Tiger Woods believes that the matchup between his Jupiter Links Golf Club team against fellow co-founder Rory McIlroy and his Boston Common Golf team was what they “had envisioned for TGL”.
In what was the fourth match of the brand new tech-infused golf league, Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club claimed a 4-3 Overtime victory over McIlroy’s Boston Common GC at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens in what was a highly-anticipated matchup.
The match was tied 3-3 after 15 back-and-forth holes and Woods’ teammates, 22-year-old Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner, secured the victory by winning their individual closest-to-the-pin matchups in Overtime against Keegan Bradley and Tom Kim.
“It was a great match all night, back and forth, and exactly what the league needed,” McIlroy said.
“It’s been really cool to hear that a younger demographic, it’s resonated with them.
“One of the visions when we started was to try to engage that younger demographic and give them a bite-sized version of golf that they could get into and understand, and hopefully we’ve done that.”
“It couldn’t have been a more pleasurable display of golf, banter,” Woods added. “Everyone in the audience was engaged. Hopefully all the viewership were engaged. We as players loved it.
“This is what we had envisioned for TGL, to have an experience like this, and I think we delivered.”
While Woods and McIlroy were the headliners, their teammates delivered some of the key moments.
With the match tied 2-2 at the par-3 12th, On the Rocks, Kim hit his tee shot inside three feet for a conceded birdie to give Jupiter the lead. That was one of several big-time shots for TGL’s youngest player, who also made an 8-footer for birdie at the ninth to tie the hole and keep the match even at 1-1 entering Singles.
“I thrive in these environments,” Kim said. “It was so good to have good partners, experienced partners, and I’m just so glad we got a (win) today.”
Scott sent his Boston teammates into a frenzy at the par-3 14th, Set in Stone, making a 31-foot birdie putt to win the hole and tie the match at 3-3.
That putt ultimately sent the match beyond 15 holes and salvaged one point for Boston with the Overtime loss, while Jupiter earned two points with the win to jump into a four-way tie for first in the SoFi Cup Standings.
The inaugural season of TGL teed off on 7th January and will end on 25th March.