Sunday’s season opener between Atlanta and New York was a continuation of the action-packed drama fans enjoyed in the inaugural Finals last spring. Back like he never left, Billy Horschel drained the second-longest putt in TGL history on the closing hole to give the defending champs an opening day win.

Will Friday’s matchup between Los Angeles Golf Club and Boston Common Golf offer more of the same?

HOW TO WATCH: Boston Common Golf vs. Los Angeles Golf Club

Or will Rory McIlroy’s crew break through with a win?

New Face for Boston

Alternate Michael Thorbjornsen will make his TGL debut for Boston Common Golf. He’s an electrifying ball-striking talent, a past U.S. Junior Amateur Champion and Pac-12 Player of the Year for Stanford.

Last season, Thorbjornsen led the PGA TOUR in both total driving and greens in regulation. Over the last 25 years, the only other players to lead both of those statistics in the same season are Henrik Stenson in 2015 and Tiger Woods in 2000.

Boston’s primary issue last season though was not in the ScreenZone. As a team, they gained 12.1 strokes with their ball striking (shots into the ScreenZone) last year.

On shots on and around the green, they lost 9.5 strokes to the competition. Short putting was by far their biggest issue: On putts six feet or shorter (excluding gimmies) Boston Common Golf made just 58.3% of its putts. All other TGL teams holed them at a 86.4% clip.

Triples trouble for Frogs?

When these two teams met last year, Los Angeles got off to a huge lead in Triples and never looked back. LAGC outscored Boston 5-0 in the opening nine holes, making five putts to Boston’s one.

It was a microcosm of the two teams’ entire seasons in that format. In the regular season, LAGC earned 17 points in Triples, while Boston managed to win just nine.

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Continuity will also be on LA’s side, as all three players in their lineup have plenty of TGL reps under their belts. Thorbjornsen’s debut adds an additional layer of uncertainty to Boston’s alternate shot approach.

If you’re partial to course history, LAGC has a huge leg-up as well. Two of the first five holes in Friday’s match are new, but on the other three (Alpine, Fallen Pine and Set In Stone) Los Angeles was a combined 8-0-6 in Season 1 – unbeaten in 14 tries.

Boston’s record on those three holes a season ago was 2-5-7.

McIlroy’s Singles Setup

In Singles, Rory will line up against long-time Ryder Cup teammate and the man he beat in a playoff last April at Augusta National to complete the grand slam, Justin Rose. There’s reason to be bullish on McIlroy’s prospects on both holes the two will play – The Spear (10th) and Bluebonnet (13th).

First, Rory’s power will be a massive advantage at The Spear. Last season, McIlroy was one of just three players (in 30 times played) to hit that green in two shots. McIlroy’s average driving distance in TGL last season was 11 yards ahead of Rose – and he was more than 20 yards ahead of him in PGA TOUR play.

Bluebonnet is a short par four where an aggressive decision on the tee box has been extremely beneficial. Last season, players who went for the green (or the area near it) gained a whopping 0.83 strokes on average over players who decided to lay up.

McIlroy has long been one of the most prolific players in the world when it comes to going for it under regulation – last season on Tour he went for it 73.1% of the time. Rose, on the other hand, was just over 52%. The holes in play for Singles should give McIlroy a distinct advantage over Rose.

Early returns on new green

One of the biggest changes inside SoFi Center in Season 2 is the new, expanded putting surface players will navigate.

One match in, players are hitting the cup more often: New York and Atlanta Drive combined to make 113 feet of putts in Sunday’s match. The average combined length last season was just 83 feet. A storyline to watch on Friday.

LAGC’s consistency

Sahith Theegala fought through a frustration-filled 2025, dealing with a number of injuries that kept him out of two majors. But before that he was arguably the most consistent ball striker in TGL’s opening season.

Consider this: Theegala had positive strokes gained on a staggering 87% of his ScreenZone shots last year – by far the highest rate of any qualified player.

Rose was a reliable asset for LAGC, too. The Englishman averaged 0.56 points won per hole played, making him the only player with a rate better than 0.5. Oh, and the team’s no. 2 player on Friday, Collin Morikawa, didn’t lose a hole in Singles in 2025 (3-0-5).

Boston Common Golf has a lot to overcome in order to pick up its first match win as a franchise.

Justin Ray's Prediction: Los Angeles Golf Club (+100 at FanDuel), odds accurate at time of publication