Tom Kim: Confirmed electric factory.
Kim’s hole-in-one on the penultimate hole Tuesday night at the SoFi Center helped Jupiter Links GC to defeat The Bay Golf Club and earn the final spot in the playoffs in one of the most thrilling moments in TGL’s short history.
Jupiter Links will take on the top-seeded Boston Common Golf in one of the SoFi Cup semifinal matches while Los Angeles Golf Club will take on defending SoFi Cup champs Atlanta Drive GC in the other.
Kim, who was playing just his second match of the season, made an ace on the 138-yard par-3 14th hole – with the hammer thrown – to help Jupiter Links complete the comeback.
The Tiger Woods-led squad was down 6-3 at one point before scoring six unanswered points to win 9-6 over The Bay in a win-and-get-in scenario in the 15th and final regular season match of the year.
“I'm very proud to be around guys who don't give up,” Max Homa said.
Kim’s ace – the second hole-in-one recorded this season after Neil Shipley made one for The Bay in February – gave Jupiter Links a 7-6 advantage before Kevin Kisner played the par-5 finisher with aplomb, rolling in a 13-foot birdie to put an exclamation point on the match after Wyndham Clark missed a 22-foot birdie try for The Bay.
“For each one of these guys to earn the holes coming in and contribute like they did, it couldn't be more special and better for these guys,” Woods said.
The Bay, to their credit, got off to a steady start, leading 2-0 after four holes before Jupiter Links began clawing its way back, winning Nos. 6 and 7 to tie the match. The Bay pulled ahead again after Ludvig Aberg made an 11-foot birdie on the par-4 8th before Min Woo Lee drained a 38-foot birdie on No. 9 – the second-longest putt in TGL history – to give The Bay a 4-2 advantage heading into singles.
Homa won the first singles hole, No. 10, for Jupiter Links, cutting the lead to 4-3, before The Bay seemingly began to pull away, winning Nos. 11 and 12 to lead 6-3.
But just two days after Shane Lowry coughed up a three-shot lead on the PGA Tour with three to play after making back-to-back double bogeys for the first time in his career, anything can happen in indoor golf just like in the real world.
Cue the comeback.
On No. 13, Homa nailed a nine-footer for birdie after Aberg missed his 14-foot attempt, cutting The Bay’s lead to 6-5.
And then Kim, who had been clutch earlier in the match, stepped up and knocked his wedge just past the hole on No. 14 and saw it spun back to the bottom of the cup. The celebration was epic, and even shades of the Masters in 2005 when Woods chipped in on 16 (the, “in your life!” chip in) and did the double-barrelled fist pump. Given how fragile Woods’ body is these days, you’d be forgiven if you thought their celebration came on a little too strong.
“I've never been tackled before,” Kim said with a smile about the chaos that unfolded after his ace. “That was one thing. It's a shot that I've hit well before and it's a shot that I've practiced a lot in the stadium. I haven't made much hole-in-ones in my life, and not a better way to do it than today.”
The mayhem calmed just enough for Kisner to hit three perfect shots on the long par-5 closer. He needed two putts from 13 feet to win the match and send Jupiter Links to the playoffs but alas, Kisner needed just one – despite not necessarily thinking he had it in him. Kisner said he texted Homa Tuesday morning admitted if the match comes down to 15 then the team is “probably screwed” because Clark, a longer hitter, could get to the green in two shots and Kisner couldn’t.
“Of course, Tom makes a hole-in-one and then they throw the hammer and Max is like, well, ‘You asked for it at 17, so here you go.’ It was cool, man. Good way to finish,” Kisner said. “You always dream about having a putt to win a match, and really cool after the way Max and Tom played the two before me to finish it off. It wouldn't have been as cool if I didn't finish it off.”
Jupiter Links and Boston didn’t make the playoffs in TGL’s first season – and in the case of Boston, it didn’t even win a match in season one – and their first-round match-up will be a rematch of the most exciting regular season match of season two, with Boston winning 7-6 in overtime.
Los Angeles defeated Atlanta Drive 7-3 in their regular season match in February.
The TGL semifinals will be contested as a double-header on March 17 and despite the longest of odds, it will feature Woods’ team. Woods himself was non-committal about whether he would play or not, but he said, like he’s been all year long, he’ll be in the building with his team regardless.
“I think this is what we set out to do with TGL. We tried to grow the game, tried to do it differently. We don't normally play golf at 9 to 11 at night, so to be able to do this out here and to have this showcase, to have this group of guys, to be able to do what we did at the end, to have a hole-in-one, to have everything that happened at the very end, that's what it was all about,” Woods said.
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