Golf news: Tiger headlines TGL Week 2, Rory's season debut, PGA Tour 2K25 covers revealed

It's a busy week in the golf world, as the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and the all-new TGL will all be in action over the next few days.

After two weeks in Hawaii, the PGA Tour will hold its next three events in California, beginning on Thursday with The American Express Championship in La Quinta. Last year, of course, this event featured the breakout performance of Nick Dunlap, who became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson won the Northern Telecom Open in 1991.

Dunlap will be on hand to defend his title and is one of 20 players in the field ranked in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

While the DP World Tour officially kicked off its season back in November, this week's Hero Dubai Desert Classic is its first event of the 2025 calendar year and also features a strong field, which we'll dive into shortly.

Then, of course, there's the TGL, the new tech-infused simulator league that got off to a fantastic start last week with higher-than-expected ratings on ESPN. And one would think those numbers will be even better on Tuesday, as Tiger Woods is set to officially take the tee for the first time, which is where we'll kick things off.

Tiger Woods is set for his TGL debut on Tuesday night

Week 1 of the TGL schedule was seen as a resounding success, as the new league drew an average of 919,00 viewers during its two-hour run last Tuesday night on ESPN, with viewership peaking at roughly 1.1 million in the opening hour.

That was a 22% increase from the Duke-Pittsburgh college basketball game that preceded it and right in the vicinity of the Lakers-Mavericks (1.15 million) and Celtics-Nuggets (1.06 million) NBA games that aired on TNT that same night.

So, things are off to a great start, and, as mentioned, one would think the ratings for Week 2 will be even higher with Tiger Woods taking his first official shots into the 64-foot-high screen on Tuesday night.

Woods and his Jupiter Links GC team will take on the Los Angeles Golf Club, which is headlined by two-time major championship winner Collin Morikawa.

For those unfamiliar with the format, each team only plays three of its four members per match. Tiger, Max Homa, and Kevin Kisner will tee it up for Jupiter Links, with Tom Kim sitting out. Kim is actually in the field for The American Express this week.

Los Angeles will have Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, and Justin Rose competing while Tommy Fleetwood takes this match off.

Tiger is one of three cover golfers for 'PGA Tour 2K25'

Speaking of Tiger Woods (and Max Homa, for that matter), it was announced on Monday that the Jupiter Links teammates are two of the three cover athletes for the latest editions of the "PGA Tour 2K" video game series, with 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick being the third.

Tiger will be the solo figure on the "PGA Tour 2K25" Legend Edition, while Homa and Fitzpatrick join him on the cover of the Deluxe Edition.

Woods signed a long-term agreement with 2K back in 2021 and was also named an executive director and consultant as part of the deal. Tiger last graced the cover in 2023.

Rory McIlroy will make his 2025 debut this week in Dubai

While TGL co-founder Rory McIlroy won't take his first competitive swings on the simulator for a couple more weeks, the world's third-ranked player is set to make his season debut this week at the aforementioned Hero Dubai Desert Classic, which he's won each of the last two years and three times overall.

This will mark McIlroy's first official start since winning the DP World Tour Championship this past November, thus clinching his sixth career Race to Dubai title, tying Seve Ballesteros for the second-most in history and putting him within two of Colin Montgomerie.

Rory is one of several superstars in the field this week at Emirates Golf Club, a list that includes Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard, Matt Wallace, Robert MacIntyre.

In addition to Rahm, several other LIV Golf players will be competing, including last year's runner-up, Adrian Meronk, Dean Burmester, and McIlroy's longtime rival, Patrick Reed. Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, and Akshay Bhatia are some of the other PGA Tour stars who made the trip overseas, making this one of the strongest fields this tourney has seen in years.