The first-ever TGL championship matchup is official. Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Billy Horschel of Atlanta Drive GC exacted revenge against Ludvig Åberg, Min Woo Lee and Shane Lowry of The Bay Golf Club on Tuesday to advance to the league’s inaugural finale.
Atlanta made up for its lone regular season loss to The Bay on President’s Day by tak.ing care of business in the second semifinal match winning 9-3 at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Their reward? A best-of-three championship match against New York Golf Club, which rosters Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young.
The Bay was without its most valuable player in Wyndham Clark due to injury, and it was unable to make up for his absence as the trio fell behind early and often. Boasting the best regular-season record in Triples, The Bay found itself down two points after the opening three holes.
They got on the board thanks to utilizing the hammer on the par-5 4th when Lee laced a long iron from 260 yards inside 17 feet. A common theme across the first two postseason matches has been the consistent declining of hammer in order to ensure the opponent does not secure two points.
A similar occurrence arrived on No. 7 when The Bay tied it up with a hammer, but that is as close as this match would get. Atlanta won the short par-4 8th thanks to Horschel drilling a drive onto the putting surface. Another hammer on the next secured another point, pushing Atlanta ahead 4-2 into Singles, which it dominated.
Lowry made a mess of the opening hole, gifting Thomas a point, before Horschel and Lee tied on the par-4 11th. Now facing a 5-2 deficit, Åberg attempted to claw closer and played the hammer before the onset of the par-3 12th so that Cantlay was forced to accept it.
It proved to be a season-ending mistake.
Cantlay came up clutch by stuffing his tee shot inside 4 feet while Åberg missed the green entirely. The Swede was able to save par, but the American added insult to injury and threw Atlanta’s final hammer — making the hole worth three points and securing all of them for his side as Atlanta punched a ticket into next week’s championship bout against New York Golf Club.
