'Doing What We Wanted It To Do' - Why Rory McIlroy Will Not Be Disappointed With TGL's Lower Week 4 TV Ratings

Despite the two biggest names going head-to-head in TGL's first overtime finish on Monday, TV ratings for the indoor league did not break early records during week four.

Tiger Woods' Jupiter Links narrowly edged out Rory McIlroy's Boston Common in what could easily be described as the first genuinely compelling match-up of the tech-infused competition. There was plenty of friendly banter, several good shots, and the result remain in the balance until the very end.

However, numbers provided by @YeahClickClack on X revealed that TGL's heavyweight contest did not quite grab the attention of a US crowd like league bosses and TV execs had hoped, with Jupiter Links v Boston Common averaging 864,000 viewers on ESPN - the third lowest total in TGL's embryonic stages.

Although the average figure was lower than expected, a peak audience of just over 1.08 million people tuned in towards the contest's climax (8:30pm - 8:45pm). Plus, it was an upturn on week three's disappointing 682,000 average viewership as Atlanta Drive whitewashed New York by four.

Week one's clash between New York and The Bay - comfortably won by the latter - featured plenty of intrigue and a definite novelty factor as 919,000 people tuned in to see how the indoor golf league would begin.

Seven days later, the average audience topped 1 million for the first time as Tiger Woods made his TGL debut, even though Jupiter Links was thumped 12-1 by LAGC.

Finding meaningful patterns in such a small data group so far could prove to be tough for those in charge, but week four's switch to Monday instead of Tuesday - when the first three matches took place - may well have played a part in the slight dip, as could the marginally earlier start time of 6:30pm ET compared to 7pm for weeks two and three and 9pm in week one.

Speaking ahead of this week's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour, McIlroy insisted the actual number of people tuning in concerned him less than the demographic watching.

Prior to the TV viewing figures being published, the 35-year-old stated that one of TGL's biggest aims was to capture the attention of a younger audience - something he claimed is already happening.

McIlroy said: "Yeah, it's certainly created a buzz. I think that the good thing that we've seen so far over at least the first three weeks, haven't got the numbers from yesterday, but the demographic is skewing much younger than a typical PGA Tour telecast.

"The average age is 62, 63. We've been able to drop that to about 13 years to right around 50. I think just under half of the viewers are between 18 and 49. It's doing what we wanted it to do, which is to try to entice a younger demographic to watch golf in a way that's maybe more manageable for them and more of a bite-sized version.

"So far it's been good. The talks we've had with ESPN, they're happy with it as well. As I said, it's young. Hopefully, as we go on, we'll keep refining, keep improving. Yeah, hopefully just keep it going, keep the momentum."

Turning attention back to the PGA Tour, commissioner Jay Monahan and his board will hope the return of McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa - plus a brief pause in the NFL season - will significantly boost TV viewing figures at this week's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

With 2024 highlighting a steady decline in viewership on the PGA Tour, there was further cause for concern during the American Express when just over 230,000 people tuned in to watch Sepp Straka clean up at the Pete Dye Stadium Course - a 60% drop year-on-year.

Other unhelpful factors that week, as far as the PGA Tour is concerned, was the concurrent Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs and the absence of stars like Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.

Nearly all of golf's biggest hitters are back at Pebble Beach this week, though, except for Schauffele who continues to battle a rib injury.