The Response to TGL Should Make Golf Fans More Upset about LIV Golf

After spending some time ruminating on the TGL and consuming some of my favorite podcasts (Shotgun Start and No Laying Up) that went live following the inaugural event on Tuesday night, something struck me.

Witnessing the coverage, production, and investment in TGL should make people more upset about how the entire LIV Golf mess happened.

LIV Golf sucks. Flat out. I don’t watch it for many reasons, but I was interested in watching TGL and kept it on for most of the match.

Why was I interested?

It didn’t feel “icky".”

LIV feels icky. The mercenary vibe of the players. The lack of competition. The shotgun starts. The breakaway nature of the league. The fact that the players were arrogant enough to think they were disruptors and the game would be “fixed” through their defiance.

TGL doesn’t feel icky because it’s not a breakaway. It’s not trying to disrupt anything.

Is it strange? Sure.

I’ll watch strange over icky on most days.

TGL didn’t take itself too seriously on Tuesday night (although it might have been more serious than I wanted…), and it’s completely different from PGA Tour Golf. It also looked like something that would be fun to participate in. I could spend all day in there playing golf.

All of the above is why the media coverage is different, too. I don’t think the PGA Tour is buying podcasts/independent media like SGS and NLU to coverage TGL. It’s a branch of the PGA Tour, so it feels safer to cover.

The contrast in coverage between the launch of LIV Golf and the TGL was obviously stark. The fact that popular podcasts were recording live on a Tuesday night at 11 p.m. is wild. I get it; the spice of immediate responses to something so new is sharper when people are a little tired and have “hot takes” to fire off.

A good night’s rest might have quelled some of the reaction to Tuesday’s event.

This morning, Golf Today on The Golf Channel had an entire segment dedicated to Tuesday’s match. TGL received more dedicated attention than LIV has enjoyed in it’s entire existence.

As I scrolled through Golf Twitter while watching on Tuesday night, it became obvious that the golf world was starving for something new and different that wasn’t tied to geopolitics, murdered journalists, and human rights.

Skratch’s Twitter account was breathlessly heaping praise on TGL, with Dan Rapaport carrying all the water. It was cringe, for sure.

But that term, “New Energy” is kind of spot on.

TGL is goofy and weird. It was nice to have a chill Scott Van Pelt instead of Ian Darke screaming through the television, insisting that LIV Golf is the greatest thing in the world as he does to dozens of LIV Golf viewers.

LIV Golf, or the idea of LIV Golf, should have been what the TGL was on Tuesday night. LIV Golf didn’t have to feel icky.

There was a window of time when the PGA Tour had an opportunity to create something of their own and find palatable partners for something that looked like LIV Golf.

Team golf with a different type of format that included players who weren’t paid to leave the PGA Tour would have had many people lining up to bring it to the masses.

Some of the breathless media coverage of TGL in recent days is a little over the top. The media is certainly more welcoming than it was of LIV Golf, which makes complete sense.

However, it should also make golf fans upset that something like LIV Golf wasn’t conjured up in time, so we weren’t in this mess.

The idea existed. The PGA Tour just decided to ignore it because they were too stuck in their ways and prideful to try something new. They were running on Tiger Woods fumes, which grew thicker in 2018 and 2019 after his successful major run during those seasons, culminating with the greatest major championship win since Jack Nicklaus in 1986.

Now, we have a divided game that doesn’t seem to be any closer to coming back together.

Fans are force-fed the dynamic change in professional sports: smaller fields, bigger purses, fewer cuts, and massive simulator screens.

The media, and golf fans in general, were ready to line up behind something new and exciting.

The PGA Tour just wasn’t ready to deliver it.

And now… here we are.