TGL’s new rosters speak to bigger picture for league’s future | News

TGL, the simulator golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, returns this winter for its third season after a successful inaugural campaign that proved the concept and a second season that added new holes, tweaked gameplay and built momentum.

TGL’s third season will see a new team enter the mix, too, as Motor City GC will be the league’s seventh franchise. On Tuesday, TGL announced the complete rosters for its third season, and there have been some changes along with the introduction of Motor City GC. Before, teams had four players on a roster, with three participating each week. Now, teams will have five players, but still only three players will tee it up for each match at the SoFi Center in Florida.

The third season of TGL has seen a few big names exit the simulator league while several new players have joined. TGL also completed its first trade on Monday before the full rosters were announced for the upcoming season.

TGL will return on Dec. 27. Here are the rosters for each team.

Atlanta Drive

Roster: Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay, Chris Gotterup, Michael Brennan

Lucas Glover helped Atlanta win the inaugural SoFi Cup but will no longer be participating in the league in Year 3. Gotterup, who won three times on the PGA Tour in 2026 and starred at the Presidents Cup, was an alternate for the Drive last season but will be a full-time player this season. Brennan won the Wyndham Championship and Baycurrent Classic this past season and will now join TGL as the fifth member of the Drive.

The Bay Golf Club

Roster: Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Ludvig Aberg, Blades Brown and Ryan Fox

Bay Golf has been one of TGL’s most entertaining teams for the first two seasons, but it’ll look a little different this year. On Monday, TGL announced that Shane Lowry had been traded from Bay Golf Club to Boston Common Golf for the fourth pick in TGL’s roster formation process (a draft) and a future pick. With Lowry leaving, the Bay Golf Club added reigning Champion Golfer of the Year Ryan Fox and 19-year-old budding star Blades Brown, who earned his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour this past season.

Boston Common Golf

Roster: Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama and Michael Thorbjornsen

Trading for Lowry was Boston’s big addition for Year 3. Adam Scott, who played on Boston Common Golf for the first two seasons, will not participate in Season 3. Thorbjornsen, who won the Rocket Classic this past season, was an alternate for Boston Common last year and will now be a full-time player.

Jupiter Links Golf Club

Roster: Tiger Woods, Tom Kim, Max Homa, Akshay Bhatia and Keith Mitchell

Woods spent most of the season “coaching” Jupiter Links while he recovered from surgeries on his ruptured Achilles tendon and back. But he returned for the TGL Finals, where Jupiter Links lost to Los Angeles Golf Club. That brief TGL appearance was Woods’ only competitive stint in 2026 as he stepped away from golf to focus on himself following his DUI arrest in March. It’s unclear when Woods will return to the PGA Tour, but as a co-founder, he will (obviously) be part of TGL Season 3.

Woods will return to Jupiter Links alongside Kim and Homa. They’ll be joined by Bhatia, who was an alternate last year, and Mitchell, who is new to the league. Kevin Kisner, a founding member of Jupiter Links, will no longer play on TGL.

Los Angeles Golf Club

Roster: Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala and Ben James

The defending champions will bring back their entire title-winning roster and add one of the PGA Tour’s bright young stars in James to round out their team. Fleetwood, Rose and Theegala triumphed over Jupiter Links in the TGL Finals last season as Morikawa dealt with a back injury. James joined the PGA Tour in June after earning his card by finishing first in PGA Tour University.

Motor City Golf Club

Roster: Brooks Koepka, Jackson Koivun, Si Woo Kim, Jake Knapp and Bud Cauley

Koepka was Motor City GC’s first selection in the roster formation process. After the other teams used their first-round picks to retain an alternate, Motor City GC selected Koivun, golf’s next big thing, with its second pick. It rounded out the roster for the expansion team with Kim, Knapp and Cauley.

New York Golf Club

Roster: Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Cameron Young, Ben Griffin and Alex Fitzpatrick

The biggest name to exit TGL is two-time major champion Xander Schauffele, who is leaving the league after the first two years. Schauffele’s founding teammates — Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young — are still on NYGC. They’ll be joined by Matt’s brother, Alex, and Ben Griffin, who are both newcomers to the simulator league.

Big takeaway

There’s a world in which the third season of TGL is where the dome simulator league started to fade away. The initial two-year deals for players and television rights were up and a professional screen golf league might have a short lifespan in the low-attention, screen-scrolling economy.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case for TGL.

TGL and ESPN agreed on a new multi-year deal and the addition of young stars like Koivun, Brennan, Thorbjornsen and Brown shows that while TGL might not be for all golf fans, it could be a place for golf’s next generation. Everyone is interested in what the future holds for Koivun, who won in his third pro start and was a Presidents Cup star. Brennan has put himself on the Ryder Cup radar and Brown just became the youngest ever to earn a PGA Tour card. Their interest in TGL shows there’s reason to believe TGL can keep building toward a bright future.

It’s obviously OK to just want to watch Koivun or Brennan or Rory at Augusta, Pebble, St. Andrews or Riviera and not watch screen golf. TGL isn’t for everyone, nor does it have to be. But if it’s popular enough among PGA Tour pros and can be interesting and entertaining to a new demographic of fans that golf is trying to reach — those in Koivun’s age range — then it will be a success. As always, it’s a startup with work to do. But an injection of young talent, expanding rosters and a new franchise led by Koepka and Koivun show that TGL’s arrow is still pointing in the right direction.