New York Golf Club defeated No. 1 seeded Los Angeles Golf Club 6-4 on Monday night before Atlanta Drive defeated The Bay Golf Club resoundingly 9-3 on Tuesday to set up an Atlanta Drive-NYGC Finals Series next week.

While both were surprising, neither was a stunner. NYGC came into the playoffs as one of the hotter teams in the league, and Atlanta Drive has been a thorn in everyone’s side all season, and avenged their wild 6-5 loss to TBGC on Presidents Day (their only loss of the season).

Finals Series Format

The Finals Series is best-of-three matches for the right to lift the SoFi Cup, with the opening match between New York and Atlanta on Monday night on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET. The two teams meet again on Tuesday night on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET and, if necessary, there will be a deciding match immediately after at 9 p.m. ET, also on ESPN.

As well as the SoFi Cup, the winning team takes home $9million, while the runners-up earn $4.5million.

Let's dive into a few takeaways from the Semifinals before taking a quick look ahead to the Finals Series showdown.

1. Story of Singles

It came down to Singles. Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood of LAGC were undefeated in Singles during the regular season, and they lost a combined three holes on Monday evening vs. New York.

Conversely, Atlanta Drive were the best team in the league in Singles in the regular season, and they netted five points in six holes on Tuesday vs. The Bay.

Neither match was over when Singles rolled around, but both were decided by one-on-one matchups over the last 30 minutes. Given how well both Atlanta and New York played in the Semifinals, I expect this to be the case again next Monday when the Finals get underway.

MATCH GALLERY: Best photos from Atlanta vs. The Bay Semifinal

2. Clutch Cantlay

Possibly my favorite moment across both Semifinals came on Tuesday evening when TBGC desperately threw the Hammer late in the match, and Patrick Cantlay coldly answered by hitting his shot to 4 feet on the par-3 12th hole.

That was the hole that sealed the match for Atlanta Drive and sent them to the Finals, and it was as good of a shot as we’ve seen in a big moment so far this year.

“I think Ludvig's shown that he's hit great shots all season, and so I'm not surprised that they chose to use him [with the Hammer],” said Cantlay. “But I knew, once it was thrown, it was even more pressure on that shot, and I just tried to focus as much as I could and go to work.”

3. Highest level of play

I thought the NYGC-LAGC matchup on Monday was the highest level of play we have seen so far this season inside SoFi Center. Hammers were used in strategic spots, and players then went and stepped up by hitting great shots.

The best example of this came at the 9th hole, Quick Draw, when both teams made eagle. After Rickie Fowler made his 16-foot putt, NYGC threw the Hammer and Fleetwood covered him up with an 8-foot eagle of his own.

Good strategy, great shots, and the type of play that was intended when the league was formed. It was awesome to watch.

4. TBGC missed Wyndham

It became clear as Tuesday's match went on that The Bay missed its star, and in my opinion the 2025 MVP of the league, Wyndham Clark. The former U.S. Open champion led the league in points won, holes won and strokes gained total in the regular season.

He was a late scratch for Tuesday on account of injury. The Bay never led their Semifinal as Atlanta Drive won two of the first three holes. Even though TBGC is full of terrific players, Clark was clearly missed on a night when they needed his firepower.

5. Finals preview

Atlanta Drive beat NYGC 4-0 back in January in the only shutout of the regular season. A lot has changed since then, though. Namely, the Hammer rules.

There were no Hammers thrown in that first matchup between these two teams, and that will almost certainly not be the case in the best-of-three Finals Series.

“I can guarantee you we're going to throw the Hammer this time,” said Billy Horschel.

NYGC is a different club now than it was then. It is arguably the hottest team in the league going into these Finals, but Atlanta Drive has been better and more consistent across the entire year. It should be a fascinating matchup.

Kyle Porter wrote close to 3 million words about golf over 12 years for CBS Sports and covered 47 majors and five Ryder Cups in the process. He has written three books – Normal Sport 1, 2 and 3 – and built a newsletter of 15,000 golf fans at normalsport.com.