Why TGL Will Be Successful

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Today At A Glance:

TGL announced the final five golfers as well as the fifth team last week. Now that we have more clarity on the makeup of the league — I believe they will win. Today’s newsletter details five reasons why they will have success.

Read Time: 6 minutes

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Hey Golfers —

Last week, I posted a long-form Twitter post about why I think TGL will work. It got a little traction — so I wanted to dive deeper into my thesis.

The reactions to my post were across the board, and I think that is healthy. A new idea or concept with 100% consensus can be dangerous for various reasons.

There are five key areas I want to touch on with TGL.

• Golfers

• Format

• Investors

• Distribution

• Off-course Golf

Golfers.

All twenty-four golfers have been announced for the league.

(Photo Credit: TGL)

Accomplishments between the twenty-four golfers.

• 223 wins

• 32 major wins

Six of the twenty-four golfers have been ranked number one in the world at some point in their career — that is 25% of the league.

• Tiger Woods (683 weeks)

• Rory McIlroy (122 weeks)

• Jon Rahm (52 weeks)

• Justin Rose (13 weeks)

• Adam Scott (11 weeks)

• Justin Thomas (5 weeks)

Tiger was the first golfer to reach number one in the world on the above list in 1997. TGL golfers have spent a combined 886 weeks at number one in the world since 1997 — 17 out of the last 26 years.

Seven of the top ten golfers in the world have committed to play in the TGL.

And I know a lot has been made about OWGR rankings — so let’s look at Datagolf’s rankings. Eight of the top ten golfers in the Datagolf rankings have committed to the TGL.

Tiger is the needle in golf — no one moves it like him. If he is playing, people will watch.

Here is a quick look at what Tiger has done to TV ratings on Sundays at the Masters since 1997.

• Tiger not playing — 11.02 million viewers

• Tiger playing — 13.2 million viewers

• Tiger winning — 15.6 million viewers

When Tiger plays in the Masters — it has received a 20% boost in Sunday ratings versus when he does not play.

Format.

There are six teams of four golfers. Matches will consist of three of the four on each team — meaning that every player won’t play every match.

The format is Match Play in a 2,000-person arena in South Florida.

The setup is built for TV. And Golf is struggling with the consumer experience on TV right now. The consumer is seeing too many commercials and too many missed shots.

I conducted a survey of the TV viewing experience — here are the results.

• How would you rate your experience as a consumer of watching golf on TV? (190 respondents)

  • Great — 16%

  • Average — 58%

  • Poor — 26%

• What is the worst thing about watching golf on TV? (305 respondents)

  • Commercial load — 58%

  • Too many missed shots — 10%

  • Not enough shots shown — 25%

  • Nothing is wrong — 7%

To be fair — commercial load is not only an issue in golf. It is an issue in most sports as TV contracts have gotten so rich. The network needs to make its money back.

What interests me most is not enough shots shown. I believe TGL has an opportunity to capitalize in this area.

ESPN is broadcasting TGL, and the first two matches will be on Tuesday nights — an open night not competing against football.

I assume ESPN will have commercials — but I also think we won’t miss shots — the format may be similar to a football game. Commercial break on TV and in the arena.

Matches will last two hours — the complete opposite of what we see with traditional golf. This will have the opportunity to draw more viewers to sit down and watch.

Investors.

The investor list in TGL is robust. Of course — an investor list doesn’t guarantee success. But the investor list highlighted below creates opportunities for reasons I will touch on later.

Five of the six teams have been announced — here are the investors for each team.

• Atlanta — Arthur Blank. Owner of Atlanta Falcons

• Boston — Fenway Sports. Owner of Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC

• Los Angeles Golf Club — Alexis Ohanian, Serena & Venus Williams

• New York — Steve Cohen. Owner of the New York Mets

• San Francisco — Marc Lasry. Former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks

Other investors:

• Steph Curry

• Lewis Hamilton

• Justin Timberlake

• Alex Morgan

• Shohei Ohtani

• Tony Romo

• Andy Murray

• Chris Paul

Steph Curry is also an investor in the San Francisco team along with Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson.

Los Angeles Golf Club has Michelle Wie West and Giannis Antetokounmpo as investors.

Tiger and Rory also own part of the league’s Parent company, TMRW Sports, along with the PGA Tour.

Distribution.

Getting a TV Deal with ESPN is huge and will be the primary distribution. But, the social media reach of the TGL is enormous.

Alexis Ohanian built Reddit — he knows distribution and social media as well as anyone.

Here is a tiny sample of the distribution opportunities TGL investors will bring to the table.

Instagram followers:

• Justin Timberlake — 72 million

• Steph Curry — 55 million

• Lewis Hamilton — 35 million

• Serena Williams — 17 million

• Alex Morgan — 10 million

• Shohei Ohtani — 6 million

• Tiger Woods — 3 million

• Rory McIlroy — 3 million

• Andy Murray — 2 million

The social media crossover to other sports TGL will have is big. Major stars in MLB, NBA, Tennis, and F1 are involved in some capacity.

Off-course golf.

Off-course golf is now more popular in the United States than on-course golf. In 2022 — there were 15.5 million off-course golfers in the U.S. compared to 13.2 million on-course golfers. And 12.4 million golfers play both off the course and on the course.

Off-course golf's demographics are entirely different from those of on-course golf. The average age of off-course golf is fifteen years younger alone.

(Chart credit: Callaway/NGF)

From 2020 to 2022 — off-course golf added nearly 3 million participants. Compare that to 1.3 million new participants in on-course golf.

A piece of information I read a few months ago — that sticks with me.

Creatz, the owner of the simulator company Uneekor, acquired a majority stake in putter company Evnroll in April. The press release announcing the investment stated that TGL’s upcoming launch partly motivated the acquisition.

I spoke with a few people in the indoor golf space — and they share a similar sentiment that they expect TGL to impact the industry positively.

Will the traditional golfer like it as much as the PGA Tour? I don’t know — but I know that fans will watch.

I received several comments from golf fans that stated they aren’t interested in TGL. But I am not even sure the traditional golfer is TGL’s main market — I think TGL is a totally different market. As highlighted by the earlier chart of off-course golfers.

I believe TGL will be a winner — and it will introduce golf to new fans.

Have yourself a great Monday. Talk to you next week!

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