It was a night of TGL firsts down at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Playoff spots were up for grabs, new members of the league debuted and statistical records were shattered all within a two-match doubleheader that featured a comeback for the ages and another tight contest.
Los Angeles Golf Club and New York Golf Club got the festivities underway as the former welcomed a new man to its squad. Tony Finau, fresh off signing a 10-day contract — since both Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood were unavailable — made his debut appearance alongside Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa.
Fitting in immediately, Finau fought tough and provided the crucial turning point late in the match to flip the tide and overcome an early deficit that was built by Cameron Young, Rickie Fowler and Matt Fitzpatrick. Winning four points over the last four holes, LAGC tied the match before ultimately going onto win 5-4 in overtime. With the win, the L.A. squad is the first team this season to clinch a spot in the playoffs as the team improves its record to 3-0-1 and sits atop the table.
While Los Angeles continues to win, Boston Common Golf can only lose. Rory McIlroy’s squad with Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley fell short once again to Atlanta Drive GC consisting of Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay.
Facing a must-win match to maintain control of its destiny, Boston took the lead into singles where it was unable to retain its advantage and ultimately fell 6-3. Boston is eliminated from postseason contention with a Jupiter Links victory on Tuesday, while Atlanta moves to 3-1-0 and second in the season-long race. Not only does Atlanta Drive clinch a playoff berth, so does The Bay Golf Club given Monday’s results.
Match 1 — LA: 5 | NY: 4 (OT)
Usually described as a tale of two nines, a match like this was a tale of the first 11 holes and the last four holes. NYGC could do no wrong in the early stages of this battle as putts were poured in from everywhere. Young connected on the longest putt in TGL history — after Fowler did the same minutes earlier — and the team converted the most distance of putts in a single match all year.
That putting prowess was enough to build a 3-0 lead after triples, and it was increased on the first hole of singles when Young clipped Finau with a birdie. Finau would get his revenge, however.
After Theegala made a birdie bomb to keep the team afloat, Finau threw the hammer at the onset of the hole and converted his 10-foot birdie putt to secure a crucial two putts. The team kept running down hill from there as Morikawa got in on the fun to win another point and tie the match on the following hole. It was Morikawa who put the final nail in the NYGC coffin during overtime as he won the second of two points in the closest to the pin competition to clinch the victory.
Match 2 — ATL: 6 | BOS: 3
After falling down early, Boston clawed back and took a 2-1 lead into the singles session. Matsuyama struggled in the greenside bunkers all night, and his shortcomings gift wrapped a point to Horschel on No. 11 that tied up the match. The gifts continued to be exchanged with McIlroy doing the honors on the next hole.
Accepting a hammer from Cantlay who was in tight for birdie, McIlroy missed his chip shot and his subsequent par putt and saw Atlanta pull ahead by two points with three holes to play. The good news for Boston was that it still had all three hammers, but the team was ineffective with its strategy. Instead, Atlanta piled on the points and piled on the latest tally in Boston’s loss column.
Read the full article here