TGL TV Ratings Take Significant Fall Week After Tiger Woods’s Debut

The tech-infused simulator league had its lowest viewership in Week 3.

Rickie Fowler's New York Golf Club lost twice in the first three weeks of TGL. / GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

According to Nielsen data, the third week of TGL was a disappointment.

Week 1 was a relatively strong debut for the simulator golf league with an average of 919,000 viewers, and Week 2 saw a slight uptick to 1,005,000 viewers due to Tiger Woods’s Jupiter Golf Links making their debut.

The third week of TGL featured Rickie Fowler’s New York Golf Club against Justin Thomas’s Atlanta Drive Golf Club. It was yet another blowout with Atlanta winning the match 4-0, and the audience fell off more than 30% to an average of 682,000 viewers.

One bright spot, however, is the age of the audience TGL is attracting. The league notes that the median viewer age for the three weeks is 51, second only to the NBA (50) among major sports. It also leads all major sports leagues with 43% of its audience being in the age 18-49 demographic, which is prized by advertisers.

Next Monday, Jupiter Links will be taking on Rory McIlroy's Boston Common Golf Club, which will be making their season debut. Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley round out the roster for Boston, though only three players compete per team.

The probable Tiger vs. Rory showdown will likely be a ratings improvement; however, time will tell if the rest of the season will be a success given the lack of competitive matches over the first three weeks of the league.