Money & Media
Fenway bought the last WTGL team — before anyone knows who will televise it
Boston Common Golf now has a women’s team in the LPGA’s indoor league. Matches start this fall in a Florida studio. A TV partner has not been named.
Fenway Park from the press box in July 2022. Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Red Sox, just bought the last team in the new women’s indoor golf league.
Photo: Gatorfan252525 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Fenway Sports Group bought the last team in WTGL on Monday. The club will play as Boston Common Golf — the same name as the men’s TGL side FSG already owns. Matches start this fall, indoors, at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The price was not disclosed. Other clubs in the new women’s league have been reported around $20 million.
This is FSG’s first women’s golf team. The company already owns the Red Sox and Liverpool, helped launch the men’s indoor league, and invested early in TMRW Sports, the parent of both. Fenway Sports Management has sold LPGA sponsorships since 2023. Linda Henry, an FSG partner, called WTGL a natural next step.
WTGL is the LPGA’s version of the short-format league Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy built for the men: team matches, on-course microphones, a 1,500-seat studio, and a window after the regular tour season. Fourteen LPGA players have signed on, including Jeeno Thitikul, Rose Zhang, Lottie Woad, and Massachusetts native Megan Khang. Rosters are not assigned yet.
Nelly Korda has not signed. In January she called a separate women’s league a “huge and unbelievable miss,” because the men and women would not play the same matches for the same money. That argument has not gone away. The owners filled the last franchise anyway.
The other clubs belong to Arthur Blank in Atlanta, Steve Cohen in New York, Alexis Ohanian in Los Angeles, and the Hamp family in Detroit. Men’s TGL already has six teams and adds Detroit next year. The women’s version starts with five clubs, and it starts this fall, before the men come back.
What they do not have is a broadcast. Men’s TGL lives on ESPN and ABC and has averaged about half a million viewers. Those rights are up after this season. WTGL is shopping its own deal. ESPN has held talks, and nothing is signed.
New England fans will see the Boston Common name. The golf happens in Palm Beach. The next thing worth waiting for is a weeknight window with Jeeno and Zhang on it.