Ballfrogs. Alpine. Hammer.<\/p>\n
Those three words, non-sensical in any other setting, can only mean one thing: TGL is back.<\/p>\n
Yes, the Ballfrogs (Boston Golf Club’s nickname) could be throwing the hammer (to double the points) on Alpine (the name of a hole) as soon as Jan. 2 in their season opener against Los Angeles Golf Club.<\/p>\n
First, though, the high-tech and even higher-funded professional screen league returns for Season 2 on Sunday, when the reigning champion Atlanta Drive take on New York Golf Club in a rematch of the inaugural final. Live coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins at 3 p.m. ET \/ noon PT.<\/p>\n
Season 1 was a novelty, an experiment worth watching. Season 2 might be the truer barometer of the viability of a league that could be described as both absurdly entertaining and entertainingly absurd.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the best part may have been the simplest: good players hitting good shots.<\/p>\n
Back at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., here\u2019s six golfers we\u2019re interested in seeing:<\/p>\n
Patrick Cantlay, Atlanta Drive<\/p>\n
The man who\u2019s rocked investment-company logos on the front of his hat for years gamed the TGL system almost immediately, forcing a mid-season switch to the rules surrounding the hammer by, well, refusing to even use it.<\/p>\n
Cantlay, who is often derided for his slow play on the PGA Tour, exceeded expectations in the shot-clock version of the sport, both as a dryly funny narrator and with his swings. Damningly, however, TGL is likely the highlight of Cantlay\u2019s 2025 golf season.<\/p>\n
Whether he comes in with the same vigour for Atlanta or has decided to de-prioritize TGL in some form in favour of improved play on Tour bears monitoring.<\/p>\n
Cam Young, New York Golf Club<\/p>\n
Conversely, Young might have been the least engaging competitor in the mic\u2019d-up arena.<\/p>\n
In some ways, the native New Yorker was built for screen golf with his penchant for prodigious drives and pure raw talent. He helped his team turn around a slow start and reach the championship match, after all.<\/p>\n
But the TrackMan numbers just didn\u2019t translate across the TV screen, and Young\u2019s lack of charisma \u2014 in one match, he simply did not respond to a question posed by ESPN reporter Marty Smith \u2014 nearly became a story unto itself.<\/p>\n
After TGL, Young re-emerged as a burgeoning superstar on Tour, picking up his first career victory at the Wyndham Championship in August and becoming the breakout performer on the losing U.S. Ryder Cup team.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see if that star turn continues when he returns to the dome.<\/p>\n
A fan favourite on a team full of them, Homa struggled in both indoor and outdoor golf last season.<\/p>\n
Homa \u2014 whose team also includes the injured Tiger Woods, half-retired Kevin Kisner and similarly struggling Tom Kim \u2014 made a host of changes last season from apparel to equipment to coaching. He even quit X (formerly Twitter), which first made him famous through his swing roasts.<\/p>\n
Our first glimpse of Homa this season will come in the SoFi Center, where both his swings and mood will be worth our attention. Does the typically jovial Homa seem more serious? Is there visible frustration at bad shots \u2014 even in this setting? And will his trademark precision with his irons return?<\/p>\n
Billy Horschel, Atlanta Drive<\/p>\n
Nobody had more fun in Season 1 than Horschel. The Floridian even admitted as much in a recent Players Tribune article<\/a> in which he wrote about how TGL helped reignite his passion for golf.<\/p>\n But TGL needed Horschel as much as he needed it \u2014 from his Dirty Bird entrance<\/a> all the way to his winning leap<\/a>, Horschel provided more juice than any other player, easily becoming a fan favourite.<\/p>\n It was all translating on the course too, until hip surgery in May forced him out for the season. He returned for a pair of events in October and two more in December, but the missed time cost him his spot in signature events and some majors. He said he may play 10 consecutive tournaments to start the season to make up for it.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping it doesn\u2019t affect that TGL pep in his step.<\/p>\n Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley, Boston Golf Club<\/p>\n We won\u2019t blame you for forgetting the extremely minor Ryder Cup subplot that the U.S. captain, Bradley, and the face of the Euros, McIlroy, are teammates in another team golf setting: TGL.<\/p>\n Indeed, both men are members of Boston Golf Club, which earned the dubious distinction last season of being the only winless team. Of course, three members \u2014\u00a0McIlroy, Bradley and Hideki Matsuyama \u2014 did win PGA Tour events. (The fourth is Adam Scott, and young bomber Michael Thorbjornsen also is set to fill in, per McIlroy).<\/p>\n It will be undeniably fascinating to watch McIlroy and Bradley interact \u2014 will the Northern Irishman throw any friendly barbs at his teammate? Or, with the Ryder Cup behind them, might any underlying tension simply be released?<\/p>\n On paper, this Boston team might be the most talented in TGL. If its two biggest stars can get along, a classic worst-to-first sports story might be in the making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballfrogs. Alpine. Hammer. Those three words, non-sensical in any other setting, can only mean one thing: TGL is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-371289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}