TGL Preview: Schauffele, Aberg feature as New York faces The Bay in inaugural match

After months of lead-up, it’s finally time to experience the technology-infused stadium league — co-founded by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods — that has the potential to be a golfing game-changer.

The inaugural TGL season is set to tee off Tuesday night at the SoFi Center in south Florida when New York Golf Club takes on The Bay Golf Club.

The race for the SoFi Cup begins now, with each of the six teams in the league playing five matches in a round-robin league format. The top four teams in the standings earn a spot in the playoffs.

The post-season begins with single-match elimination semifinals on March 17 and March 18 before a best-of-three championship series with the SoFi Cup on the line on March 24 and March 25.

Here’s everything else you need to know about the first match of the season:

The match

New York Golf Club vs. The Bay Golf Club (Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+)

All matches will be played at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., with the capacity for 1,500 fans in seating that’s wrapped around the playing area — creating a "greenside" experience.

New York Golf Club: Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler (sitting: Cameron Young) vs. The Bay Golf Club: Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Shane Lowry (sitting: Min Woo Lee).

· The Bay Golf Club will start the match with the Hammer, TGL’s score modifier that increases the value of a hole by one point when used (more details below).

· The Bay Golf Club enters this match as the longest team off the tee and with the best strokes gained: off the tee average based on 2024 PGA Tour statistics, while New York Golf Club was the best TGL team in strokes gained: putting in 2024.

Player notes

Xander Schauffele comes into the inaugural TGL campaign after a career year on the PGA Tour, having won two majors amid a tremendously consistent season, with 15 top-10s in 22 events including four top-5s in a row to end his FedExCup campaign… Cameron Young had six top-10s on the PGA Tour last season, including a runner-up at the Valspar Championship, while also notching a top-10 at the Grant Thornton Invitational team event in December. He is the lone member of the team from New York but will be sitting out the first match… Young finished T8 in The Sentry to kick off the PGA Tour season while Schauffele finished T30 and Matt Fitzpatrick finished T24… Rickie Fowler finished fourth in his last PGA Tour start in October at the ZOZO Championship.

Ludvig Aberg’s 2024 was cut short after he had knee surgery in September to repair a torn medial meniscus. The young star has made an immediate splash since turning pro and notched eight top-10s last year while skyrocketing up to No. 5 in the world rankings. He finished T5 at The Sentry… Shane Lowry teamed with Rory McIlroy for a win at the PGA Tour’s lone team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last year. Lowry gets the honour of hitting the first-ever shot in TGL competition history (the opening hole will be ‘The Plank,’ a 377-yard par 4) … Min Woo Lee and Wyndham Clark were both part of their respective Presidents Cup teams (International and United States), while Lowry and Aberg were both on the victorious European Ryder Cup squad in 2023… Clark finished T5 at The Sentry to start his 2025 PGA Tour season.

TGL scoring explanation (source: TGL)

Modern Match Play

· Each hole has a value of one point and the team with the fewest shots on a hole wins the point.

· Ties are worth zero points and there are no carryovers.

· The hammer — Each hole is worth one point unless a team throws the hammer. This game-changer increases the value of a hole by one point when used, giving teams the opportunity to press home an advantage or put their opponents under added pressure. It changes possession each time it's used.

· The team with the most points wins the match.

· Each match will be played until all 15 holes are completed, even if the match outcome has been decided. A team’s total number of holes won will be used as a tiebreaker in the SoFi Cup Standings at the end of the regular season.

Sessions

Within a match, there will be two sessions played in two different formats:

· Triples — nine holes —three players per team compete in an alternate-shot format.

· Singles — six holes — one-on-one, head-to-head competition for the entire hole. Each player from each team plays a total of two full holes during the session.

· Overtime — if the match is tied after 15 holes, the teams will play a best-of-three, closest-to-the-pin competition to decide the winner. This will be similar to penalty kicks in soccer. The hole location and orientation of the green will remain unchanged from the final hole of the match. The shot distance will be between 25 to 50 yards and decided pre-match by an official. All players will play from the same spot. The ball must finish on the putting surface to be eligible.

SoFi Cup Standings

· Similar to the NHL, TGL will use a points-based system for the SoFi Cup Standings.

· For each match, teams can be awarded up to two points towards their regular-season total based on the following: two points for a regulation or overtime win, one points for an overtime loss, no points for a regulation loss.