By Frank Pingue
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (Reuters) – Tiger Woods will provide TGL with plenty of star power and a likely ratings boost this week as the 15-times major champion gets set to make his debut in the tech-infused indoor golf league on Tuesday.
Last week’s two-hour ESPN broadcast of TGL’s launch, a one-sided match, drew an average of 919,000 viewers, a figure that is sure to rise this week given it will be a rare look at Woods in competition.
While Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club team were already slotted into the TGL schedule for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. ET (0000 GMT) match, he was only confirmed last Friday as one of the starting threesome alongside Max Homa and Kevin Kisner.
Jupiter Links will face the Los Angeles Golf Club trio of Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala for nine holes of alternate shot, or triples, followed by a head-to-head round where each competitor plays two full holes over the final six.
Woods’ injury-riddled body has limited his starts in recent years but TGL offers some reprieve as the two-hour matches played over 15 holes are held indoors on a playing surface similar in size to an American football field.
The 49-year-old Woods, who has not competed in a PGA Tour event since last July’s British Open where he missed the cut, will hit Tuesday’s opening shot when he steps up to The Plank, a 376-yard, uphill par-four first.
The sight of Woods, the greatest golfer of his generation, taking aim at a five-storey-high simulator screen before moving to a green that rotates may not be of interest to golf purists, it is, however, one of the rare chances to see him in action these days.
Since missing the cut at the British Open, Woods had back surgery in September, opted not to compete in the 20-player tournament he hosted last December and played with his son in a 36-hole scramble event.
Woods and four-time major champion Rory McIlroy co-founded TGL, which was formed in partnership with the PGA Tour, with hopes that the fast-paced twist on an age-old sport will help attract new fans.
“It’s not traditional golf, yes, but it is golf,” Woods said during the TV broadcast of the TGL launch that he attended.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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