After three blowout matches, TGL wanted some aggressive aptitude, and the start-up league acquired simply that on Monday night time.
Tiger Woods, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner of Jupiter Hyperlinks Golf Membership took down the closely favored Boston Widespread Golf Membership in extra time by a rating of 4-to-3. Boston arrived at its TGL debut with all three of its gamers ranked inside the high 25 on the planet: four-time main winner Rory McIlroy, 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott, and present Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley. Alternatively, Jupiter Hyperlinks had a median world rating of 664 getting into Monday’s match.
However none of that mattered.
On quite a few events, Kim, the star of the present, stepped as much as the plate and delivered. He made a number of putts that wound up halving the opening. He additionally got here near recording the primary hole-in-one in TGL historical past, as his ball settled simply two ft away from the pin on the twelfth gap. Three holes later, Kim virtually holed out from the sand for a birdie, a mere moments after leaving his third shot within the bunker. He did this all whereas yelling, screaming, and engaging the gang, simply as he did on the Presidents Cup final September. Kim’s vitality is precisely what TGL wanted, particularly contemplating the snooze-fest the league’s third match changed into final week.
“I thrive in these workforce environments, and it was so good to have good companions, skilled companions,” Kim mentioned.
“I’m simply so glad we bought some extent as we speak.”
Woods, who co-founded the league with McIlroy, was thrilled with how every thing turned out, particularly since his workforce gained.
“[Kim] was unbelievable coming in right here,” Woods mentioned.
“We did some good work the opposite day, and as we speak it couldn’t have been a extra pleasurable show of golf, banter. Everybody within the viewers was engaged. Hopefully, all of the viewership was engaged. We, as gamers, liked it. That is what we had envisioned for TGL: to have an expertise like this, and I feel we delivered it.”
Certainly, this made-for-TV product lastly delivered. It had unpredictability, an important facet to this enterprise contemplating how whacky and theatrical golf can rapidly develop into. Followers wish to see golf photographs and the place these photographs find yourself — a actuality that may by no means change for so long as individuals watch and play this sport. Monday’s match additionally had large banter, particularly from Woods and Kisner, who delivered a few one-liners that had everybody laughing. Oh, and Woods additionally recorded the primary shot-clock violation in TGL historical past, a joke that may write itself.
“I feel the character of competitors is you’re going to have some matches which can be blowouts, and also you’re going to have some matches which can be actually tight. I feel it was actually cool that tonight was a type of matches that was actually tight. I feel the individuals within the enviornment appeared to take pleasure in it, and hopefully the individuals at dwelling appeared to take pleasure in it, too,” McIlroy mentioned.
“However that doesn’t imply that there’s going to be different matches that mightn’t be as shut. It actually helps from an leisure perspective to have it that night time, however that’s one thing that we will’t assure. That is competitors, as effectively, on the finish of the day, and we’re all making an attempt to beat one another as greatest as we will.”
Contemplating TGL confronted some much-deserved criticism within the weeks after its debut, the league wanted a bounce-back on Monday. And fortunately for golf’s latest enterprise, its most distinguished stars delivered in additional methods than one: followers noticed a aggressive match, loads of joshing, and on high of all of it, everybody — from these on the SoFi Heart to these watching on ESPN — was entertained from begin to end.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By. Comply with him on X @jack_milko.
