Atlanta Drive GC went 1-1 in their doubleheader Monday night but locked up a playoff spot thanks to their early win against Boston Common Golf.
Los Angeles Golf Club defeated Atlanta Drive in the late match, but the defending SoFi Cup champs are still in the running to go back-to-back.
It was the first night of two TGL doubleheaders.
In the first match of the evening, Atlanta Drive got another tidy performance out of fill-in Chris Gotterup, who defeated Rory McIlroy in both of their singles matchups to earn two of the team’s five overall points. Gotterup, who has won two of the first three PGA Tour events of the season, has been just as impressive in the SoFi Center as he has been on the golf course so far in 2026.
Not only did Gotterup go 2-0 in singles, but he also pushed Atlanta Drive to a 3-1 advantage in triples early after draining a 14-foot birdie on the now-iconic hole, Stinger (which forces the players off the tee to hit a very low stinging shot), which played as No. 8 in Monday’s early match.
Atlanta Drive lost some of its early mojo after hitting two balls into the penalty area on No. 9, leading to a loss and just a one-point advantage heading into singles. But Boston, who is the top putting team in TGL this season, couldn’t get anything going with the flatstick early Monday night – Michael Thorbjornsen, for example, missed a five-footer on the opening hole, Boston Common had to settle for a tie to start the night and Keegan Bradley missed a six-footer on No. 4.
The weather in Palm Beach Gardens – at least by Florida standards – was on the chillier side Monday night and the players said they were having trouble adjusting to the pace of the greens.
“They were like two feet quicker,” McIlroy said.
“At least,” added Bradley. “I’d say even more.”
Justin Thomas returned to action for Atlanta Drive in the early match – he hasn’t teed it up on the PGA Tour in nearly a half-a-year after having back surgery and, of course, missed the first three matches of the TGL season – and earned the match-winning point for Atlanta Drive on the par-3 14th, a new hole Thomas had never played before.
“It’s pretty close to normal,” Thomas said of how his body felt. “I wouldn’t say (TGL) is a normal setting or situation tonight. It’s a lot of stop and starts and whatnot. But at least when I’ve been hitting the last week or so I feel like it’s been in a very similar spot to normal.”
After Atlanta Drive saw their stretch of seven consecutive victories snapped in the last match, their match against Boston Common was a reminder of why they were the league’s inaugural winners. Atlanta Drive now leads TGL with 20 holes won (which is the first playoff tiebreaker if necessary).
Boston Common is back in action Tuesday night against New York Golf Club and if they win that match, they will also guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs after missing out in season one.
In the late match, Los Angeles rolled to a 7-3 victory after winning the first three holes and leading 4-0 after six.
With the win, Los Angeles significantly improved its post season chances, jumping into second place in the standings.
Atlanta Drive began to cut into the Los Angeles lead as the match headed into singles, but on No. 14 Tommy Fleetwood put things away for good, winning two key points after throwing the hammer.
The shot of the night came from Fleetwood, who chipped in from off the green on No. 11 to salvage a tie against Patrick Cantlay and keep the lead – and the momentum – with just four holes left.
Los Angeles Golf Club boasts three of the top five golfers in the world ( Nos. 3, 4, and 5 – Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Collin Morikawa) and was just too strong for Atlanta Drive. Lucas Glover and Billy Horschel were in for Atlanta in the second match of the night with only Patrick Cantlay playing both.
Rose and Morikawa won two of the PGA Tour events on the West Coast over the last couple of weeks and Rose said the squad was able to carry over some of that momentum into Monday night’s match.
“I felt like it was a big matchup. Obviously, Atlanta (is) a great team, kind of littered with really tough competitors, and we obviously came in here with some momentum, not just from a TGL point of view but from the golf that’s being played this season. It was great to let that follow through tonight and to get a big win and I think kind of get our season really up and running,” Rose said.
Despite the loss, Atlanta Drive finished at 3-2 for the season and will return for the playoffs as it looks to defend the SoFi Cup championship. It defeated New York in the finale last year.
“I hate losing, and it sucked tonight,” said Horschel. “But listen, I think we’re pretty much a lock for the playoffs. (Cantlay and Gotterup and Thomas) played beautiful at the 5:00 match and obviously made our match a little bit less stressful. But it sucks to lose. I hate that. But it’s been a good season.”
So close, yet so far
This week the PGA Tour tees it up at PGA National at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches – about 15 minutes from the SoFi Center. But there are just three golfers out of the near dozen who are playing TGL Monday and Tuesday night who are in the field.
You certainly can’t blame location for the lack of star power this week with such a large percentage of the game’s best players living in southeast Florida. Instead, it’s a perfect example of how the PGA Tour’s top dogs have merely prioritized playing in the signature events and wrapping their years around the big-money tournaments.
That, of course, makes total sense.
The purse of this week’s Cognizant Classic is $9.6 million, whereas the last two weeks on Tour the purses were $20 million.
Justin Thomas, who lives about 20 minutes away from PGA National but is not playing, said Monday night it’s “a bummer” where the Cognizant Classic falls in the schedule.
“I think it’s both a great thing and a bad thing of our schedule, how great it is and the amount of great golf courses that we go to,” Thomas said. “It’s just one of those things the way that guys need to play certain events or feel like they give themselves the best opportunity to win and make the most points as possible. It’s just kind of where it falls kind of thing.”
Thomas returns next week
Thomas is, however, set to return to the PGA Tour at the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week, he said on the TGL broadcast Monday night.
The 16-time PGA Tour winner has not hit a golf ball competitively since the Ryder Cup last fall and underwent a microdiscectomy surgery in November in New York to address a lingering disc issue.
“It was unfortunate, but it is what it is, and I’m just going to make the best out of it and do the right things. I still have another 12, 15 years of great golf ahead of me. There’s no reason to look backward, just look forward,” Thomas said.
Thomas finished seventh in the 2025 FedExCup standings after winning the RBC Heritage – his first win on Tour since the 2022 PGA Championship.
His last start on Tour was the Procore Championship in September.
Michelle Wie West coming out of retirementI
Michelle Wie West, a five-time winner on the LPGA Tour including the U.S. Women’s Open in 2014, is coming out of retirement and has joined WTGL.
WTGL, which will feature stars of the LPGA Tour including Canadian Brooke Henderson, will launch at the end of 2026. There are eight confirmed players so far.
Wie West left professional golf at the end of 2023 but has since become involved in a handful of golf and golf-adjacent business ventures, including being an investor in the Los Angeles Golf Club.
“I’ve been a fan of TGL since the beginning,” Wie West said on the broadcast. “Being an investor in LAGC, seeing these guys rip it up and have fun out there, it seemed like a lot of fun. So I’m excited to join them on this venture. … I think WTGL is the perfect next step with innovation, growing the game, getting more young girls out there to play and watch. I think it’s super exciting.”
More details about WTGL including more player announcements along with team names will be announced in the coming months.
