The fog of golf ratings? Rory Mcilroy has an interesting solution

Pebble Beach, Caliph. – Rory Mcilroy arrived in Pebble Beach a shade after 9am with local time on Tuesday to find the fog had set up two ways.

For the first time in at least one year, Mcilroy could clearly see the sixth green in Pebble Beach.

And he could take a look at the future of golf.

Last year, Mcilroy left the Monterey Peninsula after a miserable, Shortened tournament which marked the beginning of a gloomy PGA Tour spring. Ratses on TV, which had kept strong for the first years of golf livation, crashed after Pebble and would not recover throughout the 2024 season. The tournament of the tournament fell by 15 percent in ’24, creating a season full of questions about the future of sport entertainment.

This year, Mcilroy arrived at Pebble Beach on a charter plane from his birth Jupiter, Fla. In the light of the brilliant sun. The golf world was again at Pebble Beach for a week to set the tenor to follow the season, and Mcilroy had some clear thoughts about what people watching on TV have to wait.

“Look, it’s a balance,” said Mcilroy from Lectern at AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, where he will soon make his first PGA Tour’s 2025. “When we are growing up dreaming of professional players And trying to get the best out of ourselves, the last thing in our minds is to be a fun. at the top.

Mcilroy arrived late at Pebble Beach this week, but his moisture was justified. Monday at night, he played in the best tgl match yet: an overtime clash between Ballfrogs Boston and Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links GC viewed by some 864,000 medium viewers. For the third time in four weeks, TGL had good news for TV ratings to share with the world.

Did this say about PGA Tour? No doubt not too much. The New League does not affect the end of the tournament, and the friendly relationship between the two sides is as much good gesture as one of the good business. (TGL and PGA Tour are officially “partners”, but the purpose of the deal remains unknown.) But while another slow weekend in Torrey Pines opened another round of bitter debate on how to “fix” PGA Tour, Mcilroy asked if TGL can give some answers.

“I think (PGA Tour) has already diminished (from other Golf entertainment offers),” Mcilroy said. “I would say yes. Look, the only thing like TGL will only last two months. You get this big explosion in January, February and a little March, then it is done. I would say that we hope somehow extra in the ecosystem. “

TGL is an interesting starting point for a greater discussion about the future of golf TV because it IS the future of golf television… or in his approximation of someone. Former Golf Channel Bigwig/TGL Mike McCarley built premiums, Golf League simulator for television. Will nook and madness is optimized and maximized for those who look at home. Little thought was given to existing traditions of meritocracy golf and fresh air. The result? Fans have already grown up to worship some of the most critical advantages of the league, such as the shot and the access of the players, while the ESPN view has teams More than a new decade than the traditional golf on TV.

To be clear, it is not everything beautiful. Many golf traditionalists deceive what TGL has done for the sanctity of sports, many regular fans are turned off by the vision of the lillywoodized league, and at least 150,000 medieval viewers from Tiger’s First Telekast were not bothered to return for the second of him. But tgl IS One of the many efforts to modernize golf by traversing throughout the sport as the calendar rolls in 2025. Bull Run, but it is a vision of unworthy golf in 18 holes or leisure rhythm or daylight or grass – and at least some people seem to be returning for more.

Of course, it helps TGL to be a new product. And it helps, as Mcilroy points out, that TGL will only be about six more weeks or more before it disappears for another 10 months. This schedule could have been mandated by the Golf calendar, which intensifies around the beginning of April, but it has the increased benefit of transforming TGL into a limited edition product. People have been stimulated to a few weeks that are happening, so as not to lose them altogether. Maybe there is a lesson there for Mcilroy’s friends on the tournament.

“I think there is room for all this,” Mcilroy said. “I can see when the golf customer can get tired of everything available to them. So to scape it a little again and maybe you have a little more absence in some of the things we do, like NFL. I guess that this may not be a bad thing. “

Lack… like in, less tour?

“Yes, yes, yes. I think 47 or 50 tours a year are obviously many.”

This is an interesting approach – and so far unconsided – for the future of golf: a smaller PGA tour than it is today. Fewer events would allow the tournament to be selected for its resources, force players to meet in the same environments, and signal clearly for fans when they have to allocate to watch on TV. Ironically, the model of signature events was built precisely to fix these issues, but the model stopped cutting events from the tournament – a change that would hurt the tournament class (not to say anything from TV income on TV ).

It is difficult to say what the lack of golf would look like. Since Commissioner Jay Monahan took over the tournament in January 2017, the tournament has only expanded in size. So it’s the problem quality of golf, or Quantity? Mcilroy has his answer.

“I went out to his wrong side last year, but I would say that the last round of US Open was pretty fun last year and that was pure competitive golf,” he said. “I think the more we get to scenarios like this, the better.”

“These are all the things that have been hit,” Mcilroy said. “But as first and foremost we are professional players, we want to get there and shoot the best outcome we can and try to beat each other. You know, we hope people find that fun, and if not, then I don’t know what to say to them. “

A world of golf concentrated about less, more serious tours? That sounds nice. A golf world where stars like Rory Mcilroy are not forced to spend a lot of energy thinking existential questions of the public golf appeal? That too sounds beautiful.

We are not there yet. But maybe soon.

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