Tiger Woods remains away from competitive golf, but the league he co-founded, TGL, continues to make significant strides without him. The $500 million tech-driven golf league has secured an extension with ESPN, strengthening its future television presence while elevating Woods’ business venture.
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Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter shared the news on X. “TGL has renewed its deal with ESPN under a multi-year contract.”
This renewal settles a question that had hung over the league for months. TGL’s original two-year deal with ESPN was to expire after the 2026 season, leaving the league’s television future uncertain. That uncertainty eased in July, when Carpenter reported ESPN had emerged as the frontrunner to retain the rights for 2027 and beyond, while Viacom, the owner of Golf Channel, was another potential suitor. TMRW Sports co-founder Mike McCarley also indicated that the door remained open to both existing and new broadcast partners, keeping the competition for TGL’s next television deal wide open.
Moreover, David Ramsey of Front Office Sports shared the ESPN and TMRW Sports press release, which provides further details about the agreement. Under the renewed deal, ESPN will continue as TGL’s U.S. media rights partner, a role it has held since the league’s debut. The third TGL season will begin on December 27, continuing the league’s tradition of opening on an NFL Sunday, with all seven teams set to compete at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Details on the full schedule, commentators, production, and more will be announced ahead of the new season.
The viewership numbers also help explain why ESPN is continuing its partnership with TGL. According to Sports Business Journal, TGL’s four-match 2026 postseason averaged 618,000 viewers, with three matches airing on ESPN and one on ESPN2. That marked an increase from the 2025 postseason, when the four matches averaged 434,000 viewers across two broadcasts on each network. The growth was not limited to the postseason. Overall, TGL attracted over 20 million unique viewers during its second season, representing an approximately 8% increase from Season 1. The league also noted that over 30% of TGL viewers rarely watch other professional golf, highlighting TGL’s ability to reach an audience beyond the traditional sports-viewing base.
Notably, that’s where Tiger Woods comes in. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Woods has been integral to TGL’s viewership for the first two seasons. And naturally so. TMRW Sports, the company Woods founded in 2022 with Rory McIlroy and McCarley, runs TGL. In June 2024, a founding round led by Dynasty Equity Partners and Connect Ventures valued TMRW at about $500 million, according to Bloomberg.
Additionally, securing a long-term broadcast partner could give TGL another boost financially. CNBC previously reported that the league’s first ESPN deal was worth between $5 and $10 million, while industry sources expected TGL to seek at least twice that amount in its next agreement. Although Woods’ exact stake in TMRW Sports remains undisclosed, his role as a co-founder means he stands to benefit from the company’s increased value. As TGL continues to expand its audience and strengthen its media presence, the renewed ESPN partnership could therefore add further value to the business Woods helped build.
Notably, TGL is only one part of Woods’ broader business portfolio. TMRW Sports has continued to expand beyond golf, selected to operate the NFL’s new professional flag football league and partnering with the LPGA to launch WTGL, a women’s sports league. Woods has also benefited from investments outside TMRW. He reportedly held roughly a 2% stake in Full Swing, the golf technology company, which was acquired for $530 million—putting the estimated value of Woods’ stake at around $11 million. Together, these ventures show how Woods has increasingly built value through business opportunities away from competitive golf, even when he is not on the course.
That said, TMRW Sports has a busy few months ahead, with Motor City Golf Club set to make its debut and WTGL preparing to launch this fall. Amid that growing slate of projects, one question remains unanswered: will Woods return to Jupiter to be part of it all? While his business ventures continue to move forward without him on the course, his potential return would add another layer of interest to TMRW’s expanding portfolio.