TGL: Battle of the Creators

The first three weeks of the inaugural TGL season have been full of fun moments, but not the closest matches. Despite Kevin Kisner’s laser beam at the flagstick and some pretty solid trash talk, no match has been closer than four holes.

That all changed once Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links played their second match of the season against Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf in their season debut.

The rest of the Links lineup consisted of Kisner, playing in his second match, and Tom Kim, who made his TGL debut. Boston’s lineup outside of McIlroy included 2025 Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose.

Even after the solid debut in week one, Woods’ electric debut in week two, and a pretty dull week three, all the hype was placed on the battle of the creators of the league in this matchup.

During week two, it was obvious there was plenty of adrenaline pumping for the golfers, and this week was much of the same.

Hole one of triples was off to a relatively normal start until Woods did the unthinkable and missed a six-foot putt. After that, McIlroy threw the “Hammer” and also missed his five-foot putt in the clutch, causing the hole to be a tie.

Hole two would be relatively uneventful after ending in a tie, but the par-three third hole was when Boston would put the first points on the board. A tee shot into the bunker by Kim while Bradley put Boston safely on the green ended Jupiter’s chances of winning the hole.

On the sixth hole, however, Kim made up for his mistake on the third by putting Jupiter just off of the green while Bradley’s tee shot went out of bounds, inciting a penalty for Boston. By the end of the sixth, the match was all tied at 1-1.

On the ninth hole, both teams had close putts with Bradley putting from 11 feet while Kim was putting from seven. Bradley sunk the putt, and the pressure was on Kim.

After being a star for most of the front nine, a clutch putt was nothing new for him, sinking the seven-footer to tie the hole and celebrating like he hit a walk-off home run afterward.

Coming out of halftime tied at 1-1, it was Woods versus McIlroy to start the singles matches. Both players arrived at the green just fine on the par five tenth hole, but Woods blew his first putt by the hole, leaving him eight feet for birdie.

McIlroy would go on to just miss his eagle putt while draining his birdie attempt. With a chance to tie the hole, Woods yet again did the unthinkable, taking a shot clock violation to lose Jupiter the hole, giving Boston the lead, 2-1.

On the next hole, Kisner and Scott squared off. On their approach shots, Kisner left himself 25 feet for birdie while Scott ended up just outside of a bunker that was left of the green, swinging with an awkward stance. Kisner got his putt into gimme range, finishing the hole with a par.

All Scott had to do was get this shot somewhat close and sink the putt, but instead, he totally botched the shot, allowing Jupiter to tie the match at 2-2.

It was then Kim’s turn to tee off on the par three twelfth hole, and he continued his Monday night heroics by almost hitting the first hole-in-one in TGL history.

He settled with a birdie, the closest shot to the pin in TGL history, and a win on the hole to give Jupiter their first lead of the night, 3-2.

After that, Scott made up for his blunder on the eleventh by winning the fourteenth hole, tying the match. Kim did all he could on the final hole of regulation, but he and Bradley ended up tying.

That meant that for the first time ever, TGL was going to overtime.

Overtime for the TGL is simple. Like two high school golfers messing around at practice, teams take turns seeing who can get closest to the pin in what can be compared to NHL’s shootouts.

Bradley led off since Boston was the last team to win a hole and hit what looked like a beauty of a shot until it checked on a hill on the green and didn’t kick toward the hole.

Kim then stepped up to the tee, continuing his heroics by delivering Jupiter their first point of overtime after putting his shot 10 feet from the hole.

Following Kim, Kisner hit his shot to 14 feet, putting all the pressure on Scott. Sadly, golf fans didn’t get Woods versus McIlroy in the clutch, as Scott’s shot was much like Bradley’s, meaning Jupiter won overtime 2-0, giving them their first win of the season.

After three weeks of skepticism and more questions than answers, this week's dramatics and fun suggest that the TGL has truly arrived.

It was the closest match of the season and the first to go to overtime. There was plenty of emotion and fun between the players, and the “Hammer” was thrown a whopping seven times.

Overall, the players seem to be enjoying the league so far (especially Kim), and hopefully, that means more excitement and great golf from this point on.

With Boston versus LA next week and a tripleheader the week after, TGL will have plenty of chances to keep the positive momentum going.

Dylan Sechrist is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email dks5749@psu.edu.