Rory McIlroy, fresh off a victory at Pebble Beach, ran hard into reality on Tuesday night at TGL, as his Boston Common Golf Club fell 6-2 to the dominant Los Angeles Golf Club. It wasn’t quite Lakers-Celtics, largely because the Boston Ballfrogs contingent didn’t have a Jayson Tatum or a Larry Bird in the bunch. McIlroy, Adam Scott and a mustachioed Keegan Bradley couldn’t get anything started against the trio of Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, as the black-clad LAGC started fast and never let up.
College basketball and the TGL are engaged in a battle for airtime on ESPN, and on Tuesday night, Kentucky-Ole Miss took precedence. The SEC lead-in game ran long, slightly delaying the start of the TGL match. That meant the ESPN viewing audience didn’t see the players’ walkouts, which had the positive effect of making the golf action begin within seconds of the broadcast’s start.
LAGC, last seen throttling Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club in Week 2 by a score of 12-1, jumped out to another hot start on Tuesday night, powered by Morikawa’s pinpoint approaches and Fleetwood’s hot putter:
LAGC won the first three holes outright and four of the first five. McIlroy and the Ballfrogs simply couldn’t get a putt to drop. The real-world green and fringe have been tricky for players to read properly, and McIlroy, Bradley and Scott all struggled to get tying or winning putts to drop from what should have been makeable distances.
Bradley, looking like an old-timey dastardly villain, finally got Boston on the board in the 12th hole of the match, putting his tee shot within 2 feet of the cup. Rose chased his long tying putt all the way to the edge of the hole, but the ball skirted just past. But McIlroy immediately put his tee shot on the 13th out of bounds, and Fleetwood quickly captured LAGC’s sixth point of the night. Bradley took Boston’s second and final point of the night on the match’s last hole, but by then the match result was beyond doubt.
Some uncharacteristic software glitches cropped up during the night. Fleetwood — who, naturally, teed off to Fleetwood Mac tunes — had to re-hit a shot after the simulator didn’t properly pick up his first attempt. And Morikawa managed to defy gravity with one of his shots:
On the whole, though, the evening felt more like a real competition — or, at least, like half of one. LAGC took a 5-0 lead into the singles, and seemed dialed in the whole night. Boston Common, meanwhile, was reduced to begging L.A. to throw the hammer (doubling the value of a hole) for an opportunity to get back in the match, but Morikawa kept it in his pocket and kept Boston at bay. Morikawa seemed more engaged than he had in his previous outing, and Fleetwood was a charismatic addition in his TGL debut.
Technical glitches aside, TGL is settling into a groove as reliable, low-stakes weeknight golf entertainment. As winning players begin to enjoy themselves with some more outward displays of emotion, losing players are feeling the sting. The matches still feel a little long, but the product is establishing its niche.
Prior to the match, TGL held a moment of silence for Kultida Woods, mother of Tiger, who died earlier Tuesday morning. Tida Woods was in attendance last week for Woods’ win over Boston Common, and the broadcast showed her enjoying watching her son at work.
TGL will take off next week before returning for a Presidents Day tripleheader: Atlanta Drive GC will play LAGC and The Bay GC, and then The Bay will play Boston Common GC.