Why Did Tiger Woods’s TGL Team Bench Tom Kim for Match Against LAGC? All You Need to Know

TGL launched on January 7, with a bang. Unlike Tour events, facing a viewership drought, this one became the most-watched sporting event, according to Zoomph. The upcoming match between Jupiter Links GC and Los Angeles GC, scheduled to take place on January 14 will feature Tiger Woods, Kevin Kisner, and Max Homa representing Jupiter Links, while Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, and Sahith Theegala will compete for LAGC. Tom Kim and Tommy Fleetwood will sit out for this one. But why only three players, and not an entire team? After all, every team has four members.

TGL was launched to attract the youth towards golf. That is why it has everything tech. The motto was to reduce the timing of the match because people have lower attention spans these days. The 15-hole match last Tuesday took just under two hours, which is exactly how TGL envisioned this to work. The first session featured a nine-hole, 3-on-3 alternate-shot format called triples. In the second session, golfers competed in singles matches, going head-to-head over six holes. If there had been four players competing each week, the under-two-hour mark would definitely have been crossed.

Forbes in their January 3 newsletter mentioned the same thing: “Because of the TV window and the desire to keep the team competitions within a 2-hour limit, each match is 15 holes. Three players will compete per team each week, and all three will participate in the nine holes of the “Triples” session, which involves an alternate shot format. The remaining six holes will be played as a “singles” session, with each player from a given team going head-to-head against an opponent on the other side.”

To keep things interesting, there is also a 40-second shot clock that starts once a player puts their ball down on the ground. Teams can also call timeouts to avoid a one-stroke penalty for a shot clock violation. Talk about keeping the audience engaged! The golf community may wonder why Tom Kim was not chosen to represent, fans might be most excited for Tiger Woods. 

The strategy behind Tiger Woods not playing first match

Fans are eagerly anticipating the upcoming match on Tuesday, Jan. 14, when they will get to see Woods make his debut with the Jupiter Links Club. The first match had big stars like Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowry, and others. While the league remained optimistic about delivering a high-energy, big-audience telecast for week 1, TGL strategically scheduled Woods’s first competitive appearance for week 2 to avoid clashing with the NFL. Also, this would encourage audience to tune in second week as well, not making it a 1-week show!

The TGL’s week 2 broadcast enjoys a unique advantage in sports television: NFL promotion. Scheduled for Tuesday, January 14, at 7 p.m. on ESPN, the telecast will follow the NFL’s final wild card weekend game, airing in the same time slot on the same network just one day earlier. A 7 pm Tuesday lineup is not the ideal slot in the sports calendar. But let’s not forget that it still is a prime window for television.

Will TGL be able to repeat week 1’s success? Let us know in the comments below.