EXCLUSIVE: Tiger Woods' Golf Comeback Starts Tonight Vs. 'Impressed' Reddit Founder's TGL Club

The GOAT is back. Tiger is back. Legendary golfer Tiger Woods is making his return to professional golf Tuesday night to compete in an indoor league he helped create alongside golfer Rory McIlroy. Tuesday marks the first competition since July 2024 for the golfer considered by many to be the greatest of all time in the sport of golf. Tiger Woods Makes Return to Golf Billionaire Tiger Woods is best known for his play on the golf course, but he's also been helping coach the Jupiter Links Golf Club, a team in the TGL 3 vs. 3 golf league he helped create. Woods, who hasn't competed professionally this season as he recovers from an October back surgery, is marking his return Tuesday night to help the team he co-owns and is the captain of. Jupiter lost the first match of a best-of-three championship finals against the LA Golf Club, a team that counts Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, tennis legends Serena Williams and Venus Williams and other athletes as co-owners. After Los Angeles Golf Club won Match 1 on Monday night, Match 2—and Match 3 if necessary—will take place Tuesday night, starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN., a unit of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). ESPN could see a large increase in viewership for Tuesday's finals thanks to Woods ‘ announcement of his return. League sponsor SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) could also get a boost in brand awareness if viewership jumps substantially on Tuesday. Ohanian, who is also an investor in the TGL league, is the controlling owner of LA Golf Club. "It's funny, I bought the first franchise in the league because Tiger had called me up and told me he was starting a golf league and that I should take a look as an investor," Ohanian told Benzinga. "I was a little skeptical, honestly, before I took the pitch, but I was so impressed with the vision and the concept that I not only invested in the league, I said, ‘I'm going to buy the first team.'" Ohanian said he's lucky things worked out, and he's now an investor in the league and the LA Golf Club team that finds itself in the finals. Up 1-0 in the best-of-three finals, things now change slightly with Woods entering the mix. "It's just mind-blowing to think that we're going up against the GOAT Tiger Woods in the finals." Betting odds have LAGC favored to complete the championship with odds of -575 to win the championship and odds of -174 to win match 2 on sportsbook DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG). Prediction market Kalshi has the championship odds set at 71% for the LA Golf Club and 21% for Jupiter. Preview of Masters 2026 Return? The timing of Woods’ return to golf will quickly mark speculation of whether this is to provide a boost to the team and league he has ownership stakes in and/or a test to see if he can handle professional golf after surgery setbacks over the last year. The Masters Tournament, a staple of Woods' career, takes place April 9 through April 12 and the legendary golfer has not committed to participate or sit out at this point. "I said I've been working on it. Sometimes I have good days, sometimes I have bad days. Disk replacement is not a lot of fun," Woods said of the Masters last week, as reported by ESPN. Prediction market Polymarket shows a 71% chance that Woods will compete in the 2026 Masters. For Woods, it's likely not just about competing, but also factoring into the leaderboard. In five events on the PGA Tour in 2024, Woods made the cut in only one, withdrawing or missing the cut in four tournaments. After a strong start to the 2024 Masters, Woods ended up in 60th place at +16 over par. Ohanian said whether or not Woods plays at the Masters, Tuesday's return should not be forgotten. "This is just one more example of how his remarkable legacy continues to grow the game, and I couldn't be more proud to be a tiny, tiny part of it," Ohanian told Benzinga. A return to the Masters for Woods could help the sport of golf overall, sponsors and the media partners of the tournament, which include Disney, Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN). Image created using artificial intelligence via Gemini.