Why I’m Staying Glass-Half-Full on TGL From Now On

I think it’s important to establish something as I talk about TGL as a whole. I’m a 41-year-old male who has spent most of my adult life in the golf media world. I’ve hosted the oldest championship in American golf and I’ve hosted a show called Shotmakers. I’ve worked the Masters and the TopGolf Tour Championship. I have considered myself, for the most part, open to new golf ideas.

So when TGL went from a concept to a real thing (on ESPN!), I was interested. I wouldn’t say I was as fired up for it as I may have been 15 years ago, but I was definitely interested.

And then two episodes in, I felt out.

Aging, unfortunately, makes you weary of new things. For the young people reading this, you’ll get to a point in your life where something new almost annoys you. It isn’t something I’m proud of, it’s just a part of life. My dad can’t watch games on streaming services and that annoys him and I wasn’t totally sure of a golf league played inside where the best golfers in the world hit shots against a very large television screen.

And for two weeks, I felt like I was right. The first TGL matchup was a blowout and the second one was worse and the technology seemed out of sorts and the players didn’t seem that invested in the outcome and this seemed to be TGL’s future.

So come Monday evening I put myself in a totally different mindset. I approached Rory vs. Tiger as an opportunity, not a burden. I thought SVP did a wonderful job prepping the matches by pointing out that in golf, the biggest names rarely, if ever, go at it head-to-head in the biggest events. When you think about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for all those majors in the early 2000s and you think about how rarely we actually got to see them duke it out, you understand what SVP was talking about.

Monday gave us a glimpse into how fun this could be. Will it ever be the Masters? Of course not, it likely won’t ever compare to Riviera or Bay Hill, but the point of this isn’t to be those things. The lone through-line of TGL and Other Professional Golf is the players and the dimpled ball. That’s about it. Outside of that, they are totally different entities (like the NBA playoffs and the dunk contest).

But a moment switched on Monday night after a big Tom Kim putt went down when Tiger, the man who is the face of all golf no matter the platform, became engaged. His team had been destroyed in their previous match and it’s hard to get one of the most competitive humans on this earth interested in anything when they’re getting slaughtered. I think that the whole “flipping quarters” portion of The Last Dance plays differently if MJ is losing each time he tosses the coin. But when he’s winning, he’s into it. Same as Tiger. Kim made a big putt and had an animated reaction and Tiger seemed to enjoy that as much as he did some of those Charlie Woods shots during the PNC Championship. The youth started to wear off on Tiger Woods. It was beautiful to see.

Golf, as a whole, can be a lot of things, but being open to new ideas has never been one of our greatest characteristics. The hedges around a lot of country clubs are high and dense for a reason and the thought of something totally new owning golf can feel nerve racking. But Monday was a good reminder that it doesn’t have to feel this way. Both PGA Tour golf (and LPGA and LIV and Champs and all that) and TGL can both be a part of our enjoyment. Maybe I like watching Pebble Beach more than my son does. And maybe he enjoys TGL more than I do. We’re still on the same side.

Getting an opportunity to watch these athletes—our athletes—compete should be thrilling. It should be fun. We're slowly getting there.

Last week was a huge win for TGL and it allowed us a window into what this will be when it's competitive and entertaining.