Furious Miami and Duke basketball fans fume at Tiger Woods and TGL over major ESPN conflict
College basketball fans who tuned into ESPN for Miami’s game against Duke on Tuesday night got a shock when Tiger Woods appeared on their screen instead.
The college hoops matchup was scheduled to air Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on the network’s primary channel, immediately following Woods’ debut match in his new indoor golf venture, TGL.
However, Jupiter Links’ match against Los Angeles Golf Club lasted 20 minutes during the weekly two-hour slot.
Despite the game being long over thanks to a loss to Woods’ team at the hands of Los Angeles, ESPN opted to continue showing the simulator showdown rather than switching to the Hurricanes’ game against Duke.
The college basketball game was instead tipped to ESPN News and fans were left outraged.
“Miami and Duke not starting on time literally because of what is essentially video game golf,” raged one social media user on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Duke and Miami basketball fans were furious with ESPN on Tuesday night
Golf legend Tiger Woods made his long-awaited TGL debut earlier in the evening
Woods and Jupiter Links’ match against Los Angeles Golf Club lasted twenty minutes
“@espn is running the Duke-Miami game as scheduled, not that stupid indoor golf game,” another added.
“Why is golf on my screen, we’re trying to watch Miami vs Duke,” a third asked, while another asked, “I should be watching team golf in SoFi instead of Duke/Miami?” Is this the actual programming on ESPN now?’
One user wasn’t so critical: ‘TGL is dope, but I’m trying to watch Duke vs Miami. Let’s get this over with.’
However, their patience seemed to be running out as they later added, “I’m currently watching Miami vs. Duke in Español on ESPN3 because TGL is running late.”
Others did not hold back their anger as some urged the network to withdraw from the TGL competition.
“Duke/Miami starts on ESPNews because of indoor golf?!?!,” someone said with a series of face-plant emojis.
“Miami and Duke, real sports between real teams, are on espnews because video golf took a long time on espn,” another raged.
The college basketball game was instead tipped to ESPN News and fans were left outraged
‘Hey @espn!!! Get rid of this fraudulent gold nonsense and start playing the Duke-Miami game!!! Come on,” one irritated user urged.
ESPN finally switched to the Miami-Duke at 9:20 PM ET – 20 minutes after Ti was initially set to begin broadcasting – with the Blue Devils already leading 9-5.
TGL returns to ESPN next week when New York takes on Atlanta Drive in the same 7:00 PM ET timeslot on Tuesday, January 21.
It will be New York’s second match in the technology-driven competition after Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schaufele were defeated by The Bay in the opening match.