Jan.6, – PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – On a night where TMRW Sports introduced a new component of TGL to start later in the year – the WTGL (in association with the LPGA Tour), Billy Horschel and his Atlanta Drive kept it rolling at TGL, defeating The Bay Golf Club, 7-4 Tuesday at the SoFi Center. Atlanta is now 2-0-0 and leading the standings in its bid to repeat as champs.
The Bay kept it close for most of the match, all knotted at 3 apiece thru the first 10 holes.
Earlier in the season, Atlanta dealt with injuries to Justin Thomas, Lucas Glover and Patrick Cantlay, but no matter who Atlanta puts out there with Horschel, the team seems to thrive in the spotlight. Now with Cantlay back, Chris Gotterup showed that he’s more than just an alternate fill-in. His unlikely chip-in (standing in the greenside bunker with both feet well below the ball) on the 6th hole “Alpine”, seemed to flip the momentum back in their favor. The Bay was primed to win the hole facing a very makeable birdie attempt inside 10 ft, but Gotterup’s hole out gave Horschel the opportunity to toss the Hammer, which he did, ultimately resulting in a decline from The Bay.
Cantlay had some heroics of his own, chipping in for birdie from 41 feet at the 9th hole, to keep Atlanta in the lead entering Singles.
When Shane Lowry dealt Billy Ho his first loss in singles competition (The Drive declined The Bay’s final Hammer of the match), it looked as if The Bay was in a prime position to claim revenge for their season 1 playoff drubbing at the hands of Atlanta.
Gotterup proved to be the unofficial MVP of the night when he gave Atlanta a 4-3 lead at the “Stinger” (11th hole), where he brought a club specifically for this tee shot – a 1-iron to keep the trajectory low enough under the overhanging rock. He did just that, his tee shot came off like a low bullet at 1.7 degrees of launch, it carried 185 yards and finished 300 yards down the fairway. Aberg put his tee shot into the water and lost the hole.
“We have guys on the team that enjoy it,” Horschel said. “We enjoying being with each other… we enjoy being in here and this is
such a cool environment.”
This was the seventh consecutive victory for an Atlanta team that continues to dominate in Singles, boasting a +25 point-
differential in the format, tops in TGL.
It’s even more impressive considering they’ve done so without Justin Thomas, who sat out the first two matches as he recovers
from offseason surgery.
Atlanta (2-0-0) won’t play again until Monday February 2nd at 5 pm vs Jupiter Links.
Coming late 2026…
