Tiger Woods emerged as the sixth and final player from a tunnel and onto the playing field for his debut in the TGL performance on Tuesday evening in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
There was no explanation needed, as his name wasn’t revealed.
As the pulsating soundtrack of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” blasted through the speakers, it was all the introduction Tiger Woods needed to showcase perhaps the greatest golfer of all time. It was more than clear to the crowd packed into SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College, with many likely recognizing the years of efforts by Tiger, Rory McIlroy, and others to bring high-quality televised golf to indoor venues.
“It’s a reality now,” Woods said.
Week two of TGL took place on Tuesday night – Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, and Sahith Theegala of the Los Angeles Golf Club faced off against Kevin Kisner and Max Homa of the Jupiter Links Golf Club, with Tiger Woods also joining the match.
The final score was Los Angeles 12, Jupiter 1 in a 15-hole TV team match. The format featured nine holes of alternate shot triples play, followed by six holes of singles play, with two holes for each player on each team. Woods tipped the table with a big smile throughout, even though the score wasn’t close, with Los Angeles taking a big win. The match format allowed him to finish with just 20 shots in a little over two hours.
“We were having a good time,” Woods said, still chuckling after the big loss inside the arena just a few miles from his Jupiter Island home. “We made a lot of shots. I think the fans there got a lot of laughs at how poorly the pros played. It was a pretty one-sided game, but we still had a great time.”
Woods’ team quickly fell behind on the scoreboard, trailing 5-0. It could have been an even bigger deficit if Woods hadn’t made a crucial 8-foot putt to end up even on the fifth hole. That putt came on the heels of a close call on the previous hole, when Woods narrowly missed a 7-footer to the left.
“Tiger’s moving on up,’ tennis legend Serena Williams said on the ESPN broadcast. As a close friend of Tiger Woods, Williams found herself supporting him, but she was also part of the ownership group of the LA Golf Club, which meant she was rooting against him at the same time.
There were vintage Woods moments, like staring down shots he liked as the super-high-definition screens displayed the trajectory of where the ball would have gone outside. There were also frustrating ones; he shook his head after he hit a 101-yard wedge into the water on the second hole of the 15-hole match — as his son Charlie, sitting in one of the seats in the crowd overlooking the course, found himself laughing.
This is something entirely new for golf,” Woods said. “You’re got a venue like this, and you’re out there with really good players, you’re entertaining everyone, and it’s just fun.
The bullet thudded into the pin, sending it flying off in a wild ricochet as his teammates hit the deck for cover.
“We genuinely didn’t think that it was possible for someone to get injured in here,” Woods said.
Tiger Woods says the golf might be a big success. He’s glad if viewers stay until the end. Companion Homa thinks Duke fans, who have a match-up against Miami on ESPN afterward, will continue watching after the golf is over. Also, it seems that Woods is physically okay – he didn’t hold back in swinging.
Physically, he mentioned he felt fine. As far as golf is concerned: “The walking isn’t the problem. My game isn’t playing any well,” Woods said.
Williams sat in a VIP box near the players’ teeing areas on the right in Los Angeles, enjoying the grand introduction, light and smoke displays, and blaring music before the game.
It’s amazing,” Williams said. “It’s something you see a little bit in tennis. We see it all the time in basketball, right? We don’t really see it much in golf. Actually, we never see that in golf. It’s great to see their personalities and see them show their skills as golfers. … It’s really cool to see a new side.
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