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EspañolIt was the most-hyped TGL match of the regular season and it lived up to the billing – and then some.
Boston Common Golf defeated Jupiter Links GC in overtime to clinch the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs and officially complete the worst-to-first turnaround.
“I think we’ve come a long way from last year,” Keegan Bradley said. “We’ve wanted to get the one seed. I think in the playoffs, every team is so good. Every team is so good in here anyway, but we take a lot of pride in having a much better year here the second time around and look forward to the playoffs.”
Boston Common, who did not register a win in the first season of TGL, topped Jupiter Links 7-6 as the two teams went into overtime for the second year in a row.
Keegan Bradley’s closest-to-the-pin shot in overtime knocked off the flagstick to give Boston an early 1-0 advantage in the best-of-3 scenario before Rory McIlroy then flubbed his pitch into the bunker, giving a point back to Jupiter Links. It then all came down to Hideki Matsuyama versus Max Homa for the match.
Matsuyama hit his pitch to a respectable 10 feet, 4 inches before Homa stepped up and hit what appeared to be a better shot before it took a tough bounce and ended up 10 feet, 8 inches away.
With that, Boston Common clinched the first spot in the table by a mere four inches.
Jupiter Links had just a 2.2 per cent chance of winning the match after the 13th hole, but they clawed back late winning Nos. 14 and 15. Bradley’s pitch in overtime was a pseudo make-good effort after he made a mess of the finishing 15th hole.
Homa and Kim won the final two holes to push the match into overtime after McIlroy hit arguably one of the shots of the year. After hitting his tee ball off the hanging rock on “Stinger,” he then hit a swinging, blistering hook around the rock from more than 240 yards out to just seven feet. An insane display of shot-making ability (a shot which, on the broadcast, Kevin Kisner said only “prime” Tiger Woods would also be able to hit).
McIlroy said that shot had some shades of his incredible approach on No. 15 at Augusta National a year ago en route to him winning the Masters. Turns out, McIlroy was at Augusta on Saturday and had just hit that exact shot again.
“I knew I had to hit a 30-yard hook. I was aiming it 30 yards right of the pin, so I just had to stand up there and trust my swing,” McIlroy said. “It actually ended up being a pretty pivotal moment and getting a half there because obviously Jupiter came back and won those last couple holes.”
The early part of the match was a tasty back-and-forth affair, with no hole ending in a tie until No. 6. Boston Common won the opener after McIlroy hit the longest drive in TGL history — 392 yards. Jupiter Links then won the next two holes, including via a hammer on No. 3, before Boston Common won Nos. 4 and 5, with both of those holes featuring the hammer in play.
Jupiter Links put in a valiant effort, but in the end Boston Common made more putts and stepped up with key shots when they needed them.
“They did a lot of great stuff, and we still hung around, so that was cool. Being down two with two to play and getting to a chip-off was awesome,” Homa said.
Jupiter still, technically, has a chance to make the playoffs but they must win their final match of the season against The Bay Golf Club on March 3.
HOMA AND KIM “MAKE HISTORY”
Sunday night saw something happen for the first time: both Max Homa and Tom Kim played a full PGA Tour round at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and then also a full TGL Match.
Lucky enough this week’s PGA Tour event was being contested only about 20 minutes away from the SoFi Center, so it wasn’t too tricky of a logistical challenge to get the guys from Point A to B.
Kim finished 59th, so he was long done before it was time to head to TGL (he said he was awake at 4:30 a.m. ET since he was in the second group of the day).
“My 18 holes today was preparation for tonight. That’s all I focused on. I’m serious, I promise you,” Kim said. “It was a long day, but gosh, the whole round I was just thinking about the match tonight and how it’s going to be and how I wanted to play and how the prep was going to go.”
Homa, however, was different. He was firmly in the mix to record his first top-10 finish since October (he had just two top-10 results the whole of last season on the PGA Tour) until a bogey on No. 12 at PGA National quashed his chances.
Homa finished tied for 13th and needed to figure out his next steps awfully quickly.
“It’s going to be a bit much,” Homa said with a smile earlier in the day.
Homa arrived with plenty of time to spare and nearly hit the winning shot for Jupiter Links – but it didn’t end up working out in his favour.
Still, what a day.
“It was an interesting day. I was in a big spot for me all day, so my nerves were kind of shot by the time the day was over,” Homa said. “It was kind of fun to have a somewhat quick turnaround. I was really excited to be around these guys.
“It’s a ton of fun being here with them, and I knew we had a big night, so it was kind of like a big round of golf, and then when the sun went down it was another big round of golf. It was a unique day, but it was also very fun.”
