The debut of the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy-backed TGL indoor golf league drew nearly a million viewers on ESPN.

According to Nielsen numbers reported on Thursday by Front Office Sports, even though the co-founders wedren't playing, Tuesday night's broadcast attracted an average of 919,000 viewers during the 9-11pm ET time slot.

To put that in perspective, it's a larger audience than any LIV Golf broadcast on The CW channel in 2023 and 2024, and also more han last week's PGA Tour season opener (The Sentry) on the Golf Channel and NBC, according to Sports Media Watch.

During the same time window last year on ESPN, a Duke-Pittsburgh men's college basketball game drew 717,000 viewers.

Tuesday night's initial 15-hole TGL match saw The Bay Golf Club defeat New York Golf Club 9-2 at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Woods and McIlroy both attended the match and joined ESPN play-by-play announcer Matt Barrie in the booth.

The first match in the six-team TGL that features Woods will happen when his Jupiter Links Golf Club takes on Los Angeles Golf Club on Tuesday, while McIlroy's Boston Common Golf will face Woods' team on January 27.

The 15-match regular season runs through March 4, followed by the play-offs later that month.