The TGL feels like a golf fever dream in the worst possible ways

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate your time.

I spent two hours of my life watching TGL on Tuesday night — for those who don’t know, that stands for Tomorrow’s Golf League. The league is a new venture created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED: Here’s everything you need to know about TGL, including the format and how it works.

You hear those names together and immediately think, “There’s no way this can be bad, right?” I mean, guys. At the very least, it’s Tiger Woods. When all else fails? In Tiger, I trust.

I regret to inform you that that was a mistake.

I should not have trusted Tiger. I should not have passed Go. I should not have collected $200.

Maybe it’s because the match wasn’t competitive (Bay’s 9-2 victory was never close). Maybe it’s because the golfers didn’t seem all that into it. Maybe it’s because the crowd shots seemed filled with a bunch of tech bros in fleece vests who looked like they were responding to audience applause prompts whenever the cameras were on them.

Honestly, I hate being this guy. But TGL just didn’t do it for me.

The basic premise here is that two teams of four golfers go head-to-head against one another on virtual golf courses every Tuesday. They drive the ball down a virtual fairway onto the green. They follow up by putting in the actual arena on a surface that changes for every hole. It’s the pinnacle of virtual golf.

Some things worked. The league’s technology is fascinating. That moveable green? Awesome. I’d actually love to play on something like that myself. Look at how cool this thing is.

The interactions between the golfers were cool, too. They weren’t taking the event seriously, but they sure did seem to have a blast playing. Xander Schauffele was the funniest kind of self-deprecating as New York got smoked. Shane Lowry has a legit future in comedy if he wants it. That dude is funny. Matt Fitzpatrick is lowkey a solid trash talker. Getting those interactions was great.

That’s about all that worked. At least, for me, anyway.

The ambient sound here is so weird. There’s music constantly playing in the background. It sounds like what you hear as soon as you walk into an H&M, except you’re supposed to be watching Ludvig Aberg absolutely rip one down the fairway. It’s completely unserious.

Speaking of unserious, how many SoFi ads did we need to see? Obviously, SoFi is a sponsoring partner for the league. The match was played in the SoFi center. That’s fine. Whatever. But every three commercials were also a SoFi ad. Even the trophy, somehow, a SoFi trophy. And, yes, it looks just as soulless as the league playing for it does.

The nail in the coffin was how nonchalant the players were. Again, it was nice to see their up-close interactions. But guys, please compete. There are supposed to be stakes here. This isn’t supposed to feel like something to do to warm up for the season.

I almost forgot that TGL was a sports league and not a one-off. Imagine seeing the malaise that comes with the NBA All-Star game in a regular season matchup. That’s what this felt like. Even with the crowd going the game is hard to get into.

Ultimately, it felt like we were watching the homies play a few rounds of Top Golf with each other. The thing about Top Golf is that you never want to watch — you want to play it yourself. So, if the point of this league is to sell golf simulators, then it seems to be going down the right path.

If it’s to create the next competitive golf league of tomorrow? Well, uh, yikes, guys.

The NBA Finals preview you need to be talking about

The Cavaliers and Thunder will play on Wednesday night. This should be one of the most hyped regular-season matchups in the NBA in years.

Instead, no one is talking about it that much.

We don’t take these two seriously as Finals contenders. Both teams were fairly disappointing in the playoffs last season, so they’re still in that “prove it” group until we see otherwise.

But, folks. This matchup is historic. The Cavaliers are 31-4. The Thunder are 30-5. These are two potential 70-win teams facing off.

Here are some stats, via NBA PR:

• This is the first interconference game in NBA history between teams with a winning percentage of .850 or higher at this point in a season or later.
• The Thunder (12.1) and Cavaliers (11.8) are on pace to have the fourth- and fifth-highest point differentials in NBA history, respectively.
• The Thunder are 11-0 against the East and the Cavaliers are 10-0 against the West.

Something has got to give. I can’t wait to find out what it is.

Raiders gonna Raider

The Raiders fired Antonio Pierce on Tuesday, which felt pretty ridiculous on its own. Las Vegas wasn’t good last season, but he’s a first-year head coach. He deserved a bit more of a runway than he got.

BLACK MONDAY CONTINUES: Here’s a list of every coach and GM fired for Black Monday in the NFL

What makes this even sillier is that the Raiders are now paying three coaches not to coach for them next season. Prince Grimes has more on that:

“For those keeping count, the next coach will be their fifth in the last five years after they replaced Jon Gruden with Rich Bisaccia in 2021, hired Josh McDaniels in 2022 and replaced him with Pierce in 2023.

Like Bisaccia, Pierce originally got the job on an interim basis, and like Gruden and McDaniels he was eventually hired full-time. He also follows in their footsteps as the third coach the Raiders will have to pay to not coach the team.”

What a chaotic organization.

Quick hits: A word from Paige Bueckers … The 10 best Super Bowl matchups … and more

— Our Bryan Kalbrosky caught up with Paige Bueckers and chatted with her about the explosion of women’s basketball. This is a must-read.

— Here’s Cory Woodroof with the 10 best Super Bowl matchups we want to see, ranked.

— Here’s Charles Curtis on Travis Kelce denying that the Chiefs tanked to keep the Bengals out of the playoffs.

— Here’s Prince on Draft Kings’ new subscription service and how greedy (and desperate!) it is.

— Myles Garrett is the absolute best of us. Wow. What a guy.

— Here are Christian D’Andrea’s quarterback rankings for the playoffs.

That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Have a fantastic Wednesday. Peace.

-Sykes