By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) – Tiger Woods will miss a TGL match for the first time next week, according to the lineups revealed on Friday by the tech-infused indoor golf league he co-founded based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The decision opens the door for Woods, who withdrew from last week’s Genesis Invitational that began nine days after the death of his mother, to play in his hometown PGA Tour event — the Cognizant Classic — in Palm Beach Gardens.
The deadline to commit to the Cognizant Classic field is 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) on Friday.
Woods participated in each of his TGL team’s first three matches and his decision leaves Max Homa, Kevin Kisner and Tom Kim to represent Jupiter Links Golf Club on Tuesday against The Bay Golf Club’s Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark.
Woods is easily the biggest draw in TGL, where teams of PGA Tour players hit shots at a five-storey simulator screen before moving to a green that rotates, and his January 14 debut is the most-watched TGL match so far.
According to TGL, three of the nine matches so far in its inaugural season peaked at 1.1 million average viewers.
Woods’ next potential TGL start will be the March 4 regular-season finale when Jupiter Links face Atlanta Drive Golf Club, a team that consists of Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover and Bill Horschel.
TGL action resumes on Monday with a double-header that will be capped by Boston Common Golf’s Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley against Atlanta’s Thomas, Cantlay and Horschel.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Chris Reese)
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