McIlroy hopes TGL will catch fire competitively

Rory McIlroy believes the Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) will be a success and attract the “TikTok generation” into the game of golf.

The jury is out on the potential longevity of the TGL after the opening two nights saw one sided contests and some woeful performances from the likes of Kevin Kisner, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler while Tiger Woods failed to live up to the hype on Tuesday night.

McIlroy and his Boston Common side won’t be in action for another fortnight and while he admits the out and out traditionalists of golf might not be willing to engage in the TGL, it is the younger generation that the virtual indoor league is trying to entice to the game.

“It’s to try to engage a younger demographic into the game,” McIlroy said. “We’re certainly not trying to replace tournament golf. This is hopefully going to be complimentary to what we do week-in, week-out, and if we can get some more younger people and people, that sort of TikTok generation into the game of golf and condense it into a bite-size version that they can enjoy and relate to in another way, that’s really what we are trying to do here.

“Look, we obviously understand that this is very different than anything that’s been done before, and we also understand it’s not going to be for everyone. So if you’re a complete traditionalist of the game, it’s probably not for you, but that’s fine. That’s not the audience that we’re going for.”

Over 900,000 people tuned into the inaugural edition last week and that figure is expected to rise after Tiger’s debut on Tuesday, but TGL runs the risk of failing before it’s even begun if the standard of golf does not improve and it fails to gather a competitive spark.

“But it’s been fun. The players have had a lot of fun. I think the TV audiences are starting to grasp it hopefully and starting to grasp of the format. It was Jupiter and L.A. last night, and L.A. won pretty convincingly. We’re still waiting for a match that’s really competitive going into the singles, and hopefully that happens next week,” McIlroy added.