It was a perfect opportunity and they messed it up…

If you’re Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, shouldn’t you know better by now? You created TGL, a tech league that’s supposed to “grow the game,” and when it came time to include women, you created a separate league. Same venue, different nights, smaller spotlight.

Nelly Korda called it “a huge and unbelievable miss that we’re not playing alongside the men. There’s no greater way to grow the game, and it would have been revolutionary. It would have been the first time, I think, that men and women are on the same playing field, playing for the same exact amount of money.”

Charley Hull, who’s already committed to WTGL, took the opposite approach: “I’m just grateful for them giving us an opportunity, no matter what, really.”

WTGL launches winter 2026 at the SoFi Center—the same facility where TGL plays. But women compete separately, on different nights, for a different audience.

TGL is a simulator league. Distance doesn’t matter. Strength doesn’t matter. It’s putting and shot-making on a screen. There’s zero physical reason men and women can’t compete on the same teams for the same money. Tiger and Rory had the chance to do something no other league has done: true mixed-gender competition with equal stakes. Instead, they chose the safe, separate route. WTGL gets the same venue but a different schedule—which means smaller viewership, less promotion, and the WNBA problem all over again.

Nelly’s not saying WTGL is bad. She’s saying it’s a wasted opportunity. And she’s the only one willing to say it.

“Just grateful for an opportunity” is the language of someone who’s been trained to accept second-tier treatment and smile about it because asking for equal footing gets labeled as ungrateful. Charley’s happy to have a seat at the table. Nelly’s asking why it’s a different table in the first place.

Tiger and Rory didn’t lack the platform or the power to make mixed-gender TGL happen—they lacked the courage.