Patrick Cantlay was disappointed after missing the TGL S2 season opener. An injury sidelined him, but now, he is all set to help his team, Atlanta Drive GC, against the January 7 match against the Bay Golf Club.

The Atlanta Drive shared a happy post on Instagram to share that Cantlay will be contributing in a playing capacity at SoFi Arena, writing, “Welcome back Patty Ice 🥶🧊.” With this move, the remaining roster consists of Billy Horschel and Chris Gotterup.

When Cantlay missed the December 28 match against New York, he was sad about it.  Though the exact details about his injury were not revealed, he has a history of back problems that once kept him away for three years. So, it could be possible that his back pain might have resurfaced, and he wanted to be 100 percent before playing again. Thankfully, his rest worked well because he is now ready to compete. He had to be extra sure, given the PGA Tour ’26 season is about to start in Hawaii.

Last year, Patty was the league’s very best ‘Hammer strategist’ with a huge +13 score. He was also voted as the No. 1 Hammer strategist by other players in the league after the season’s completion. So, Cantkay not being there was shocking, but his team pulled off a win in the season opener. Captain Billy Horschel led a patchwork group featuring Chris Gotterup and Corey Conners to a narrow six-to-four victory. He sank a massive thirty-seven-foot eagle putt on the very last hole of the night.

And while Cantlay returns, two other key veterans are still resting. Lucas Glover remains out, and Justin Thomas had microdiscectomy surgery in November 2025 to fix a disc problem that caused nagging hip pain.

And it’s not just the Atlanta Drive GC; the injury bug is currently biting many of the biggest names across the entire six-team tech league. Tiger Woods is also missing the start of the season as he recovers from another back surgery. He plans to attend the matches to support his team, Jupiter Links, but he won’t play. These missing icons forced the league to use many ‘next man up’ players on emergency contracts.

But amidst all of this, the Tech League turns up the heat.

Tiger Woods’s TGL wins so far

Rory McIlroy and his Boston Common Golf team finally tasted victory after a very long losing streak. They faced the Los Angeles Golf Club in their first match and won with a score of 7-5. The team had a terrible Season 1, where they failed to win a single one of their matches.

McIlroy played very well in the Triples format to earn some early points for his Boston squad. But the main hero of the night for Boston was actually a young substitute player named Michael Thorbjornsen. He played because Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott were unavailable due to their busy schedules.  Thorbjornsen first sank an 11-footer on Hole 4, then hammered a 17-foot putt on Hole 12 to seize a 6–5 lead, and earned the victory with a huge 16-foot eagle putt on the final hole.

And the TGL Season 2 is crossing many big milestones compared to the first year’s debut.

The Season 2 opener on ABC drew an average of 646,000 viewers, according to media journalist Josh Carpenter. Though the number is roughly 30% below the league’s Season 1 debut on ESPN, it is more than anyone expected because the match was played at the same time as NFL games. It outperformed other winter golf events like the PNC Championship, Grant Thornton Invitational, and the World Champions Cup easily.

The league is reaching a much younger audience than any traditional golf broadcast can today. Around forty-two percent of the viewers are under the age of forty-nine right now. This number is thirteen years younger than a normal PGA Tour fan. This digital dominance is exactly what everyone wants!