Welcome to Tomorrow Golf League TODAY. Each week from now until the end of TGL’s inaugural season, we will meet here to recap the physical, virtual and physical-virtual action from the world’s most-hyped professional simulator golf league. But this isn’t any old play-by-play. No, no. That requires too much writing. Instead, we will break down the week’s winners and losers via the most scientific form of analysis known to humanity: Superlatives.
How much TGL is too much TGL? This week, we test our human limits with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR live TGL matches. To start, let’s recap TGL’s Presidents’ Day tripleheader, where Justin Thomas, Ludvig Aberg and Rory McIlroy all put in big shifts FOR AMERICA (please ignore the fact two of these guys aren’t American). Safe to say, somewhere high above, Honest Abe and FDR are cracking another cold one.
Best Performance – Tommy Fleetwood
Though Justin Thomas deserves a ton of credit for dragging Atlanta Drive into overtime in its first match and nearly repeating the feat in the team’s second, nobody hit it better on Monday than Tommy Fleetwood. The afternoon began with Fleetwood making an elusive (albeit rock-assisted) par-4 ace in practice, before almost repeating the feat in triples, hitting his 295-yard tee shot inside seven feet. Fleetwood also drained a tricky 17-foot birdie putt down the ridge on the penultimate hole of the match to maintain LAGC’s narrow one-point advantage (for the time being, at least) and holed out in overtime during the closest-to-the-pin challenge. Unfortunately, “Fairway Jesus” could have walked on water and it still wouldn’t have been enough to overcome this next man …
Coors Light Cold, Hard Moment – JT chips in to send it to extras
Off the green ➡️ Overtime pic.twitter.com/w1ocg7VRJT
— TGL (@TGL) February 17, 2025
With LAGC’s Sahith Theegala bunker hopping on the par-5 15th, Justin Thomas only needed to get up and down from just off the green to send Monday’s opening match to overtime. Long-suffering Atlanta sports fans surely expected the worst when the the two-time PGA champ chunked his chip, but after cursing himself out, the legendary self-talker made up for it, draining his second try for birdie. It was easily the most dramatic moment in TGL so far, and the Atlanta Drive rode that momentum to a big 6-5 comeback victory in OT.
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I Am Iron Man – Ludvig Aberg plays back-to-back matches after winning Genesis Invitational 
On Sunday, Ludvig Aberg claimed his first title of 2025, birdieing the 18th hole at Torrey Pines to win the Genesis Invitational. He then boarded a cross-country flight to Florida, arriving home around 3:30 a.m. Monday morning. Less than 12 hours later, he was at the SoFi Center, espresso in hand, leading The Bay to wins in both of its matches. The celebratory beers, jet lag and foil-tray food would be enough to put down a bull elephant, but not the suave Swede who, refreshingly, seems to want play more golf, not less. Oh to be 25 again …
New Look, Same Great Taste – The Hammer 2.0
Last week, TGL announced a complete overhaul of The Hammer, a supposed match-changer that, through five matches, had failed to change much. Instead of just one Hammer shared between two teams, on Monday each team got three to use whenever they chose. The rules were also tweaked to ensure that a mid-hole Hammer could only be denied at the cost of forfeiting the hole. The results were largely a success, as the Hammer was thrown early and often, resulting in big leads and, most importantly, big comebacks.
Prior to Monday, the Hammer’s exploit had been “hoarding,” with the winning team stashing the power-up so the losing side couldn’t make up ground. In the first match of Monday’s tripleheader, Atlanta Drive used all three of its Hammers, including a successful two-point challenge by Billy Horschel on the 13th hole that helped the Fightin’ Arthur Blanks rally from 5-2 down to a 6-5 victory. The Bay also used the Hammer in its second match to erase an early 2-0 deficit and remain undefeated. If you need even more Hammer analysis in your life, check out Shane Ryan’s Hammer academy here.
Best Clock Management – Coach Clark calls the perfect timeout
Min Woo Lee already cooking, let's go pic.twitter.com/CwijzYJwW6
— TGL (@TGL) February 17, 2025
When it comes to sports talking points, timeouts are everybody’s third favorite subject behind referees and free agency. Just ask Chris Webber. On Sunday, they came up big in TGL for the first time, with debutant Min Woo Lee facing a lengthy chip from just off the green on the par-4 fifth. With the shot clock winding down and Lee scrambling for the right club, Wyndham Clark took over head coach duties and called a clutch timeout. Lee then holed his chip for eagle and clinched the hole for The Bay, who went on to win its first match of the day by a single point. See kids, clock management can be fun!
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Worst Clock Management – When icing the kicker goes wrong
On the final hole of the final match of the day, Wyndham Clark needed to make a nine-foot putt to maintain The Bay’s undefeated start to the season. As time ticked down, Boston Common Golf called its final timeout in an ill-fated attempt to ice Clark. Unlike the timeout Clark took earlier in the day, however, that move backfired, allowing the 2023 U.S. Open champ to collect himself and, as he later explained, not putt with the aritficial heartbeat pumping in his ears. Clark drained the putt, leaving McIlroy and Co. to lick their wounds and question their clock strategy moving forward.
Rules! Rules! Rules! – TGL’s first booth review
Nothing gets golf fans’ juices flowing like a good ol’ fashioned rules controversy, and TGL finally delivered with its first-ever booth review on Monday. This time it was to determine whether The Bay had thrown a Hammer before the match referee raised his hand to close the pre-shot window. Upon further review, the call on the field of “no Hammer” stood, and for one brief, shining moment, pedants everywhere got to bask in the glory of replay reviews in golf.
Drip of the Day – Min Woo Lee’s Ricky Watters jersey 
You knew The Bay’s Min Woo Lee was going to come correct for his first-ever TGL match, and he didn’t disappoint, rocking a fresh Ricky Watters 49ers jersey for his walk-in on Monday. Though Lee was just 3 years old when Watters retired in 2001, old heads like me were psyched to see him repping one of the roaring 1990s most underrated running backs, who high-stepped his way to the 1988 National Championship with Notre Dame and a Super Bowl XXIX victory with the Niners. Needless to say, if Lee has the oysters to rock a Jamal Anderson jersey at Augusta National this April, he might eclipse Jason Day as golf’s new drip king. Keegan Bradley, er, not so much …
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
