Had golf fans been told in the first few weeks of TGL that neither Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy would see their teams make the playoffs for the first season, it is likely that they would have been extremely worried about the chances of league succeeding.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have played key roles in getting TGL off the ground. The pair are amongst the league’s co-founders, while it seemed that the fixture list was crafted to ensure that fans were never too far away from seeing either man involved.
Both Woods and McIlroy did attend the opening game, despite neither Jupiter Links or Boston Common playing. And Woods was involved in some of the best moments of the season – particularly when he had Kevin Kisner in close proximity.
However, that did not translate to success on the simulator.
The surprising decision made by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy for the TGL final
Both Jupiter Links and Boston Common missed out on the top four, meaning that they were not involved in the playoffs.
The season culminated in Atlanta Drive beating New York 2-0 in the final this week. It was a fitting conclusion to a season which seemed to get better and better over time. But there were a couple of notable absentees for the final.
And while Ryan Lavner told the Golf Channel Podcast that TGL deserves credit for thriving without its two biggest names, Rex Hoggard expressed some surprise that neither Woods or McIlroy seemed to be there for the final.
“Keep in mind, I think this is an important point as well. Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, does not compete in TGL. Jordan Spieth, one of the biggest stars on the PGA Tour, does not compete. We had Tony Finau, he lives on the west coast, made a one week cameo but says he is not really interested at this time with a growing family to do that commute. Maybe if there is expansion and there is a west coast venue, to ease the burden. Those are conversations you can have down the line,” Lavner said.
“So you have those three not involved and there are countless others you could have. Rory McIlroy’s team, Tiger Woods’ team, they did not play the playoffs so to have a successful launch of the season, in which your two biggest stars and the two co-founders of the league did not play particularly well or make the playoffs, is something to applaud.”
“I think it is worth pointing out, and I’m not 100% sure of this, but if Tiger or Rory were in the SoFi Center last night we would have seen them during the telecast. I was a little surprised that they were not there on Monday or Tuesday night. They’re invested in this, they’re co founders of this, and they live minutes away. I don’t know what their schedules are, they may have been out of town, clearly Tiger is still recovering from the Achilles injury but I was surprised that neither of them were there,” Hoggard added.
Rory McIlroy potentially focusing his attention elsewhere ahead of the Masters
Woods would congratulate Atlanta on social media for their victory. But it may have been a boost for the league to have Woods involved in the final – even if he took up a commentary position just as he did for the final stages of the Genesis Invitational.
McIlroy meanwhile, is set to be in the field for the Texas Children’s Houston Open this week – which is likely to be his last appearance in a PGA Tour event before the Masters.
Ultimately, McIlroy’s focus should be on getting ready for Augusta National. And he is going to find that a lot easier by being at Memorial Park rather than sitting in the stands at SoFi Center waiting to help crown TGL’s first champions.
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