As the four players who comprise Atlanta Drive GC—Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay, and Lucas Glover—celebrated after winning the inaugural SoFi Cup after pulling off a comeback victory over New York Golf Club, team owner Arthur Blank looked just as happy as the golfers themselves did.
And that says a lot about this first TGL season as a whole.
After watching many of these matches over the last couple of months—but admittedly not all of them—I found there were certain things to really enjoy about the simulated league.
The first was the speed of play. And that clearly happened because the part of golf that takes the longest—the walking—was removed.
At the end of the day, though, TGL is still about golf shots, and that's what people really want to see. Sure, it would have been better if it had been outside on an actual golf course, but that would have been impossible without skyhooks lifting players from spot to spot.
The shot clock made each player aware of the time he had to hit. I think everybody enjoyed that aspect—unless you needed to get a beverage from the kitchen. But there was hardly ever a time to do that. Next season, how about a snack break or a beverage break after three or four holes?
Next, there were the crazy holes. Where else would you see a lava hole? Who doesn’t love that? Where else would you see a hole that's shaped like a pitchfork or a monster face? Where else would you see a hole that has two points meeting in the middle of a fairway?
What about the one called "Sterling" with the long, straight line of sand running up the middle of it? "The Claw. Craziest stuff ever! They out-Pete Dyed Pete Dye with imagination.
TGL had the box of chocolates factor. Players made wild shots on a screen that didn’t act like real golf, greens and surrounding areas that didn’t act like real grass, and from sand that didn’t act like real sand, even if it was.
The players had fun—as everybody says—until someone lost. It's still competition. And it seemed like they still had fun when they had another chance.
“I think the level of emotion and intensity in the match tonight and last night was really high,” said Cameron Young following Tuesday night's final match. “Not that it wasn't all year, but there's just a different level. Just like playoffs in any other sport.”
“Happy we've made it to this point and wish we could have had a few more putts go in,” Rickie Fowler said. “They were close matches that both came down to the last hole.”
No doubt he was reminding himself that he had a share of the second-place loot, collecting $1.125 million, as did each of his New York teammates.
There were plenty of spectacular shots in the finale, including a chip by Patrick Cantlay on the final hole to seal the victory and a dramatic two-point putt by Billy Horschel on the penultimate hole to give Atlanta the lead.
INCREDIBLE‼️ pic.twitter.com/0X7ojbTDMX
— TGL (@TGL) March 26, 2025
Xander Schauffele was philosophical on the dramatic outcome.
“Billy Ho making that putt hurt us. I liked Rickie's spot in the bunker. I thought he was going to get that up-and-down 75 percent of the time, and I had Billy making that thing less than 25 percent,” he said.
“I think we probably sound like a broken record, just not knowing what to expect, not just us on Atlanta Drive, but just all the teams didn't know what to expect and how it would be. But yeah, it truly was a blast,” Justin Thomas noted.
“I didn't know actually who threw the hammer; I didn't know if it was us or them,” Horschel said. “I said, listen, if they accept, I'm making this putt, and JT said, 'Hey, I've got the perfect line on this.' I asked him, I said, 'Hey, where is this fall line, where do I need to die it,' and he gave me the perfect read, and I did a great job of following his direction and the putt went in.”
Then, as he should have, Horschel went nuts for a while. The whole experience was seemingly better than he ever thought it would be.
“Never imagined we'd be playing golf in an arena with a big simulator and people and music and chanting,” he said. “Yeah, it's been really cool and has sort of exceeded all of our expectations.”
That seems to be the consensus, as fans were really into the last few matches, and it became hard not to watch.
And here’s the first rule for the next TGL season: Never bet against Billy Horschel when he says he can make a putt. After all, he once won an extra $10 million by making several big putts at the 2014 Tour Championship to win the FedEx Cup.
Anyone who has done the same should be taken seriously as a threat on the greens, even if they aren’t real.