Grass League 101: It’s Almost Time To Start Paying Attention

If you’re a golfer and you haven’t been following Grass League yet, you’re not alone—but you’re running out of excuses. The 2026 season kicks off April 24 in Tempe, Ariz., and if this thing keeps growing the way it has been, you’re going to wish you’d gotten in earlier.

Let me back up.

It starts with the grass

There’s a concept in golf that doesn’t get nearly enough credit and it starts with the people who make the whole thing possible. Grass clippings. Fairway conditions. The people who are out there at 4 a.m. so that your Sunday round plays perfectly.

Growing up in and around the game, I probably had more friends in course maintenance than course operations. There’s a specific kind of golfer who gets that. Who understands that the love of the game starts at ground level, literally. If that’s you, there’s a decent chance the Grass League concept is going to resonate pretty quickly.

So what actually is Grass League?

With alternative tours, content leagues, simulator events and celebrity scrambles multiplying by the year, it’s fair to be a little confused. Let me break it down:

• It’s a real professional league: Not an influencer scramble or one-off exhibition. Grass League has 11 franchises representing U.S. markets, including Dallas, L.A., New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Minnesota, Michigan, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Tampa Bay and Hollywood, with contracted teams, a $100,00-plus prize purse and a television deal with Golf Channel.
• The format is par-3 scramble: Two-player teams playing a scramble.
• It’s played under the lights: The home venue, Grass Clippings Rolling Hills in Tempe, is a lighted par-3 course with a hilltop bar, food trucks, live music and a crowd that looks a lot more like a concert than a golf gallery.
• The season has three major championship events: the Grass Clippings Open (April), the Summer Grind at Goat Hill Park in Oceanside, Calif., (September) and the GL Championship back in Tempe (December) plus a Match Play Series throughout the year.
• Anyone can qualify: 18 and older, no handicap restrictions. You earn your way in, get drafted by a franchise and suddenly you’re playing alongside PGA Tour veterans in front of a few thousand fans. That part is real.

Five minutes with Pete Wilson will do this to you

I had a chance to sit down with co-founder Pete Wilson to talk through what’s happening with the league heading into 2026, and here’s what I’ll say: his energy is contagious in the best possible way. This is a guy who clearly loves what he’s building and isn’t shy about it. By the end of the conversation, I was half-ready to start working seriously on my par-3 game.

What Wilson described about the players in Grass League will get any great player, golf fan or former professional excited. These are players like Ryan Ruffels, Colt Knost, Jennifer Song and Charlie Beljan. They are PGA Tour and LPGA Tour veterans who can flat-out play but who maybe never got the right stage at the right time. Grass League is that stage.

But the best part? You don’t have to be someone the golf world already knows. If you can play and make the cut, Grass League would be happy to have you.

Why the par-3 is the perfect battlefield

The par-3 levels the playing field in a way no other format really does.

On a par-4 or par-5, you have margin for error. A slightly offline drive can still find the fairway. A chunked approach can still leave a manageable chip. A par-3 doesn’t give you any of that. One shot to get it close, one putt to finish it (if you want to compete).

Last year, I went through some scoring data and the numbers confirm the par-3 is statistically the hardest hole to make par on. Play it as a scramble and you’ve found a format that rewards short-game excellence, nerves and shot-making.

Grass League is good golf compressed into something that works on television, works live and works for people who’ve never watched a tournament in their life.

More to come

If I’ve done nothing else here, I hope I’ve at least made you curious. Pete Wilson’s enthusiasm is infectious and I’m hoping a little of it made it through the screen to you.

We’re going to be back with more Grass League content as the season gets going. In fact, we have three teams of MyGolfSpy staff members competing in the qualifier on April 22. We’ll dig into the players, the stories and, yes, we’ll get into equipment, because that’s our thing.

The lights come on April 24. Trust me, it’s worth watching. (Tickets can be purchased here.)