New York Golf Club is in the win column.
NYGC notched its first win of the inaugural TGL season with a 10-3 victory over Tiger Woods and Jupiter Links Golf Club on Tuesday at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Rickie Fowler, Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick propelled NYGC to 1-2 through three matches, while Woods, Tom Kim, Kevin Kisner and JLGC dropped to the same record and was unable to build any momentum after its previous win over Boston Common Golf.
Notably, Tuesday marked Woods’ return to golf after he announced he would not play in last week’s Genesis Invitational following the death of his mother, Kultida Woods, who died on Feb. 4 at the age of 80.
The 15-time major champion was unable to lead his team to victory upon his return, but the match still drew plenty of social-media reaction:
Tuesday’s format had the teams compete in triples for the first nine holes before six one-hole singles matches. Teammates alternated shots in the triples format with drives and iron shots into the simulator and chips and putts on the putting green.
The addition of the Hammer rule also created another variable.
While holes were each worth one point, each team was given three Hammers to use over the course of the match. If a Hammer was thrown and accepted, the value of the hole increased by one point. That meant a hole could be worth as many as three points if both teams threw and accepted Hammers.
It took a Hammer to give JLGC its first momentum after a difficult start.
Kim drilled a putt on the final hole of triples to make it 8-2 after NYGC came storming out of the gates. Perhaps it was something Pete Alonso told them ahead of the match, as the New York Mets star led them out for pregame introductions before the victors jumped out to a commanding 8-0 lead through the first eight holes.
To Woods’ credit, he helped JLGC build on the Hammer momentum by draining a birdie to win the first one-hole singles point. However, Fowler answered right back with a birdie of his own as NYGC made sure there wasn’t much drama down the stretch.
Perhaps the most entertaining moment of the evening came when Woods thought he was 99 yards away on the 13th hole when he was actually 199 yards away. He pulled out a wedge and hit it well short, which led to plenty of laughter from his teammates.
Woods joked on the ESPN broadcast that it was one of the most embarrassing moments of his golfing career as the laid-back and entertaining style of TGL took center stage.
There would be no victory for JLGC, but it was clear they were still enjoying themselves in this new golf format that has kept the sport under the spotlight even during weekdays with no tournaments.
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