Los Angeles Golf Club handed Bay Golf Club its first loss in TGL action and secured the No. 1 seed in the playoffs by dominating singles to rally for a 5-3 victory Monday in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Leading 3-1, Bay GC “threw the hammer” early on the par-5 10th hole, before Australian Min Woo Lee hit a shot in the water when playing against England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
LAGC’s Sahith Theegala threw the hammer back at Lee on his teammate’s behalf, looking to increase the point value of the hole again. Bay GC declined, conceding the two points to LAGC to tie the score.
Theegala then beat Wyndham Clark with a chip-in birdie at No. 12 to put LAGC (4-0-1, 9 points) in front. Fleetwood hit a chip-in of his own on the next hole, halving No. 13 with Lee.
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Theegala beat Clark again at No. 15 for good measure to provide the final margin.
After the match, Theegala explained why he did a celebration known to be Lee’s signature move when he makes a chip-in — “paging Dr. Chipinski.” Theegala said he knew it might fire up the other team.
“If you’re going to be doing that stuff, you’ve got to be ready to take it as well, so we’re going to dish it back,” Theegala said. “It’s just the fun of it. It’s another thing that TGL kind of allows us to do. It’s kind of difficult to do that on a week-to-week basis on the PGA Tour. It was just all in good fun.”
Lee had made putts of 13 and 8 feet at the third and fourth holes to get Bay GC (4-1-0, 8 points) its first two points of the match.
The third member of Bay GC competing Monday, Ireland’s Shane Lowry, said he found himself caring a great deal about the success of his team in the newly formed league.
“I think if anything, it might be a blessing in disguise going into the playoffs,” Lowry said. “It might be a bit of a kick in the backside that we need, and we can get our heads down and focus a little better going in there.”
New York nabs final playoff spot
New York Golf Club scored five points over the final four holes to pull away for a 10-6 victory over Boston Common Golf, clinching a playoff berth while eliminating Rory McIlroy’s team from contention.
New York’s Xander Schauffele “threw the hammer” at the par-3 12th hole before making an 11½-foot birdie putt to beat Australia’s Adam Scott for two points. The following hole saw Cameron Young defeat McIlroy after McIlroy landed in a greenside bunker and hit a poor shot over the green complex.
At the 15th and final hole of the match, Boston needed two points to force overtime and threw the hammer straight away. It was Schauffele vs. Scott again, this time at a par 5, and after Scott left a long birdie putt short, Schauffele chipped in off the fringe from about 7 feet.
New York (2-2-1, 5 points) joined Los Angeles Golf Club, Bay Golf Club and Atlanta Drive in the four-team postseason, which will include neither Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links nor McIlroy’s winless Boston Common (0-4-1, 1 point).
Woods and McIlroy co-founded the virtual golf league, which concludes its first regular season Tuesday when Jupiter faces Atlanta.
Rickie Fowler, the third member of New York competing Monday, helped the team score two points during triples when he landed his tee shot at the par-3 fifth hole inside 6 feet of the cup.
“After the start we had [to the season], just coming into the season [the goal] was trying to get in the playoffs,” Fowler said. “After going 0-2, we were just trying to dig and find something … We’re just starting to find some form, so it’s good timing.”
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
