The wait is almost over for golf fans—the new TGL season is just around the corner! This innovative league is shaking things up by combining advanced tech with the world’s top PGA Tour players. Imagine watching Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Collin Morikawa go head-to-head in a fast-paced team golf format. It’s a whole new way to experience the game and has got everyone buzzing with excitement. The league features six teams of four players each, and with names like Justin Rose, Adam Scott, and Tom Kim on the roster, you know it’s going to be a wild ride.

But, despite all the hype, TGL is also facing some major issues, and every golf fan cannot stop talking about it—this happens with every new step in the golf world, right? Remember the drama that went down when LIV Golf was first introduced? Yeah, so just like that, there are plenty of unknown pitfalls Tiger Woods’s brainchild will have to navigate, with three main issues that could lead to a rocky start:

Is TGL’s arena ready for launch? Not so much

You may be thinking, how can a league that’s supposed to launch in like one week not have its arena ready? Well, big concerns are being raised about whether the arena is ready for primetime. James Colgan, who is a host of the Drop Zone Golf Podcast and a reporter at Golf.com, recently shared his experience of visiting the SoFi Center, and well, what he saw was alarming, to say the least.

With just a few weeks to go before the launch, Colgan was shocked to find that the indoor golf area was still under construction. And if that’s not enough to shake fans’s faith in the league, some parts of the arena are still awaiting drywalling, painting, and even the installation of stairs and seating areas. Now, reassurances have surfaced from TGL’s CEO, Mike McCarley, who is saying that everything will be ready in time, but fans and Colgan’s concerns are valid, and it’s hard not to wonder how the preparations have come short.

Viewership woes are looming over TGL

On to the next one, and well, a big concern. Golf’s TV ratings have been a concern for a while now, and the PGA Tour’s 2024 season didn’t do much to ease those worries. So, what went wrong this season? Well, despite having some of the biggest names in golf, the tour averaged 2.2 million viewers for its Sunday telecasts, a 19% drop from 2023, while the Saturday viewership fell 17% to 1.5 million, per SBJ.

Even NBC’s numbers were down, with an average of just over 2 million viewers for all tour events, which is a 5% drop from last year. But how does that affect TGL? It does. These numbers will affect the upcoming TGL, as the league is already facing an uphill battle to capture viewers’ attention. If the PGA Tour, with its established fan base and enormous history, is struggling to attract viewers, it’s hard to see how TGL, which is a new thing, will fare any better!

TGL’s marketing efforts fall flat

TGL’s marketing machine has been in full swing and has hit the ground hard. With players like Lucas Glover taking to social media to promote the league, one would think it is doing well. Well, it’s not. A recent promotional effort by the Atlanta Drive GC team, which included Glover, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, and Billy Horschel, was a total hoity-toity show of their glamor, but it’s safe to say that it didn’t deliver what the fans wanted.

Instead of generating excitement, the team’s attempt to showcase Glover’s skills at the SoFi stadium ended up drawing concerns from fans about the league itself. So, maybe TGL needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to genuinely connect with fans and build a loyal following; otherwise, its grand opening will just be another gamble in the topsy-turvy world of golf.