The early TGL coverage and reaction demanded declarations. Grades! Ratings! I’m out! It’s a success — we have to say it now! The reality is something in the middle. It’s worked enough to stick around a bit more and try to improve. It is certainly not for everyone. But it cannot be called anything close to a flop.

I attended my second match this week, which is not something I expected to type a year ago, let alone two months ago. I’ve written enough words on it (that you have no doubt read already). The players seem more acclimated to the conditions, making them a bit more competitive and engaged with the match. I went with some colleagues. One was unimpressed and has been mostly out since watching from early days. The other said it was much better than going to a PGA Tour event. There’s a set start and end time; you are up close and personal for constant action and don’t have to hoof it around the course in the heat and wait 10 minutes for another group to come through. The 9 p.m. ET start time on a Monday night I think takes some juice out of the ending around 11 p.m. ET as the crowd struggles to get to the finish line. But again, this is not primarily a product for the in-person crowd.

It’s a television product mostly, and that’s where it cannot be dismissed yet. The TGL has achieved enough penetration here both on TV and around golf audiences, old and young, to stay alive. It was under a microscope to start — one of their own creation with the massive promotion they built up ahead of the first match. So the scrutiny was on from the jump. It cannot be called a complete embarrassment even if it’s not for you. Arthur Blank in a TV interview this week made bold claims of coming expansion in teams and markets. There may not be an appetite for that but as I noted before this even started, the money, TV network, /caps lock TOUR blessing, and stars (Tiger, Rory) associated with it may make this thing too big to fail barring no opening disasters or embarrassments. 

Some of the sim readings continue to be a subject of discomfort or even ridicule. But the all-out embarrassment has been avoided so far. Does that mean it’s an unqualified success? No! But it has achieved enough, cracked through into enough spaces, to really keep going. And if matches become more competitive, the “playoffs” could be a chance to scoop another bucket before TGL goes away for several months.

When it does go away, the real golf needs to have its shit together. The game has never been more popular at a recreational level. And here comes the pro game into the height of its season — the Florida swing, the Masters, the majors — still searching for an agreement as the two-year anniversary of a “framework” approaches. Reports and rumblings out of last week’s White House summit, where golf has somehow become a subject of geopolitical importance, are not as brimming with optimism as the PGA Tour side of the equation seemed to be heading into the DC summit. Was the Tour feeling like they were on the goal line and last week’s meeting resulted in a penalty that pushed them back? There is such a massive opportunity to build on that recreational golf enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm that would naturally follow from some sort of reunification announcement. But nothing about the recent years has given an indication that the sides are ready to get out of their own way and capitalize on it. Get it done going into the high season for pro golf. We’re no longer rushing it!

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It can feel like sports, or even the impersonation of them like the TGL, seem to simply be a vehicle for gambling these days. The Tour has run headlong into its OBO (I’ve learned this is now a regular term for official betting operator) partnerships, promoting it in every corner, tweeting live birdie or par odds for any old mule traipsing about in any random Friday round. I know oversight is as intense as ever, thanks to models and AI assistance surveilling any potential funny business. But a significant point-shaving scandal erupting in basketball — that could be one of the “most pervasive in North American sports history” per SI — should hardly come as a surprise. Golf has, so far, avoided a real scandal from the legalized gambling boom. But it does feel like a sport, with the volume of players and its day-to-day fickle nature, that should be harder to monitor.

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A significant talking point in pro golf lately continues to be making the game more “global” in some sort of future reunified state. The F1 model is always cited. How it comes together will have to navigate a minefield of competing interests. One truly “global” event that persists, however, is The Open, which lives up to its self-proclaimed moniker of being the world’s major. It may not yield the deepest, strongest field (angry Cam Davis on Line 1), but I love their continued Open Qualifying Series. This week, the New Zealand Open on the other side of the globe from the Cognizant Classic, is offering up four spots (!!!) to players to get into The Open. I love the commitment to building this field from every corner of the globe.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.