Los Angeles Golf Club thumped Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links GC in the second match of the TGL season.
LAGC (Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, and Justin Rose) defeated Jupiter Links (Woods, Kevin Kisner, and Max Homa) by an incredible 12-1 final score.
“At some point when we were up pretty good… I told these guys… let’s keep winning points. We don’t take this lightly. We’re trying to win,” Collin Morikawa said.
“We’re having fun at the same time, but we want to win.”
It was a disastrous opener for Woods, one of TGL’s co-founders, whose team had six penalties through the match. For the second week in a row, a TGL match had been decided before the Singles portion, with LAGC handily winning Triples by a score of 8-1.
The teams continue to play all 15 holes (as the first post-season tiebreaker in TGL is ‘Total Holes Won’), and LAGC continued their dominance through Singles, winning four of the six holes including three in a row to close out the match.
“I think the people here, they got to see how bad pros can be. It was just a boat race. Oh, my goodness,” Woods said with a smile. “But we had a great time.”
Woods, after entering the SoFi Center to a plume of red smoke and ‘Eye of the Tiger’ blasting on the speakers (“That walk-out song that he walked out to gave me chills,” Theegala said) threw the Hammer – meaning the point value of the hole is worth double – on the first hole of the match. Neither team could capitalize, however.
The second hole was a bit of a mess for both teams, with LAGC going up 1-0 despite both teams receiving a penalty on the hole. The match turned in LAGC’s favour on the following hole, with Rose sinking a 10-foot birdie – after throwing the Hammer – to see LAGC go up 3-0. The Los Angeles squad (in front of their initial investor group that includes Serena Williams) was off to the races after that.
LAGC (1-0-0) is tied atop the SoFi Cup standings after two matches with The Bay Golf Club (1-0-0) while Jupiter Links and New York Golf Club remain winless.
Woods, despite the scoresheet, was still able to take some positives about his initial TGL experience as one of the co-founders of the league and, finally, a participant as well.
“This is unique. This is something that golf has never seen before,” Woods said. “It’s really neat, and it was intimate. I think that’s one of the cool things about it. It’s about entertaining. We had a laugh.”
Morikawa and Theegala are actually from California (whereas Rose is from England) and to get a win for Los Angeles, given the wildfires continuing to rage on in various spots around the city, was very meaningful.
“Going back to L.A., it’s very, very special for us to be able to represent that and wear it on our chest,” Morikawa said.
There was no real fight in the Jupiter Links squad throughout the match after getting down early. Kisner was a liability through most of the day – he recorded three penalties on his own – so Rose’s initial birdie roll that set the score to 3-0 was the big, early momentum swing that LAGC took full advantage of.
That was one of three Hammers won by LAGC on the night. It increased its lead to 8-1 at the par-5 ninth hole, earning two points with a par – and putting the match out of reach entering Singles.
“The hammer is huge, and we were in control of the hammer,” Sahith Theegala said. “It did get out of hand a little bit, but we didn’t want to give up any points. We wanted every point that we could get out there.”
Rose had a hot putter through the match, draining a 10-footer on No. 3 along with a 14-footer on No. 8 to make it 6-1.
“Charlie, you want to come play? Come sub in, man” Kisner to Woods’ son, Charlie, who was in the stands watching, after Jupiter Links got down 6-1.
New York Golf Club (Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young) vs. Atlanta Drive GC (Lucas Glover, Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay) on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+
For Jupiter Links GC: Jan. 27 vs. Boston Common Golf (6:30 p.m. ET)
For Los Angeles Golf Club: Feb. 4 vs. Boston Common Golf (9 p.m. ET)
