PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — If success can be measured by the amount of joy someone derives from a given enterprise, then Shane Lowry would have to say that the premiere edition of TGL went exceedingly well.

After his Bay Golf Club team had completed a practice rehearsal match on Monday at SoFi Center against the New York Golf Club, Lowry gushed that it was “the most fun two hours I’ve ever had on the golf course.” And it was no different Tuesday when the lights were on, the 1,500 seats filled and the broadcast live. It certainly didn’t hurt that he and teammates Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg were dominant in a 9-2 victory, but the overall feeling among the participants, at least on opening night, was one of satisfaction that the proceedings were met with approval.

“I’m about to set off into my 17th year as a pro or 17th season, and I think some weeks can be, like, monotonous and tough, but this is just something different and something fun,” the former Open champion said. “I love the big weeks, and I love playing in front of big crowds, and I really struggle to get up for certain events when the crowd is not so big and the energy is not there. But the energy is going to be here every night we play, and I’m really looking forward to that.”

Indeed, there was plenty of energy. That’s what you would expect when something is new and different, and TGL is different—from the gigantic screen and the high-tech simulator to the ever-changing green site to the engagement of the fans. Loud music was a constant during the competition and fans cheered, booed and counted down as the 40-second shot clock neared zero.

The normally stoic Aberg, for one, soaked in the different atmosphere. “I think it’s just the whole stadium environment … to have the crowd going and you have the speakers really loud. Obviously, we don’t really have that on the golf course,” he said. “I think it’s really cool to be in a crowded environment where the people are literally on top of you and screaming. There’s a lot of betting going on, so you’ll hear some guy saying, don’t miss it, don’t do that. I think that’s really cool. When I watch other sports, that’s what I really like, and I’m definitely looking forward to playing more of these so I can experience that a lot more this season.”

Xander Schauffele, who looked genuinely miffed at how badly he, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick played in the loss, also acknowledged how the intimate stadium setting made for a more enervating atmosphere. He didn’t mind the booing, partly because he’s been booed before.

“That was as bad as it could have possibly gone for the New York Golf Club today,” said the two-time major winner. “Bummer to let my boys down here, and it was a rough go. I heard a couple boos in the crowd when I duffed my chip there [on the 12th hole], so I was definitely motivated to do a little better next time.

“They had good reason to boo,” he added with a tight smile. “I probably would have booed me, too.”

Mostly, though, there was much to cheer about, or at least find worthy of giving a thumbs up, and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, co-founders of the TMRW Sports venture that created TGL, each spent considerable time in the ESPN broadcast booth soaking in the general all-around good vibes of the first of 15 regular-season matches.

Here are five other takeaways from the first night of the new league:

Guys already are in love … with the shot clock.

With a 40-second shot clock, play moved as briskly as one might expect, but none of the six players felt rushed or seemed to have an issue with it. When asked if there was one aspect of TGL that could be applied to traditional tournament golf, Fowler quickly replied, “shot clock, no question.” Teammates Schauffele and Fitzpatrick nodded in agreement.

Of course, there already is a shot clock in traditional golf—or at least a time limit designated under Rule 5.6 of the Rules of Golf. Enforcement of the rule is the real issue; in TGL with an actual clock making everybody aware of the matter as well as a referee on hand to dole out penalties without compunction, that enforcement is real.

“I didn’t feel rushed at all,” Fowler said. “We play quick as it is, so even [Monday, during a rehearsal match] was the first time I played with the shot clock and stuff. It was much faster than I thought, but … I felt like I had time to choose my shot. I just wish that was real golf, as well.”

He isn’t alone.

The technology scored an ace.

There were little in the way of hiccups on opening night, leaving Bay Golf Club team member Wyndham Clark all smiles.

Megan Briggs/TGL

Players had no complaints with the simulator portion of the competition. All the technology applied from the Full Swing radar devices and Top Tracer optical cameras appears to be money well spent. “Everything into the screen I think is very accurate,” Schauffele said.

That the New York team members seemed to struggle, especially on approach shots that continually missed the green or left them with long putts, only validated the realism of the virtual aspects.

“Yeah, I had a lot [of trouble] but probably just didn’t play very well because Ludvig didn’t seem to have any,” Fitzpatrick said.

“When you see it hit the screen with a little bit of curve, we kind of already know which way it’s going, and maybe we feel like it’s not that far off, but if it’s on the green to 45 feet from 205 yards, that’s kind of where it would probably go, to be honest,” Schauffele said. “It makes it worse, a little bit of salt in the wound when those guys are hitting it to five feet on each and every hole, stacking it on top of us. Yeah, I’d say it was very accurate.

“They were playing on the same system we were, so …,” Rickie added, his thought trailing off, indicating that the Bay Club simply played better, and the results reflected that.

More trash talk and banter, please.

There was plenty of chatter throughout the two-hour program, and the cheering, exhorting and trash talking among the six competitors felt organic and not forced while adding a layer of entertainment. That’s probably due to their proximity to one another in the confines of the arena and the players buying in to their roles as more than just golfers hitting shots.

There could have been more, but as Schauffele pointed out, you have to play decent golf for the license to get mouthy. “Pretty hard to talk smack … I like talking smack, but pretty hard to talk smack when you’re losing by 10 points,” he said.

Even while getting drubbed, New York Golf Club team members Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler looked like they were having fun.

Megan Briggs/TGL

Most of the good stuff actually came out in the post-match interview. And mostly from Clark. “I thought it would be a little more of a match, I have to be honest,” he said.

“You’re going to make us the most hated team,” Lowry interjected.

“That’s my plan,” Clark replied, smirking.

With the match secured after the 10th hole, Lowry admitted that he and his teammates discussed making more of an effort on giving fans a show. “There is an element of entertainment out there, and even I said to the boys after we finished, like when the match was over after 11 holes, I said, the next half an hour we probably need to be better than we were in the entertainment kind of space, I suppose. I’m not sure if we were, but we did talk about it.”

It was better on TV.

Not sure how they will fix this, but just like most regular tournaments, the TGL match was a better experience from your living room than from the 1,500-seat arena. Fowler exposed the shortcoming for the in-person ticketholder as he was losing the 10th hole to Lowry—at which juncture the Bay Club secured victory.

The in-person experience was fun for those watching Aberg, Lowry and Clark roll to victory, but allowing ticket holders to listen in more to the player chatter is something to think about moving forward.

Mike Ehrmann/TGL

Having made bogey, Fowler conceded Lowry’s eight-foot birdie putt. Then he told Lowry to hit the putt anyway, knowing that fans in attendance weren’t aware he had conceded. When Lowry struck the putt, Fowler dropped the flagstick in front of the ball. Viewers could hear the byplay but arena spectators weren’t privy to the discussion. Going forward, there has to be a way for the ticket holder to hear all the chatter while not toning down the vibe from the music that plays constantly. Later on, Fowler made a point of saying, “the biggest driver is how it does on TV and how people view it, and if it does well there, I mean, it’s kind of the sky’s the limit with what you could do.”

The jury is still out on the long-term prospects of the enterprise.

One match is not a sufficient sample size to gauge the sustainability of the TGL enterprise. With underpinning from big-time investors and business entities, it has a too-big-to-fail aura that should carry this version of stadium golf for at least a few years and possibly for many seasons to come.

Clark talked afterward about the league’s potential, noting that more stadiums could be built like the SoFi Center on the campus of Palm Beach State College, and virtual holes could possibly be created to favor a certain team, “and that’s our home course advantage.

“There’s so many different things you could do. You could obviously make it bigger,” he added. “I think as this continues to grow, and I really think it will, and we get better at playing the game and obviously the trash talking, I think as there start to become rivalries between teams and more banter, I think people are going to enjoy it.”

Fowler also saw the potential for arenas in different locations around the country, while Schauffele suggested that the TGL blueprint can work beyond the professional level. “If

this thing does really well, then you could do celebrity matches, you could get other athletes in a building like this,” he said. “The fact that it takes two hours to play, it’s quick, it’s different. So the idea, of course, is to grow, get more people to play some golf.”

For now, however, TGL is just an experiment of sorts. The first group of test subjects offered their approval. Despite the one-sided result, the match was without hiccups or technical issues. It went quite well.

“It’s really cool walking into an arena and doing what we got to do,” Fowler said. “This is something fun for the game of golf. It’s not trying to compete with what we do on the tour. This is a supplement to the game and hopefully open some people’s eyes to what is possible.”

Asked about TGL’s future, Lowry smiled and replied, “We’ve got Tiger Woods next week, so we’ll do all right next week, I know that.”

Hey, it’s a start.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com