Justin Thomas' Chip-In and Patrick Cantlay's Shootout Shot Rally Atlanta Drive Past Los Angeles 6-5 in Overtime

Justin Thomas duffed his chip on the 15th hole. Then he holed the next one. That sequence, a chunk followed by a miracle, dragged Atlanta Drive GC into overtime, and Patrick Cantlay finished the job in the shootout as Atlanta stunned Los Angeles Golf Club 6-5 in the opener of TGL's Presidents Day tripleheader on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Atlanta trailed 5-2 with three holes to play against the league leader. It won the 13th with a Hammer, survived the 14th, stole the 15th and then won the closest-to-the-pin playoff 2-1, despite Tommy Fleetwood holing out in overtime. It was the second overtime in league history and the best comeback TGL had produced.

Triples: Hammers Fly Early

Los Angeles sent out Rose, Fleetwood and Theegala, with Collin Morikawa sitting this one out, against Atlanta's usual trio of Thomas, Horschel and Cantlay. Each team had three Hammers to spend whenever it liked, and a Hammer thrown before tee shots had to be accepted. Atlanta wasted no time. After Justin Rose holed a 14-foot putt on the third hole to put Los Angeles up 1-0, Thomas threw the Hammer on the fourth. Los Angeles declined, conceding the hole and making it 1-1.

Sahith Theegala missed a putt on the fifth that would have given Los Angeles the lead, and the teams traded holes through the sixth and seventh to sit at 2-2. Los Angeles took the ninth to carry a 3-2 lead into Singles. It was a tight, nervy session between the league's two best teams on paper, and nothing about it suggested what was coming.

Singles: Los Angeles Pulls Away, Then Doesn't

Los Angeles came out of the break firing. It won the 10th, and Fleetwood made birdie on the 11th to stretch the lead to 5-2. The 12th was halved, which left Los Angeles three points clear with three holes to play. With Los Angeles needing only to halve its way home, the match looked over. Through five matches, no team had come back from a three-point Singles deficit, and the Los Angeles trio had been the steadiest closers in the league.

Atlanta disagreed. On the 13th, Atlanta threw its third and final Hammer of the night before the tee shots, which meant Los Angeles had to accept. Billy Horschel took on Rose, Rose made a mess around the green, and Horschel's birdie putt dropped for a two-point swing. Suddenly it was 5-4 with two holes left.

The par-3 14th almost tied it right there. Cantlay hit his tee shot to about two feet for a tap-in birdie, and for a moment Atlanta had the hole. Fleetwood had other ideas. He drained a 17-foot birdie putt down the slope to halve the hole and keep Los Angeles ahead.

That set up Quick Draw, the par-5 15th, with Thomas against Theegala. Thomas needed birdie, and his third shot, a chip, came off badly. He had one more chance from off the green, and he holed it with a wedge, beating Theegala for the point and tying the match 5-5. The building erupted. Overtime.

The Shootout

TGL's overtime is a best-of-three, closest-to-the-pin contest, one player against one player. Horschel went against Rose first and got a couple of feet closer, putting Atlanta up 1-0. Thomas then hit his shot to about eight feet against Fleetwood, and Fleetwood answered by holing his. That leveled the shootout at 1-1, and in most matches, a hole-out in overtime would be the final image.

Not this one. Cantlay stepped up against Theegala and put his shot within about five feet, closer than Theegala's, to win the shootout 2-1 and the match 6-5.

"Getting beat is one thing, but I didn't want to lose," Thomas said, summing up an Atlanta team that refused to concede anything.

Presidents Day was TGL's busiest day yet, three matches in one afternoon and evening at SoFi Center as part of a four-match week, and this opener set an absurdly high bar for the rest of the card. One fan seated near a CBS Sports reporter declared it the greatest match in league history. Six weeks into the league's existence, it was hard to argue.

The Hammer at 13 Was Everything

Every comeback needs a pivot, and Atlanta's came on the 13th tee. Trailing by three with three holes left, Atlanta could not afford to win holes one point at a time. Throwing its final Hammer before the tee shots forced Los Angeles to play the hole for two, and Horschel's birdie against Rose turned a three-point deficit into one.

That is exactly the scenario TGL designed the Hammer for. Earlier in the season, teams were cautious with it, and Atlanta itself had won its debut without ever throwing one. Here, with three Hammers to spend and a deficit to erase, Atlanta used all of them, including one Los Angeles declined on the fourth and the decisive one on 13. Matt Ryan, the former Falcons quarterback, was in the building to watch his city's team push all its chips in.

Stars on Both Sides

Thomas will get the highlight, and he earned it. The chip on 15 was the kind of shot that sells a new league. But Horschel's birdie under the Hammer on 13 and his overtime shot were just as important, and Cantlay delivered twice, with the tee shot to two feet on 14 and the winning shot in overtime.

Los Angeles has nothing to hang its head about. Fleetwood was outstanding again, with the birdie on 11, the 17-footer on 14 and a hole-out in overtime that would have won most shootouts. Rose's 14-footer opened the scoring, and Theegala was in position most of the night. The difference was one bad stretch on the 13th green and one improbable chip on 15.

There is a real lesson for Los Angeles in this one, though. Its first two wins came by building big leads and refusing to give opponents a doubled hole to chase. Here, the three-Hammer format took that option away. Once Atlanta threw before the tee shots on 13, Los Angeles had no choice but to play for two, and one loose short-game sequence flipped the math. A three-point lead with three holes left is not safe in this league anymore.

Standings and Stakes

Los Angeles still led the SoFi Cup standings with five points, picking up one for the overtime loss to go to 2-0-1. Its last outing was a 6-2 win over Boston Common, and it still had not lost in regulation.

Atlanta moved to 2-0 with four points, still unbeaten, two matches into a season it opened with a 4-0 shutout of New York. There was no time to celebrate. Atlanta was scheduled to play again later the same day against The Bay Golf Club, the second match of the tripleheader. Los Angeles was set to return on Feb. 24 against New York Golf Club.

With only the top four of six teams reaching the playoffs, every point counts, and both of these teams look like contenders. If this was a preview of a March rematch, the league should be thrilled. Two contenders, a pile of Hammer decisions worth arguing about and a finish nobody in the building will forget.

The official recap is on the TGL match page (opens in a new tab), and PGA TOUR's recap is here (opens in a new tab).

Sources: TGL, PGA TOUR, Golf Monthly, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Atlanta leaves the opener unbeaten and with a highlight for the ages. Los Angeles leaves with a point and a lesson about three-point leads.

Photo: TGL.