Tiger Woods' TGL Debut Turns Into a Boat Race as Los Angeles Routs Jupiter Links 12-1

Tiger Woods walked out to "Eye of the Tiger," split the first fairway with a 3-wood, threw the Hammer on the very first hole of his TGL career and had the building at SoFi Center shaking. Then the golf started. Two hours later, Los Angeles Golf Club had handed Woods' Jupiter Links Golf Club a 12-1 beating on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and the league's co-founder was left laughing at the wreckage.

Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala won the Triples session 8-1, swept the Singles holes that were decided, and turned the most anticipated night of TGL's young life into a showcase for Los Angeles. Woods, Max Homa and Kevin Kisner managed one point. It was the most lopsided result in the league's two matches, and it was not particularly close to being close.

The Hammer That Did Nothing

Woods made his intentions clear right away. Jupiter threw the Hammer on the opening hole, putting two points on the line, and both sides made par. No swing, no points, just a lot of noise. The second hole is where things went sideways. Homa's second shot found the water, and Woods followed by dumping a 101-yard wedge into the same hazard. Los Angeles won the hole with a bogey, which tells you everything about how Jupiter's start went.

From there, Los Angeles stacked doubles. Rose rolled in a birdie putt of about 10 feet on Set in Stone, the par-3 third, a hole worth two points, and Los Angeles took two more on the fourth. Kisner's second shot on that hole went into the water, and Woods missed a par putt of about seven feet to the left. After four holes, the scoreboard read 5-0.

Woods finally gave his own crowd something at the par-3 fifth, holing a par putt of about eight feet to halve the hole while his mother, Kultida, applauded from the stands. Jupiter grabbed its only point of the night on the sixth to make it 5-1, and for a moment it felt like a game. Theegala killed that feeling on the seventh, holing a nine-footer for par to halve the hole, and Rose followed on the eighth with a 14-foot birdie to make it 6-1.

Los Angeles Swings the Hammer Back

The ninth hole, The Spear, put the exclamation point on the session. Theegala launched a 334-yard drive, and Los Angeles threw the Hammer midway through the hole. Jupiter played on, Woods missed another par putt from inside 10 feet, and a Los Angeles par was enough to collect two points. The Triples session ended 8-1.

That stretch from holes 2 through 4 decided the match. Los Angeles won five points on three holes, two of them doubled, while Jupiter played the role of a team that had never seen the course before. In a format where alternate shot magnifies every mistake, three balls in the water across the first four holes is a death sentence. The Hammer exists to create comebacks. Los Angeles used it to bury one before it could start.

Singles: Woods Finds More Water

The Singles session opened on Serpent, the 616-yard par-5 10th, and Woods halved it with Rose. Morikawa beat Kisner on the 11th to make it 9-1, and Homa halved the 12th with Theegala.

Then came the hole that summed up Woods' night. Facing Rose again on the 13th, Woods hit a drive that caromed back into the water and limped to a double bogey. Rose took the point for 10-1. On the 14th, a par 3 called On the Rocks, Kisner skulled a greenside bunker shot that rattled off the flagstick and sent people nearby scrambling, then nearly holed the comeback chip from the other side of the green. Morikawa beat him again for 11-1, and Theegala closed the night by beating Homa on the 15th.

Final: Los Angeles 12, Jupiter 1. Woods hit 20 shots in a match that lasted just over two hours, and he could not find a single moment where his game looked sharp.

Rose, Morikawa and Theegala Look Like a Team

The most important takeaway was not Woods' rust. It was how good Los Angeles looked. Rose was the steady hand, holing the two biggest putts of the Triples session and then beating Woods in Singles. Morikawa won both of his Singles holes against Kisner and was rarely out of position all night. Theegala was the spark plug, from the nine-foot par save on seven to the 334-yard bomb on nine to the closing point on 15. Tommy Fleetwood, the fourth member of the roster, watched from the sideline and was not needed.

Theegala admitted he got chills during Woods' introduction, then played like a player who had shaken it off immediately. He also said afterward that he was so amped up it was hard to control himself, which, given the result, seemed to work fine.

Los Angeles also had star power in the stands. Co-owners Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian were there, and Williams needled her old friend on the ESPN broadcast with, "It's about time, Tiger." Retired U.S. soccer star Alex Morgan was in the building too, along with Woods' son, Charlie.

Woods Laughs It Off

Woods did not pretend this went well. "It was just a boat race, oh my goodness, but we had a great time," Woods said. He was blunt about the reason, too. "The walking is not the issue; it's just my game is not very good," Woods said.

He found the funny side of Kisner's bunker shot, saying, "We honestly didn't think that anyone could possibly get hit in here." Kisner, for his part, spent part of the night joking with the Woods family. "Charlie, you want to come play?" Kisner said, a line that landed better than most of Jupiter's shots. Tom Kim, Jupiter's fourth player, sat this one out.

There is an honest critique buried in all the fun. Two matches into TGL's existence, both had been blowouts, and the energy in the arena sagged once the outcome was obvious. The broadcast also ran past its window. The league is built on the promise that the Hammer keeps matches alive. On this night, it never got the chance.

Standings Check

Los Angeles moved to 1-0 with two points and 12 holes won, tied atop the SoFi Cup standings with The Bay Golf Club, which opened the league with a 9-2 win over New York Golf Club a week earlier. The holes-won tiebreaker gives Los Angeles the early edge. Jupiter fell to 0-1 with one hole won, the lowest total in the league after two matches.

With only the top four of six teams reaching the playoffs, one bad night is hardly fatal in a 15-match regular season. But Jupiter needs Woods to look a lot more like Woods, and fast. Its next scheduled match was against Rory McIlroy's Boston Common Golf on Jan. 27, a founders' showdown that suddenly carried a little pressure. Los Angeles was scheduled to face Boston on Feb. 4.

Two weeks into the TGL era, Los Angeles has the look of a team that took the preparation seriously. Jupiter has the look of a team that brought the biggest name in golf and forgot to bring a game plan for keeping the ball dry.

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

Sources: TGL, PGA TOUR, CBS Sports, UPI, Associated Press. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Los Angeles leaves with the league lead on tiebreakers. Jupiter leaves with a long film session and a founder who knows his game needs work.

Photo: TGL.