Tom Kim's Hole-in-One Caps a Wild Jupiter Links Rally, 9-6 Over The Bay for the Last Playoff Spot

Down three with three holes to play and its season circling the drain, Jupiter Links Golf Club went full send. Max Homa birdied a Hammer hole, Tom Kim made a hole-in-one on another, and Kevin Kisner finished it off with a 13-foot birdie on the last. Jupiter scored the final six points of the night, stunned The Bay Golf Club 9-6 on Tuesday at SoFi Center and grabbed the final spot in the TGL playoffs.

For a franchise that went 1-4 and missed the postseason in Season 1, it was the first playoff berth in team history. For The Bay, which led 6-3 after 12 holes, it was a brutal way to go home.

Win and In

The math was simple. Whoever won was in, and whoever lost was done. Jupiter came in at 1-2-1 after losing to Boston in overtime two nights earlier. The Bay was 2-2-0, with momentum after beating New York 5-3 last week.

The two seasons could hardly have gone more differently for these clubs so far. In Season 1, The Bay was a playoff team and Jupiter was an afterthought, and when they met that February, The Bay won 6-3 behind the first double Hammer in TGL history. This season, Jupiter opened with losses to New York and Los Angeles before beating Atlanta, while The Bay dug out of an 0-2 hole with back-to-back wins. Both teams arrived on Tuesday feeling like the hotter side.

Jupiter went with Homa, Kim and Kisner, with Tiger Woods not playing but very much present. The Bay sent out Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee, with Shane Lowry sitting this one out. The Kelce brothers were in the building too, with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce joining Jason Kelce, who had been working as a special guest announcer. "This place is absolutely epic," Travis Kelce said.

The Bay Builds a Lead

The Bay was the better team for most of Triples. Jupiter bogeyed the first hole out of a greenside bunker, and The Bay's par was enough for a 1-0 lead. The Bay birdied "Bay Breaker," the par 5, on No. 5 to go up 2-0.

Kim sparked Jupiter on No. 6, draining an 18-footer for birdie. Jupiter then threw the Hammer with The Bay facing an 11-footer to match, and The Bay declined, cutting the lead to 2-1. The next hole brought Jupiter level. Åberg missed the landing area with a tee shot on the par-3 "Cenote," Jupiter made par, and it was 2-2.

The Bay answered right back. On No. 8, "Stinger," Clark hit a 7-iron to 11 feet, and Åberg converted the birdie putt for a 3-2 lead. Then Lee produced one of the shots of the season on No. 9, holing an eagle putt from 37 feet, 11 inches. ESPN noted it was the second-longest putt in TGL history, and it sent The Bay into Singles up 4-2.

Singles: The Bay Pulls Away, Then Jupiter Pounces

Homa got one back on No. 10, "Sterling," a par 5, making birdie to beat Åberg and cut the gap to 4-3. The Bay looked like it had the answer for everything after that.

On No. 11, "Alpine," Lee rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt, The Bay threw the Hammer, and Jupiter declined. That made it 5-3. On No. 12, "The Last Toll," Clark made a 16-footer for birdie, and The Bay led 6-3 with three holes left. Jupiter needed something drastic.

It got drastic. With time running out, Jupiter threw the Hammer before tee shots on No. 13, which meant The Bay had to accept. Homa made birdie to win the hole, and the two-point swing cut the lead to 6-5.

The Ace

Then came the moment that will be replayed for as long as TGL exists. Jupiter threw the Hammer before No. 14, "On the Rocks," a 138-yard par 3, making the hole worth two points. Kim was matched up against Lee, and Kim's tee shot found the bottom of the cup. Hole-in-one. Two points. Jupiter led 7-6, its first lead of the night.

It was only the second ace in TGL history, following Neal Shipley's hole-in-one for The Bay earlier this season. Kim's celebration was exactly what you would expect from one of golf's most demonstrative personalities, and Woods was right there in the middle of it. "That was raw emotion right there. A lot of practice and a lot of holding in for a moment like this," Kim said.

The Bay still had life on No. 15, trailing by one. Kisner made sure that life did not last. Kisner rolled in a 13-foot birdie at the last for another two-point win, and Jupiter had a 9-6 victory. The rally was complete: six unanswered points over the final three holes after trailing 6-3. Nobody in the building will forget it soon.

Woods, who co-founded TGL and was the loudest voice on Jupiter's bench, summed up the night. "For each one of these guys to earn the holes down the stretch like they did, it couldn't have been more special," Woods said.

Each team won six holes on the night, but three of Jupiter's were worth two points apiece, all coming on the final three holes. That is the Hammer at its most ruthless. Jupiter threw it on No. 6 for a concession, then on No. 13 and No. 14, both before the tee shots, and won both for a total of four points.

The Bay won six holes and, for 12 holes, looked like a team bound for the semifinals. Lee's eagle on No. 9, Clark's birdie on No. 12 and Åberg's birdie on No. 8 were all highlight shots. But the three-hole collapse at the finish, against a team firing every bullet it had left, was too much to survive.

The Playoff Picture

Jupiter finished the regular season 2-2-1 and claimed the No. 4 seed. Boston Common Golf is the No. 1 seed, Los Angeles Golf Club is No. 2 and Atlanta Drive GC is No. 3.

That sets up a Woods versus McIlroy semifinal, with No. 4 Jupiter facing No. 1 Boston on March 17. The other semifinal puts No. 2 Los Angeles against No. 3 Atlanta, the defending champion. The semifinals are a doubleheader at SoFi Center, at 6:30 and 9 p.m. ET, and the best-of-three SoFi Cup Finals begin March 23.

The Bay finished 2-3-0 and missed the playoffs after reaching the semifinals in Season 1. Its run of late-season wins was not enough, and the sting will linger. The Bay led for most of the night, got big shots from all three players and still went home, which is the cruel math of a league where a single Hammer can flip a match in one swing.

The Takeaway

Jupiter was a long shot all night. It never led until No. 14, faced a three-point deficit with three to play and needed perfect execution down the stretch. It got exactly that: a birdie on a forced Hammer hole, a hole-in-one on another, and a clutch putt to close.

TGL's format is built for this kind of swing, and Jupiter weaponized it better than anyone has all season. Whether Jupiter can do it again against Boston is a question for the semifinals. For now, Woods' team is in, and nobody in the field will want to see Kim with a Hammer on the board.

Full details are on the official TGL match page (opens in a new tab), and the PGA TOUR recap (opens in a new tab) has the hole-by-hole account.

Sources: TGL, PGA TOUR, ESPN, CBS Sports. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: TGL.