"Tiger Woods' TGL debut outshines NBA ratings despite dominating performance"

Tiger Woods was defeated in his own game on Tuesday night, but his loss was still more attractive to sports enthusiasts than the NBA.

Woods' first appearance in the TGL was watched by over 1 million viewers, a 9 percent increase from the league's first match last week and more than the NBA's viewership on TNT.

For the second week in a row, the TGL featured a lopsided match with Woods' Jupiter Links Golf Club losing 12-1 to the Los Angeles Golf Club. Despite being in the new virtual golf league, this marked Woods' first competitive golf since missing the cut at the Open Championship in July.

According to the Sports Business Journal, Tuesday's match peaked at 1.13 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET. The match technically ended at 8:50 p.m. and the broadcast concluded at 9:18 p.m.

In comparison, the Cavaliers-Pacers game on TNT drew 956,000 viewers, followed by 853,000 viewers for the Nuggets-Mavericks game that started at 9:35 p.m. The TGL match also nearly doubled the 587,000 viewers for Duke's blowout of Miami in a men's basketball game that aired on ESPN after.

The TGL has boosted ESPN's viewership in this time slot. Last year, a Syracuse-Pitt men's basketball game in the same window only drew 566,000 viewers.

Woods' team suffered their second consecutive defeat to kick off the TGL's inaugural season, following Bay Golf Club's 9-2 win over New York Golf Club on January 7. This match drew almost a million viewers and surpassed the audience numbers for any LIV Golf broadcast on The CW in the past two years.

Woods' team will have a chance for redemption when they face Boston Common Golf in the debut of Rory McIlroy's team on January 27.

The regular season, consisting of 15 matches, will run until March 4, followed by the playoffs later that month.