Woods' Hammer and Homa's Heroics Carry No. 4 Jupiter Links Past Top Seed Boston, 9-5, Into the Finals

Tiger Woods could not swing a club this season, so he threw the Hammer instead. The first one of the night, on No. 10, flipped the second semifinal on its head. Jupiter Links Golf Club, the last team into the playoffs, ran No. 1 seed Boston Common Golf right out of SoFi Center on Tuesday night, clinching a spot in the SoFi Cup Finals after 13 holes and winning 9-5.

"Night, night! Send me to the championship, boys!" Max Homa said after the clinching hole. For a franchise that went 1-4 a year ago, the championship is exactly where Jupiter is headed.

Two Weeks After the Shootout

These clubs had just seen each other. On March 1, Boston edged Jupiter 7-6 in overtime on a shootout shot that finished four inches closer, a win that locked up the No. 1 seed for Boston. Jupiter took the overtime point, then needed Tom Kim's hole-in-one and a six-point finishing kick against The Bay just to sneak in as the No. 4 seed. Their history goes back further, too: in Season 1, Jupiter won TGL's first shootout against Boston, 4-3.

Boston sent out Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott, leaving Hideki Matsuyama, the hero of the shootout two weeks earlier, out of the lineup. Jupiter went with Homa, Kim and Akshay Bhatia, with Kevin Kisner, who sank the clincher against The Bay, sitting this one out. Woods, sidelined as a player all season while recovering from injury, ran the show from the bench. Los Angeles Golf Club was already waiting in the Finals after beating Atlanta Drive GC in the early semifinal.

A Tight, Messy Triples

Boston struck first. Bradley's approach on No. 1 set up Scott for a 12-foot birdie putt, and Boston led 1-0. McIlroy, who also hit a 324-yard drive down the middle of the opening hole, looked locked in.

Homa answered with a chip-in on No. 2 to tie it, and McIlroy put Boston back in front with a 17-foot putt on No. 3. Then McIlroy's night started to unravel. On No. 4, McIlroy hooked a drive into the penalty area, and Jupiter made par on its own Team Hole, "The Jup Life," to tie the match at 2-2.

It happened again on No. 7, "Cenote." McIlroy chose a 4-iron over driver for safety and still found the penalty area. Jupiter made par and led 3-2, and suddenly the reigning Masters champion was the one handing out points. Boston birdied No. 8 to tie it at 3-3, but Jupiter stole Boston's own Team Hole, "Storrowed," on No. 9 when Scott missed a six-foot birdie putt. It was the first time all season Boston lost a point on that hole, and Jupiter carried a 4-3 lead into Singles. Through nine holes, neither team had thrown a single Hammer.

The Tiger Hammer

That changed immediately. On No. 10, "The Spear," Woods threw the first Hammer of the night. Boston accepted. Homa made birdie, McIlroy missed a seven-foot birdie try, and the two-point hole pushed Jupiter ahead 6-3.

Boston tried to answer on No. 11. Bradley made birdie, and Boston threw a Hammer of its own. Jupiter accepted, and Bhatia calmly rolled in a nine-footer to match, halving the hole and denying Boston a two-point swing. On No. 12, "On the Rocks," Kim, who aced that same hole design two weeks earlier, stuck a tee shot inside three feet. Jupiter threw the Hammer, Boston declined, and Jupiter led 7-3.

Boston's last stand came on No. 13. Boston threw the Hammer before the tee shots, making the hole worth two points. McIlroy, facing Homa again, could not make the number, and Homa tapped in for par to win the hole. The two points made it 9-3, and with only two holes left, Boston could no longer catch up. Jupiter was in the Finals.

Why the Final Reads 9-5

The scoreboard did not stop at 9-3. The teams played No. 14 even though the match was decided, because the result still mattered for the third-place prize money between the two semifinal losers. Boston threw its final Hammer and won the hole for two points, making the official final 9-5. No. 15 was not played. For Jupiter, the extra hole changed nothing, since its ticket to the Finals had already been punched one hole earlier.

By the Numbers

Jupiter won seven holes to Boston's four. The difference came from the Hammer. Jupiter threw two, on No. 10 and No. 12, and they produced three points. Boston threw three, and only the one on the meaningless 14th paid off. The Hammers on No. 11 and No. 13 produced a halve and a two-point loss.

McIlroy had a night to forget. Two trips into the penalty area in Triples handed Jupiter points on No. 4 and No. 7, and McIlroy then lost both Singles holes to Homa with a Hammer in play, a four-point swing on its own. Homa was the star of the night for Jupiter, with the chip-in on No. 2, the birdie on No. 10 and the par that clinched on No. 13. Kim's dart on No. 12 and Bhatia's nine-footer on No. 11 were quieter but just as important.

The Takeaway

It is a hard landing for Boston. A year after going 0-4-1 and finishing last, Boston rebuilt itself into the league's best regular-season team at 4-1-0, clinched the No. 1 seed and looked like the favorite to lift the SoFi Cup. One bad night ended all of it. Single-elimination semifinals are unforgiving that way, and Boston's two Triples miscues from McIlroy and the missed six-footer on its own Team Hole left it chasing from No. 4 on.

Jupiter's reward is a best-of-three series against Los Angeles, a team that has had Jupiter's number. Los Angeles beat Jupiter 8-4 in January, and the first meeting between the clubs, in Season 1, was a 12-1 Los Angeles rout on the night of Woods' TGL debut. None of that history seemed to bother Jupiter on Tuesday, and a team that has now won back-to-back must-win matches will arrive with real belief.

Scott summed up the mood in Boston's camp, saying the semifinal was win-or-go-home and Boston found itself on the wrong end of it. Woods, on the other side, was relishing the underdog role. "Now the 'Bad News Bears' can play," Woods said.

The No. 4 seed just dismantled the No. 1 seed, and it did so by being patient. Neither team threw a Hammer through nine holes, which is rare in a league built around them. Jupiter waited until Singles, when every matchup was one on one and every throw was a direct challenge to a single player. Woods picked the moment on No. 10, Homa delivered, and Boston spent the rest of the night chasing. It was the same Woods who pushed his team to throw early on No. 3 in the overtime loss to Boston two weeks earlier, which says something about how well Jupiter reads the room.

Boston had the best regular season in the league and nothing to show for it. Jupiter had the worst start of any playoff team and is now two wins from the SoFi Cup. The Finals against Los Angeles start Monday, March 23, in a best-of-three series, and Jupiter will walk in with nothing to lose and a co-owner who seems to enjoy throwing the Hammer as much as anyone in the league.

Full details are on the official TGL match page (opens in a new tab), and the PGA TOUR recap (opens in a new tab) covers both semifinals.

Sources: TGL, PGA TOUR, CBS Sports, Sky Sports, Pro Golf Now. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: TGL.