indicating that viewers are inclined to stay engaged during competitive matches.
Importantly, TGL is outpacing comparable college basketball broadcasts on ESPN by 33%, as reported by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. Over the first four weeks, TGL has averaged 874,000 viewers compared to 658,000 for the corresponding college hoops broadcasts. As noted in a tweet from Karp:
TGL has provided ESPN a big gain compared to the comparable college hoops games in the same windows in January 2024.
🔲TGL through 4 weeks: 874,000 viewers
🔲 College hoops, same windows 2024: 658,000That’s an audience gain of 33% that TGL has given ESPN to date. https://t.co/TLLF9m57Wl
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) January 28, 2025
Despite the positive trends, Monday’s match saw a slight decline (3%) compared to last year’s Duke-Virginia Tech game. It’s worth noting that the Blue Devils and Hokies started 30 minutes later than TGL’s window, making the comparison somewhat challenging for the golf league. This marks the first instance where a TGL broadcast has actually decreased year-over-year against its college hoops competition.
Nevertheless, the emerging golf league can take pride in its performance so far. Successfully creating a new sport and delivering a 33% viewership lift for ESPN is an impressive feat. If TGL can maintain these gains throughout the season, it will likely be regarded as a success in its inaugural year. And indeed, Jon Rothstein may need to adjust to sharing ESPN’s airwaves during the winter months.
