Tiger Woods called Jupiter Links GC the ‘Bad News Bears’ of TGL. But Tuesday, there was plenty of good news for his squad as it moved on to the championship, where it will face off against Los Angeles Golf Club.
Jupiter Links, which finished in last place in the inaugural season of TGL, defeated Boston Common Golf 9-5 to move on to the SoFi Cup finale. It will play Los Angeles, which defeated defending SoFi Cup champs Atlanta Drive GC 6-4 in the earlier semifinal match.
Woods, who has yet to tee it up for Jupiter Links but has been the pseudo coach of the squad through the season, couldn’t help but laugh as he described why he gave his team of Akshay Bhatia, Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner the moniker.
“I mean, look what we did last year,” Woods said with a smile. “We skulled a bunker shot, almost killed some lady in the stands. Hit the flag. We had a shot clock violation by me over a 4-footer. We just had some just weird stuff. We finished dead last. That's Bad News Bears stuff.
“But now the Bad News Bears can play. So, we're back. And we're now advancing into the finals and it's been incredible.”
Given that March Madness is upon us, it makes sense there was a Cinderella story in TGL, as Jupiter Links GC was the No. 4-ranked seed and it toppled the No. 1-ranked Boston team in an upset Tuesday night.
Jupiter Links knew it needed some new blood for season two, with Woods still on the sidelines with an injury (he was noncommittal to playing both the TGL championship next week, along with the Masters) and Kisner moving into a more full-time role as a broadcaster with NBC Sports. But Jupiter Links added the 24-year-old star Bhatia to its roster and Homa said that’s been a “massive boost” to the team.
“Everyone's played like a great role… we got two very young guys, and their exuberance is quite nice. We're playing at 9 p.m. and me and Tiger are usually in bed. So, it's been really cool to have these guys on the team,” said Homa, who played every match this season for Jupiter Links. “When we were losing last year, it didn't really feel like we had a lot of life. And this year, when we lost early, it felt like we were just getting the bad end of the draw. So, it was cool to watch it flip.”
Boston Common and Jupiter Links went back-and-forth after the match got underway, with each team winning two holes through the first four. Jupiter managed to pull out in front before heading into singles, leading 4-3. Homa, who was matched up against Rory McIlroy for Boston in singles, delivered the clean sweep of their two holes together. His par-saver on No. 13, where he hit the Steph Curry ‘Night night’ celebration, proved to be the match-winning point.
“It’s kind of win or go home. Unfortunately, we’re on the ‘go home’ end of that tonight,” said Adam Scott of Boston, who played alongside McIlroy and Keegan Bradley Tuesday night.
In the earlier semifinal, Los Angeles was down 4-1 through seven holes but played with another gear down the stretch. It appeared the L.A. squad was en route to another post-season defeat (it was the No.1-ranked seed last year and lost in the semis) after it fell 3-0 through three holes. Los Angeles never led until the 13th hole, but kept chipping away at Atlanta’s lead and holding it down – Atlanta Drive failed to score a point in the final 11 holes.
Justin Rose was the key contributor for Los Angeles as the 45-year-old’s birdie on No. 14 gave his team their first lead of the match. With Atlanta up 3-0 early, Rose nailed a 24-foot birdie on No. 4 to get Los Angeles on the board. It was the longest putt made by Los Angeles this season.
“There's no magic. Just good attitude, I think that was a big thing tonight,” Rose said. “I think Tommy said we showed a bit of a different skill tonight. There's been other skills that we've shown, good golf, making putts, whatever it's been, ball striking, iron play. But tonight was just a little bit more, no panic, and just patience and calmness under pressure, I think. So yeah, we're still learning as a team of what we're capable of, really, as well.”
Los Angeles, which was down Collin Morikawa, who had withdrawn from The Players Championship last week after injuring his back with a practice swing, was also helped by a bit of a strategic stumble by Atlanta Drive. On No. 14, Los Angeles was leading 5-4 and threw the hammer with Billy Horschel needing to make a par to tie. Patrick Cantlay tried to convince Horschel to accept the hammer, so the team had a clean chance to win on No. 15, but Horschel declined, and the team fell behind 6-4.
They couldn’t claim the two points they needed on the final hole and that was it for the defending champs.
“When Billy had hit it to where he was, our hammer became useless, effectively. Because we're not going to use it on the last hole, we're 1-up, so our hammer is gone,” Fleetwood said. “But Billy's got a 5-footer, so there's three options, really. He accepts it, and they both hole, because I was very confident Sahith was going to hole his putt. We go to the last one up anyway. They're going to throw the hammer anyway - it's going to come down to the last hole. Billy can accept it and they miss, the match is over. Billy can turn it down, and it goes to the last hole anyway, and they're going to throw the hammer anyway.”
The two finalists have reached this point in the season with two separate methods – a scrappy underdog and a talent-loaded front-runner – but either way, the best-of-three championship finale should be a great one.
“Being able to look at the boys and know that we made it to the final, that was awesome,” Fleetwood said. “That's what it's all about.”
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