“I don’t know if we can get over 100” – Woods’ team loses in TGL debut
“I don’t know if we can get over 100,” Tiger Woods said after his team’s poor performance in the Tomorrow’s Golf League opener in Florida.
Two hours earlier, the 15-time major champion had run into the specially constructed arena with a big grin on his face as the Survivor classic “Eye of the Tiger” played, declaring he was there “to have some fun.”
Despite his Jupiter Links team suffering a 12-1 defeat by Los Angeles, he said he was \”still hurting from laughing so hard\”.
There were certainly more farcical scenes at the Sofi Center than in the opening week, with Woods, Max Homa and Kevin Kisner bordering on being the class clowns, frequently forgetting their score and hitting careless shots. But maybe that’s part of the appeal: after all, this is made-for-television entertainment, a show made, as Woods puts it, to “present golf and grow the game.” “We had six penalties, I had two shots from the bunker, and Ki almost killed anyone,” said Woods from his efforts for 15 holes.
The son of Woods, 15, Charlie, made around 1,500 fans in the stands surrounding the arena of the football landscape, and, according to Homa, the brief summation of the teenager was “we are not? TGL is a technology-based indoor golf league founded by Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Over the next few weeks, six teams will compete in a round-robin format, followed by best-of-three semi-finals and a final in late March. Each week, two teams of three players will play 15 holes.
For the first nine holes, the three players from each team will take turns playing. Tee shots are thudded into a 60ft high simulator screen from a distance of 35 yards, with the action switching to the real life short-game complex once the ball is within 50 yards of the hole. After each hole the short-game area is rotated and a new green is created by the 600 motors below its surface. The final 6 holes are played heads-up, with each player playing 2 holes.
Scoring is simple: Earn points by winning holes. The team with the most points after 15 holes will receive 2 league points. In matches where the ball is closest to the point, the winner will be determined in matches where there is a tie.
There is also a tactical “hammer” that can be used by the team in possession of the ball to double the points offered on a hole if they win it. The legendary Tennis-owned tennis, Selena Williams, the British, Justin Rose, his American teammate Sahis Tegala, and the former open champion Colin Morakawa, 5-0 after 4 holes. I got the lead.
The hammer was rarely used at the opening week, but Woods threw it before the first ball was attacked on Tuesday evening, and won the second hole while the opening hall was half. Won double points in 3 and 4 holes. Rose holed a 10-foot putt to win the third, while Woods’ seven-foot miss on the next gave L.A. two more points.
Rose hit another six-foot putt on the sixth, sinking his putt to a cacophony of good-natured cheers from a crowd desperate to see the home team score a first. \ “I dig him, I love this,” Rose said after I nailed the 12-foot to win the eighth, and La ahead of 8-1 and performed after raised another inspired hammer in the ninth.
Tigala was also impressed after noticed his speed of the ball 184 miles per hour among statistics on the screen after his shot of shot in the ninth. “I’ve never hit a shot like that in a tournament,” he said, though the expected effect of the players wearing microphones was mainly limited to laughs and attempts to thwart their opponents.
In an effort to add to the entertainment value, Spandau Ballet’s “Gold” was played as Rose, a former Olympic gold medalist, took the shot. Spotlights flickered frequently around the arena.
Rose faced Woods in singles, but the sporting event already seemed over. Woods, who barely played last year, looked out of place, especially on the greens. He three-putted the 10th hole after making a 35-foot putt from 14 feet short of the hole. And Kisner, who was initially temperamental, said, “How did you make six?” » before conceding the 11th to Morikawa while Jupiter was leading 9-1.
Morikawa made a spectacular flop shot on the artificial turf, Rose slammed a chip shot from close range directly into the hole for a slam dunk attempt, and LA showed off their golfing prowess, while Kisner and Homa, who lost the match, discussed their chances of winning. They were relegated to the bottom of the TGL. Kisner then got the last laugh on the 14th hole when he made a high-handicap error out of a bunker, hitting the flagstick and flying across the green to the other side, leaving players and fans standing in shock. It was bordering on farce until he tried to sink the 15-yard putt. “I never thought anybody would get hit here,” Woods said. “It was honestly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.” And the next chip shot should have gone in. It was just a weird night.”
