Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner Win TGL's First Shootout as Jupiter Links Edges Boston Common 4-3

TGL spent its first three weeks searching for a close match. It found one the night Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy finally shared a stage, and it took a chipping contest to settle it. Jupiter Links Golf Club beat Boston Common Golf 4-3 in the league's first overtime on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., with Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner winning the closest-to-the-pin shootout after 15 holes ended 3-3.

Neither team ever led by more than a point. The Hammer flew back and forth, Woods became the first player to get hit with a shot-clock violation, Adam Scott forced overtime with a 31-foot birdie, and Kim, making his TGL debut in place of Max Homa, played like he had been waiting his whole life for an arena full of people to shush.

Triples: A Tight Grind

Boston, playing its first match with McIlroy, Scott and Keegan Bradley, struck first by winning the third hole. Jupiter, which had lost its opener 12-1, needed something to change, and its short game supplied it. Kim rolled in an eight-foot par putt on the second to keep his side level on that hole, and Woods holed a birdie putt of about four and a half feet on the par-4 fifth, Jupiter's first birdie in TGL after 19 holes across two matches.

The equalizer came on the sixth, when Bradley's tee shot found the penalty area and Jupiter won the hole to make it 1-1. Then the session got loud. On the eighth, Scott threw the Hammer to put two points on the line and backed it up with an 11-foot putt. Kisner answered from 10 feet to halve the hole and erase the threat. On the ninth, Bradley holed another 11-footer, and Kim matched it from eight feet. Kim turned to the crowd afterward with an animated "What'd you say?!" and the Triples session closed at 1-1.

That was a huge contrast to Jupiter's first night. Against Los Angeles, Jupiter put six balls in a penalty area and made about eight feet of putts, not counting concessions. Against Boston, it hit none into the hazards and holed roughly 48 feet. Same roster core, different team.

Singles: Tiger vs. Rory, Finally

The Singles session opened with the matchup the league was built around. Woods hit a 322-yard drive and a 267-yard approach on the 10th, leaving himself an eagle look, but he ran it about eight feet past. McIlroy made birdie to win the hole and put Boston up 2-1, and somewhere in that sequence Woods let the 40-second clock expire before hitting his birdie putt, the first shot-clock violation in TGL history.

Kisner squared it on the 11th by beating Scott, despite having to take a drop after a simulator glitch on his first shot. Then Kim delivered the shot of the night on the 12th, a par 3 called On the Rocks, sticking his tee shot to two feet and screaming at the crowd. Jupiter led 3-2.

McIlroy went right back at Woods on the 13th, Alpine, by throwing the Hammer. Woods accepted the challenge and holed a par putt of about eight feet to halve the hole and keep the lead. It was the last shot either legend would hit that night, and it was a good one.

Boston had one more push left. On the 14th, Set in Stone, Scott drained a 31-foot birdie against Kisner to tie it 3-3, sending McIlroy racing around the green to high-five him. On the 15th, Kim and Bradley each nearly holed a birdie putt that would have won it. Both slid by. Overtime.

The Shootout

TGL's overtime format is a best-of-three, closest-to-the-pin contest from just inside 40 yards, one player against one player, and it was over quickly. Kim finished closer than Bradley in his duel. Kisner then put his shot inside Scott's, clinching the shootout 2-0 and giving Jupiter the extra point for a 4-3 win.

Woods and McIlroy never had to hit an overtime shot. The night had already delivered what the league needed from them.

The Hammer Finally Mattered

The first three matches made the Hammer look like either a blunt weapon or a decoration. This one showed its real purpose. Boston threw it twice in big spots, once in Triples on the eighth and once in Singles on the 13th, and both times Jupiter had a putter in hand with the hole on the line. Kisner made his 10-footer. Woods made his eight-footer. Either miss would have handed Boston a two-point swing and, very likely, the match.

That is the tension TGL sells: a team with a perceived edge raises the stakes, and the other team has to decide whether it trusts its short game enough to play on. Jupiter trusted it twice and was right twice. Coverage of the night noted a record number of Hammers thrown, and the answers to them were what kept the score glued together from start to finish.

Kim Steals the Show

Woods had called Kim "the kid's a stud" before the match, and Kim spent the evening proving it. He made the clutch putts on two and nine, stuck the tee shot on 12, held Bradley level on 15 and won the first overtime duel. He shushed the crowd, bowed after makes and fell down after nearly holing a bunker shot. TGL has wanted personality since the day it launched. Kim brought enough for the whole building.

"The last two (matches) have been blowouts, but I think today showed that it's getting kind of personal now," Kim said.

Kisner deserves his flowers too. The 10-footer to cancel Scott's Hammer, the Singles win on 11 and the clinching overtime shot all came from a player who had a rough night in Jupiter's opener.

Woods, for his part, had shouted to his mother in the stands before play, "Hi, Mom! I'm not going to suck tonight!" He did not. "This is what we had envisioned for TGL, to have an experience like this, and I think we delivered," Woods said afterward. McIlroy agreed. "I think it was really cool that tonight was one of those matches that was really tight," McIlroy said, and he praised Woods' intensity, saying, "He was feeling it out there, and it was really cool to see."

Red Sox legend David Ortiz was in the crowd, and McIlroy walked out to "Shipping Up to Boston." The vibe was right. So was the golf.

What It Means

Jupiter moved to 1-1 with two points, joining Los Angeles, The Bay and Atlanta Drive in a four-way tie atop the SoFi Cup standings. That is a remarkable recovery from a team that was routed 12-1 by Los Angeles two weeks earlier. Boston banked one point for the overtime loss in its debut, which keeps it ahead of winless New York at 0-2.

Boston's response to that debut was scheduled for Feb. 4 against Los Angeles. Jupiter was set to return Feb. 18 against New York.

The bigger takeaway is about the product. After three lopsided results, this was the match that showed what TGL can be when two teams trade Hammers, trade putts and refuse to blink. A one-point game, the two biggest names in golf head to head, and a shootout to decide it. If the league could bottle one night from its first month, this is the one.

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, CBS Sports, Golf Digest. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Jupiter leaves with its first win and a new star. Boston leaves with a point, a heartbreak and proof it belongs in this race.

Photo: TGL.