Tommy Fleetwood Says LA Doesn't Need the Hammer, and Los Angeles Proves It in 6-2 Win Over Boston Common

The crowd at SoFi Center begged Los Angeles to throw the Hammer all night. Tommy Fleetwood finally turned around midway through the ninth hole and answered for his team: "We don't need the Hammer! We're fine!" He was right. Los Angeles Golf Club carried a 5-0 lead into Singles and beat Boston Common Golf 6-2 on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., without ever putting the yellow flag in play.

Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose and Fleetwood, making his TGL debut in place of Sahith Theegala, won five of the nine Triples holes, never trailed and moved Los Angeles alone into first place. Rory McIlroy, two days removed from winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, could not carry that form into the arena, and Boston fell to 0-1-1.

Triples: Five Points, Zero Hammers

Los Angeles got rolling immediately. On the opening hole, Fleetwood's drive split the fairway, Morikawa followed with a 159-yard approach and Rose rolled in the short birdie putt for a 1-0 lead. Boston conceded the second hole on a night when the first two holes also came with some technical hiccups, and Los Angeles was up 2-0 before Boston had settled in.

The third hole followed the same script. Keegan Bradley found the rough off the tee for Boston, and Fleetwood buried a seven-foot birdie putt to make it 3-0. Los Angeles had won the first three holes outright.

Rose added a six-foot birdie on the fifth for 4-0, and Boston's best chance to answer came on the seventh, when McIlroy stuck an approach inside five feet only for Adam Scott to miss the putt. The hole was halved. Los Angeles finished the session with another birdie on the ninth, the hole where Fleetwood waved off the crowd's Hammer chants, and the Triples session ended 5-0.

That ninth-hole moment captured the whole night. Los Angeles held the Hammer from the start and simply never needed it. Throwing it would have offered a struggling Boston team a chance to accept, make one putt and swing two points. Los Angeles declined to give its opponent that gift, and Morikawa kept the flag in his pocket even when Boston publicly asked for it.

Singles: Bradley Fights, Fleetwood Finishes

Boston needed a near miracle to come back, and it had a chance at a start on the 10th. An eight-foot birdie putt that would have won the hole burned the edge of the cup, and the hole was halved. On the 11th, Morikawa made par to halve again, and the TGL recap said that par secured the win for Los Angeles.

Bradley gave Boston something to cheer on the par-3 12th. His tee shot settled within about two feet of the cup, and Rose's long putt to tie skirted just past the hole. Boston finally had a point at 5-1.

Then McIlroy's night took its worst turn. On the 13th, his tee shot sailed out of bounds, and Fleetwood took the hole for Los Angeles' sixth point. The 14th was halved, and Bradley closed the match by winning the par-5 15th, hitting his third shot to within two feet. He beat Rose on both of their Singles holes, the only two points Boston scored all night. On a night when Boston's two biggest names struggled to find the bottom of the cup, Bradley was the one player who looked fully locked in.

Final: Los Angeles 6, Boston 2.

The Turning Point Was Hole 1

There was no dramatic swing in this one. The turning point was the first three holes, which Los Angeles won outright while Boston was still finding the range. A 3-0 start against a team still riding the emotion of an overtime thriller effectively ended things before the crowd had settled into its seats. Boston never won a Triples hole, and by the time the players headed to the break, the math was brutal.

All six players had been at Pebble Beach the week before, and the cross-country turnaround showed. CBS Sports noted the energy in the building felt a notch lower than in recent weeks. For McIlroy, it was a jarring shift from a Sunday trophy on the Monterey Peninsula to a Tuesday night spent watching Los Angeles pile up birdies.

Boston also could not get putts to fall. McIlroy, Scott and Bradley all missed makeable chances, and that stands out because the team's debut against Jupiter was decided by clutch putting. Scott was candid about the difference. "Momentum counts for a lot," Scott said. "This moves really quick and the points got away from us tonight."

There were a few hiccups in the building, too. Fleetwood had to re-hit a shot when the simulator failed to read it, and Morikawa had one ball on Alpine that seemed to defy gravity on the screen. Those glitches are worth noting for a league in its first month, but they did not decide anything. Los Angeles' precision did.

Fleetwood's Debut and LA's Depth

Fleetwood looked made for this. He set up the opening birdie, holed the seven-footer on three, provided the best line of the night on nine and collected the point on 13. "How much fun is [this]? What a team. What a group of lads," Fleetwood said afterward. "It's epic, isn't it?" He also said he had really enjoyed the preparation that went into the night with his teammates.

Rose was just as complimentary about the room. "I felt like the crowd, the atmosphere inside the arena was great," Rose said. That atmosphere was louder for Los Angeles than anyone else, and the team fed off it.

What makes Los Angeles dangerous is that it won 12-1 with Theegala in the lineup and 6-2 with Fleetwood in his place. Morikawa and Rose have been constants, with Morikawa's iron play setting up chances all night. Rose was steady in Triples before Bradley got the best of him in Singles. "If you can get under their skin, that's exactly what you want to do," Morikawa said, and Los Angeles has done that to both opponents it has faced.

Boston, by contrast, is still waiting on its fourth member. Hideki Matsuyama had not played yet, and his teammates were already talking him up. Scott called him a possible secret weapon, and McIlroy said Matsuyama could be the silent assassin the team needs.

Standings and Stakes

Los Angeles improved to 2-0 with four points, alone in first place in the SoFi Cup standings. Its first win was a 12-1 rout of Jupiter Links, so it has now won 18 holes and lost three across two matches. That holes-won total is at least double every other team's, a tiebreaker cushion that could matter when seeding is sorted out in March.

Boston dropped to 0-1-1 with one point, following its overtime loss to Jupiter Links the previous week. Only the top four of six teams reach the playoffs, and with a short regular season, Boston is already in a hole.

The schedule offered no breathing room. Both teams were set for the Feb. 17 Presidents Day tripleheader, with Los Angeles facing Atlanta Drive GC in the opener and Boston facing The Bay Golf Club in the nightcap.

Los Angeles looks like the class of the league through the first month. Boston looks like a team that needs its stars to convert their chances, and fast.

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, Yahoo Sports, Sky Sports, CBS Sports. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Los Angeles leaves with the outright lead and a Hammer it still has not needed. Boston leaves still searching for its first win.

Photo: TGL.