TGL, the indoor golf league that’s serving as a nice bridge between the holidays and the Masters, continued a strong streak of matches on Tuesday night in a battle between Rickie Fowler’s New York Golf Club and Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club. New York got the better of the battle, blowing out Jupiter by a final score of 10-3.
The evening marked Woods’ first public golf since losing his mother last week. He had intended to play in last week’s Genesis Invitational, but withdrew as a player from that event as he continued to grieve. He briefly visited the Genesis on Sunday as the tournament’s host, then joined Kevin Kisner and Tom Kim Tuesday to play against Fowler, Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.
New York GC came into the match as the weakest of TGL’s six teams, with an 0-2 record and a 2-12 record in all holes played. Jupiter was slightly better at 1-1, with a 4-12 record in holes won. But New York leaped out to a strong lead, winning the first hole after Woods missed a 5-footer to tie and then capturing another seven straight points to stake an 8-0 lead through eight holes.
Though there were struggles — particularly Jupiter, which couldn’t seem to keep the ball in play — both teams had moments of individual excellence. Kevin Kisner, so often the butt of jokes during his early rounds of TGL play, nearly came up huge early in Tuesday’s match:
But it was Fowler who had the early shot of the match, nearly holing out from 200 “yards” away from the virtual hole.
Both teams made quick use of TGL’s newly updated hammer rules, which give each team three hammers to throw in order to double the value of the hole. Jupiter’s hammer on the second hole went unused as the hole was halved, but New York’s first hammer on the third hole allowed Fowler and Co. to get a quick two points on the board.
Kim finally stopped Jupiter’s bleeding, winning on the final hole of triples with a 12-foot putt that just caught the right edge of the cup. With the benefit of a thrown hammer, Kim’s putt sent the match to singles with New York up 8-2.
In the first hole of singles, Woods overwhelmed Young to take another point. But Fowler bounced back with a win over Kisner to extend the lead back to 9-3. Jupiter threw its final hammer on the 12th, but couldn’t take advantage as Kim and Fitzpatrick halved the hole. Young got revenge on Woods on the 13th, adding another point to New York’s total. Kisner and Fowler tied the 14th, and Kim and Fitzpatrick halved the 15th, to put the final score at 10-3. The night marked quite the turnaround for NYGC, which had won all of two holes in its previous two matches.
On a larger scale, Tuesday closed out TGL’s most active week yet with a flourish. The Jupiter-New York match wasn’t as competitive as Monday’s three throwdowns, but the presence of Tiger Woods gave the night an elevated air. TGL appears to be finding its groove, and the combination of celebrity and close matches should keep fans tuning in for the last few weeks of the league’s season.
TGL returns next Monday with a doubleheader, Los Angeles vs. New York at 5 p.m. ET and Boston vs. Atlanta at 9 p.m. ET. Both matches will be on ESPN2.
