Tiger Woods’ final match of TGL’s debut season ended in defeat but his Jupiter Links team finished off their maiden campaign in tears of laughter.
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Jupiter Links knew making the playoffs were out of the equation prior to their 9-1 loss to Atlanta Drive as remarkably neither Woods nor Rory McIlroy, the co-founders of TGL, will feature in the postseason.
The pair played out arguably the best match of TGL first season when Woods’ team downed McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf in an overtime thriller but few would have predicated that clash to have been a battle of the cellar dwellers.
Despite their struggles, Jupiter Links were seemingly having the time of their life in the final match of the season.
Woods joked that he was feeling age earlier in the contest, but reflected on the team’s, and the league’s, inaugural stanza by saying “we’ve had the greatest time” and that he is “incredibly proud of what we’ve built here”.
“This is a good group of guys. We’d just like to play a little better,” the 15-time major winner added.
He then wound back the clock with a 260-yard bomb with his 5-wood to reach a par 5 in two shots as a hint that he may be overcoming his physical struggles ahead of a rumoured return to the PGA Tour at next week’s The Players Championship as well as next month’s Masters.
Woods was later in stitches when his teammate Tom Kim produced the funniest moment of the night.
The 22-year-old, who has been one of TGL’s biggest personalities, prematurely celebrated as a chip rolled towards the cup by letting go of his wedge and lifting him arms in the air as he turned to the crowd.
But Kim was quickly awash with embarrassment as the ball lipped out, and Woods and Max Homa could not stop laughing at their teammate’s expense.
“I didn’t think it would miss,” Kim said on the broadcast soon after.
“I really called it and I didn’t think it could miss.
“It’s so unfortunate, I can’t take it back. The worst part of it is I looked behind. I just threw it and didn’t take my eyes off it, it wouldn’t have been as bad.”
The laughter came earlier as well as Kim shouted “fore” when Atlanta’s Nick Dunlap sprayed a tee shot into the simulator out of bounds to hand Jupiter Links their only point for the night.
Homa also created a few chuckles when he dubbed himself “the Seve of indoor golf” following a stellar wedge shot to set up a par save.
The relaxed atmosphere even prompted Woods to get his son, Charlie, to throw him down some chicken fingers from the crowd for a mid-match bite to eat.
Atlanta will next face Australian Min Woo Lee’s second-placed The Bay in a semi-final on Wednesday 19 March Australian time, while the other semi-final the day prior will pit league leaders Los Angeles against New York.
The first ever TGL final will then be played on Tuesday 25 March Australian time.
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