Dylan Detier
January 15, 2025
Tiger Woods emerged from the fog on Tuesday night.
Getty Images
What's the status of Tiger Woods' TGL entry?
It depends on who you ask.
An informal poll on social media shows the overall picture God yes. Social media loves Tiger Woods. Plus a red shirt, a red tunnel and some dramatic fog? A combination not to be missed.
There was a tougher grader sitting in the front row at SoFi Center on Tuesday night. Tiger's son Charlie is playing Sprite with some buddies. How will he get his father in? four out of ten, he told ESPN's Marty Smith. Ouch.
But maybe the only perspective that matters comes from Woods himself, when he appeared on Survivor's Eye of the Tiger and couldn't help but smile, put down the hammer, and hit a tee shot right to center?
“That's amazing,” he said. “That's the best.”
TGL's efforts are an optimistic blend of past, present and future. Woods embodies that. He's 49 and it's been five years since he started on the PGA Tour, but he's still the biggest draw in the sport, and the league was built on his talent and aura. So there's no shortage of nostalgia in the league's DNA, even as it attempts to push the sport into the future. The T in TGL (unofficially, it turns out) stands for tomorrow. It's fitting that Woods made his Tomorrow Golf League debut in Music Yesterday. “Eye of the Tiger” was released in 1982, 27 years before Charlie was born. My nose feels a little uncomfortable. That's not important.
It didn’t take long for Tuesday’s game to get a little boring. For the red team, an early deficit turned into a huge blowout. Do you know the saying “If you don't laugh, you will cry”? In the end Woods did both.
But looking at the big picture, week two of TGL left us with three burning questions.
1. How is Tiger’s team doing?
Look, it takes some time for every team to adjust to a sport that's at least semi-new in a new arena. But the Jupiter Links golf club, which featured Woods, Max Homa and Kevin Kisner, was terrible tonight. like, bad Bad. Los Angeles Golf Club — Justin Rose, Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa — defeated them 12-1.
“We had a lot of fun,” Woods said after the game. “We made a lot of shots. I think the people here, they have to see how bad the pros are. It's just a boat race.
Kisner seemed unprepared for the endeavor. The long-time fan-favorite Tour pro delights in every broadcast he joins and will do it full-time, but TGL is a bomber league and his performance off the tee tells the story of an unfortunate story. He hit just one of three fairways and averaged just 159.6 mph with his driver, 12 mph slower than the next-slowest ball speed.
But while Woods looked healthy and showed plenty of speed, he offered a blunt self-assessment.
“Walking is not a problem,” he said. “It's just my game that's not very good.”
If there's hope for the Jupiters, it's that Woods can find cover, Homa will be a reliable presence, and they can draw energy from the arrival of their fourth teammate, Tom King, who's known for playing in team match play. Known for lighting up the weak.
“We called Tom and asked him to fly out here and stay at this location for a while,” Homa said.
“What is [Tom] Are you thinking about it now? Woods asked. “OMG.”
Anyone who has ever played golf knows how difficult it is to stay happy when you're not playing well. It was a gift, then, that Kisner produced the night's most memorable moment on the 14th hole, when he knocked a bunker shot off the pin and sent his teammates ducking for cover, And then fell into hysterics.
“Honestly, we didn't think anyone could get hit here,” Woods said. If the ball misses the flagpole, it falls into the stands. “But that was one of the funniest moments I've ever seen, Kizz hitting the ball like that. We were dying.
2. What happened to the emulator?
If you're reading about a simulator golf league on this site, chances are you've already played golf on some kind of simulator. If you've ever played golf on a simulator, you know that the most frustrating part is that the ball reacts slightly differently than it does in real life. (Or at least that's what it seems – of course, there's no way to know instantly, which only adds to the frustration.) A gentle cut in real life can turn into a long pull to the left. Something that should be carrying 105 somehow carries 90, and vice versa. That's all well and good if you're holed up in the corner of your local bowling alley with three buddies and two pitchers. But when you're on ESPN asking people to consider betting real-life cash on this thing? There is greater pressure to cooperate in technology.
To be fair, TGL's technology is mostly stunning, from the rotating greens to the little spotlights that show players where the ball is. But on a very basic level, the league needs really, really reliable distance, and the front tee of their wedges seems to be shutting down. Woods hit a wedge more than 20 yards off the green and into the water. Morikawa and Kisner also seemed confused in many ways.
“I knew from the front tee box that we hit every wedge really far,” Woods said.
“Pretty long,” Homa added.
Players are understandably wary of public criticism on air, but clearly something has happened. Whether the camera isn't rotating correctly or, well, I don't know. It's all beyond my skill set. Hopefully it's nothing outside of them. Trust in technology is fundamental to the whole thing.
3. What would it look like if we were evenly matched?
Two weeks later, we also had two big wins. Here’s the bright side, though: we still don’t know what a close game looks like!
We've learned from various iterations of The Match over the years that salvaging a blowout golf tournament is basically impossible. The tension is gone, the banter is gone, and the whole thing starts to feel a little ridiculous. But in a close game, TGL still looked fun. Losing the hammer on a high-pressure putter? Track a crucial kickoff as it flies through a giant digital lava pit? Is there real tension between some of the most competitive and accomplished golfers on the planet? I'd love to see what that looks like.
Maybe next week.
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Dylan Detier
Golf Network Editor
Dylan Dethier is a senior staff writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass., native joined golf in 2017 after two years on the mini-tour. Detier is a graduate of Williams College where he majored in English. 18 in the United Stateswhich details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living out of his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
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