Season 1 laid a promising foundation. Gameplay got smoother every match.

Players with scores of achievements on the course were invested in the race for the SoFi Cup inside SoFi Center. It all culminated in two excellent Finals matches, each decided by a single point.

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Here are ten key notes to know ahead of Season 2 of TGL, which begins Sunday, December 28 at 3 PM ET on ABC.

1. Mastery of the Hammer is vital

It’s no coincidence that the team that used the Hammer most effectively in Season 1 won the first SoFi Cup. Atlanta Drive GC threw the most Hammers of any team (21), averaged the most points per Hammer thrown (0.6) and racked up a league-best +21 point differential on holes where the Hammer was thrown.

Meanwhile, the two teams that missed the postseason, Boston Common Golf (-7) and Jupiter Links GC (-12), had the two worst Hammer point differentials. A winning Hammer strategy is one of the most vital elements to TGL team success.

2. Value of the lineup

Teams have the benefit of knowing which holes they will be playing that particular match. A well-crafted lineup can put players in the best position to succeed. For instance, the drive at ‘Quick Draw’ was statistically the most valuable of any tee shot in Season 1 of TGL with an average of 0.48 strokes gained. Atlanta had Justin Thomas – their player with the longest average driver carry distance – play that hole three times in singles. JT went unbeaten, winning twice and tying the third time.

Billy Horschel will be taking on Quick Draw on Sunday for Atlanta, with JT out of the lineup.

On the flipside, Boston Common Golf didn’t use one of its most valuable assets – Rory McIlroy’s driver – to its full potential. In Triples, McIlroy hit less than driver on more than half (8 of 15) of his tee shots in Season 1, among the highest such rates of any player. Boston did not win a single one of those holes, going 0-3-5.

3. GreenZone execution

It seems simple enough: make more putts, win more holes. That was overwhelmingly true on TGL’s unique putting surface last year. Season 1 champions Atlanta Drive GC made 33 putts of five feet or longer, ten more than any other team. From five to ten feet away, Atlanta made 69.7% of its putts for the season. The rest of the league? Just 58.0%.

Putting from 5 ft to 10 ft: Season 1

All four postseason matches were won by the side that made more feet of putts. For the entire season, when a side made 10+ more feet of putts than their opponents, they had a record of 9-4.

4. Atlanta Drive GC’s difficult title defense

The defending champs enter the season as the betting favorite at around +260 at FanDuel to take the SoFi Cup again, but it’s going to be an uphill climb. Out following back surgery, Justin Thomas is an enormous missing piece for Atlanta Drive GC. JT accounted for a team-high 37% of ADGC’s strokes gained total last season. He ranked second among all TGL players in strokes gained off the tee and fourth in strokes gained putting.

Veteran Lucas Glover, who competed in two matches last season, has big shoes to fill. Strategically, Glover could be a valuable asset off the tee in certain situations, as he’s ranked in the top-15 on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy for four consecutive seasons. He didn't miss a fairway in his TGL matches last season.

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5. LAGC looks to avenge early playoff exit

Los Angeles topped the inaugural SoFi Cup Standings, earning the postseason’s No. 1 seed with a 4-0-1 regular season record. LAGC led the regular season in singles holes won (13), so it was a bit of a surprise to see NYGC clip them in Semifinal Singles, three to two.

Los Angeles Golf Club was one of the most consistent teams in Season 1. Justin Rose led all players in average points won per hole played (0.56). Sahith Theegala had positive strokes gained on 87% of his ScreenZone shots last year, the highest rate of any TGL player. Across both the Triples and Singles formats, only Atlanta (20.8%) lost a lower percentage of holes than LAGC (22.2%).

6. The Bay are ScreenZone savants

No team pummeled the TGL big screen more effectively in Season 1 than The Bay GC. The quartet of Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee and Shane Lowry led all teams in driver ball speed, swing speed, carry distance, total distance and percentage of drives hit 320 or more yards. Each of the six highest ball speeds generated last season came from The Bay, with five of those belonging to Min Woo.

Speaking of the chef, “Dr. Chipinski” led all TGL players in strokes gained around the green (+1.26). The Bay had the right recipe for the team portion of Season 1: their +11 point differential in Triples was by far the best of any team.

The Bay GC currently has the second-highest odds to win the SoFi Cup at FanDuel Sportsbook, behind Atlanta Drive. That number doesn’t represent how good they can be.

7. Boston aims for big turnaround

Despite missing the postseason last year, Boston Common Golf enters Season 2 with the second-lowest odds to win the championship. That’s not too far-fetched a proposition as Boston is the only TGL roster in which every player is a major champion.

Boston struggled immensely on short putts last season. On non-conceded putts six feet and in, Boston Common Golf had a make rate of 58.3%. For the other five teams combined, that number was 86.4%. They were very good on par fives with a record of 8-5-12 and drove par five greens in two more than any other team. But on par three and four holes combined, they won just eight times across five matches.

8. Return of Tom ‘Sim’

Jupiter Links GC’s Season 1 highlight reel leaned far more on moments of levity than victory. Tiger’s crew ranked last in the league in Triples holes won, Singles holes won and almost every strokes gained statistic for the season. Their brightest star was the magnetic Tom Kim, who led all TGL players in strokes gained putting last year. Kim wound up with 6.8 strokes gained total in Season 1 – the rest of his team combined for -25.3.

For all of Jupiter Links GC’s struggles last season, they did run into some tough luck, too. JLGC opponents made an average of more than 42 feet of putts per match, the highest rate for any team. Opponents averaged 4.8 birdies-or-better in Jupiter Links’ matches, also the highest for any team last year.

9. Big Shot Billy

The defining moment of the inaugural season came in Match 2 of the Finals, when Billy Horschel nailed a double-breaking 17-foot putt to give Atlanta a lead they would not relinquish. It was a fitting end, considering no player had been more clutch than Horschel in Season 1.

Horschel hit a total of nine shots last season in Singles when there were four or fewer holes left to play, the match was within three points and the outcome was still in question. In those situations, Horschel had the best strokes gained average (+0.36) of any player with five or more opportunities.

10. Finals rematch in season opener

Atlanta and New York faced off three times last season. While the two sides combined to tie 4-4 in Triples across those matches, ADGC dominated Singles, 10 to 4.

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Meanwhile, how will Matt Fitzpatrick’s recent run of good form translate to SoFi Center? He’s coming off a run of eight top-ten finishes in his last 12 worldwide starts, including a win at the DP World Tour Championship last month. And can Cameron Young’s quantum leap on the greens continue into TGL? He jumped from 145th in strokes gained putting on the PGA TOUR in 2024 to 7th this past season. He also owns the record of longest putt in TGL history after sinking a 38 ft 6in putt back in February.

NYGC started last season 0-2 before surging to the Finals with four straight wins. The two Finals matches were incredibly tight, each decided by a single point. Expect more of that Sunday.

Match 1 Pick: New York GC (+110), odds accurate at time of publication