Aussie great to renew Tiger battle; Rory to also debut in TGL’s most anticipated showdown

For the first time an Australian will feature in TGL when Adam Scott steps into the SoFi Centre on Tuesday morning Australian time.

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Scott signed up to the innovative league back in 2023 and will finally make his debut as his star-studded Boston Common Golf, featuring Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley, face off with Tiger Woods and his Jupiter Links Golf Club teammates Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner.

All eyes will be on Woods and McIlroy as the pair who started a business together to create golf’s indoor answer to the US prime time television question take on one another in the singles component of the match.

Woods made his maiden appearance a fortnight ago.

The 15-time major champion entered the arena in an iconic red haze to the sounds of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and then was in fights of laughter when Kisner knifed a bunker shot into the flag, which prevented the ball from rocketing into the crowd.

Woods also copped sledges from his son Charlie as Jupiter Links were thrashed by Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose and Sahith Theegala of Los Angeles Golf Club.

McIlroy meanwhile was at the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic where he registered a tied fourth finish to start his year after winning the event four times previously.

The four-time major winner has only been sighted in TGL’s purpose built arena in Florida as a spectator on opening night earlier in the month, and his presence will create great intrigue.

Scott was also in the United Arab Emirates where he came tied 37th, and he is set to add an interesting flavour to TGL as he returns to the United States.

The 44-year-old made a stunning run through the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs to finished tied fourth at the Tour Championship, so his game is in order.

It is Scott’s engagement with the showmanship that surrounds TGL that is of particular interest.

He described himself as ‘vanilla’ and ‘pretty boring’ in an interview with golf.com last year, and plays into the persona with regular jokes about him frequently wearing beige on the course.

But Scott is selling himself short as despite being a private person, he has revealed his witty and laid back persona more regularly in press conferences, podcast episodes and YouTube videos in recent years.

At the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, he joked with the crowd when he backed off his shot after a speaker accidentally played the broadcast commentary previewing his shot.

Back in 2020, Australia’s only Masters champion chuckled on the Howie Games podcast as he relived the tales of his antics with the famous green jacket after his legendary Augusta triumph.

Scott would frequently sit around the house having a beer while wearing it, or even would lay it on the couch when having friends over and remind them to watch the jacket as they sat down.

While at home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast after the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott was also frequently spotted playing rounds on public courses and chatting with groups of amateur golfers on neighbouring greens and tee boxes.

He is also known for offering amateurs the chance to have lunch with him and ask any golf questions they like on pro-am days where inclement weather makes the clubhouse more appetising.

Scott’s typical Australian sense of humour has also seen him become close with the likes of countryman Min Woo Lee since the 26-year-old burst onto the scene and has become a social media phenomenon – Lee is set to make his TGL debut next month for The Bay Golf Club.

The mic’d up nature of TGL will shine through those personality traits of Scott’s that have endeared him to the Australian public and his fellow players, especially as he competes against Woods once again.

Having both been students of renowned swing coach Butch Harmon, Scott and Woods’ connection goes back almost three decades.

In fact, their first encounter came at the 1996 Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.

Not that Woods was aware of it.

Then teenager Scott tried his hand at qualifying for his national open, but fell short and instead opted to carry the bag for a friend who did play his way into the field.

“He was a left hander and we were on the 10th hole teeing off and he blocked it into the 18th fairway and Tiger was coming down the 18th,” Scott recalled at The Genesis Invitational in 2022.

“I’ve got a carry bag over the shoulders and I was 15 and I was just a weed at the time. I had to clear Tiger’s crowd for my buddy to hit a shot up to the 10th green.

“I was so nervous and just I was probably looking at Tiger more than I was looking at a yardage book on my man there.”

They brushed paths a few times throughout the late 1990s when Scott was training in the gym during his time at college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Woods would drop-in for sessions when he was in town.

Shortly after once Scott had turned professional and was making his way on the European Tour, Harmon began to organise matches between the pair.

“Early in my career, I was able to be very up close and on the inside of his game. We were both working with Butch Harmon, the swing coach, and I played a lot of golf with Tiger early on,” Scott said three years ago.

“I actually think he was so good and he liked messing with me that it dented my confidence, to be honest. It took me a few years to figure that out.

“You know, then he’s the ultimate competitor. If I showed signs of looking like I was playing well or was any potential threat, he would try and step on my throat and stop that immediately.”

As their careers progressed and the pair began to meet on the biggest stages more often, Scott developed a tactic to stop him getting sucked into Tigermania.

He would look away and not watch Woods swing.

That ploy appeared to disappear when they were grouped together at last year’s US PGA Championship, and the intensity of their competition has cooled with both men in their 40s.

But fans would no doubt love to see and hear plenty of banter between Scott and Woods given their extensive history and how well they know one another.

Meanwhile, it is a certainty that some of golf’s most aesthetically pleasing swings will be in action in Scott, Woods and McIlroy.

It could easily be the best TGL match yet.