New York Golf Club Finally Breaks Through, Routs Tiger Woods' Jupiter Links 10-3 for First TGL Win

For six weeks, New York Golf Club was the hard-luck story of TGL. Two losses, two holes won in 30 played and a putter that refused to cooperate. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, it all flipped. New York Golf Club won seven straight points, built an 8-0 lead through eight holes and rolled past Jupiter Links Golf Club 10-3 at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for the first win in franchise history.

Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young did it against Tiger Woods, Kevin Kisner and Tom Kim on a night that was about more than the score. It was Woods' first public golf since the death of his mother, Kultida, earlier in February, after he had withdrawn from the Genesis Invitational as a player while grieving. He returned with a smile, a birdie and one moment he called among the most embarrassing of his career.

Triples: New York Finally Puts It Together

New York's fast start began with a Jupiter miss. On the opening hole, Woods had a putt of about five feet to tie the hole and missed it, giving New York a 1-0 lead. Jupiter threw the Hammer on the second hole, but the hole was halved, so it produced nothing.

New York used its first Hammer on the third hole and won it, collecting two points for a 3-0 lead. Then it just kept going. New York won every hole from the fourth through the eighth while Jupiter struggled to keep the ball in play, and the scoreboard read 8-0 after eight holes. That was seven straight points for a team that had won two holes in its first two matches combined.

Jupiter finally got on the board at the par-5 ninth. It threw the Hammer again, and Kim rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt that caught the edge of the cup and fell, giving Jupiter two points. New York took an 8-2 lead into Singles.

"We did what we wanted to do coming out," Fowler said, which might be the understatement of the season for a team that had been shut out by Atlanta four weeks earlier.

Singles: Woods' Moment, Then a Wedge to Nowhere

Woods gave the crowd what it wanted on the 10th, a par 5 called Sterling, making birdie to beat Young and cut the deficit to 8-3. Fowler answered on the 11th by beating Kisner for 9-3, and Jupiter used its last Hammer on the 12th, where Kim and Fitzpatrick halved the hole.

The 13th, a par 4 called Temple, produced the most talked-about moment of the night. Woods asked for a yardage and was told "99," shorthand for 199 yards. Woods heard 99, took pitching wedge and came up roughly 100 yards short of the flag. Young won the hole to make it 10-3. Woods, to his credit, laughed it off. "One of the most embarrassing moments of my golf career just happened," Woods said, smiling.

The final two holes were halved, Kisner and Fowler on the 14th and Kim and Fitzpatrick on the 15th. New York 10, Jupiter 3.

The Turning Point Came Early

There was no single swing that decided this one. It was decided by a relentless stretch from the third hole through the eighth, when New York won six straight holes, including a doubled one. Jupiter's Hammer on the second hole was meant to spark a fast start of its own. Instead, the hole was halved, and New York's response on the third set the tone for everything after. By the time Jupiter found its footing, the match was effectively over, and the remaining holes were about pride, playoff tiebreakers and a few highlight shots for the crowd.

The difference from New York's first two matches was stark. Against the Bay and Atlanta, New York had looked like a team still learning the GreenZone, missing putts and trailing early. Here it was the aggressor, and Fowler nearly holed out from roughly 200 yards at one point. Fitzpatrick, who had spent the Atlanta match lamenting that his team had not holed a putt, was a different player. "I feel like we did play really well tonight," Fitzpatrick said.

New York's Trio Finds Its Stride

Fowler was the steady hand all night. He set the tone in Triples, won his Singles hole against Kisner on the 11th and halved the 14th, and he nearly holed a full shot from about 200 yards. For a player whose star power helped sell this league, the first win clearly meant something.

Young earned his moment, too. He lost the opening Singles hole to Woods, then came back to beat him on the 13th, a nice bit of revenge for a player who had been on the wrong end of Atlanta's shutout in January. Fitzpatrick did not win a Singles hole, but he halved both of his against Kim, which is exactly what a team protecting a big lead needs.

New York did all of this again without Xander Schauffele in the lineup. That it found its best form with the same three players who were blanked by Atlanta says plenty about how much this format rewards reps, comfort on the GreenZone and chemistry.

Jupiter's Problem Is Bigger Than One Night

Jupiter had looked like a rising team after beating Boston in overtime. This performance sent it backward. The ball found trouble too often in Triples, and Jupiter did not win a hole until the ninth. Kim was again the bright spot, with the 12-foot Hammer birdie on nine and halves against Fitzpatrick on 12 and 15. Kisner had a premium bunker shot that TGL's social account celebrated, but he lost to Fowler on 11.

Woods' night was complicated, and understandably so. The birdie on 10 was a reminder of what he can still do, and his smile through the yardage mix-up was a reminder of how much this league means to him. But Jupiter has now lost two of its three matches by a combined 22-4 margin, and it needs more than its founder's star power to climb into the top four.

Standings and Stakes

New York improved to 1-2 with two points, which moved it into fourth place in the SoFi Cup standings. That is the last playoff spot, and New York held it on the holes-won tiebreaker over Jupiter, which also had two points. New York's 10 holes won in this match took its season total from two to 12, a jump that could matter a great deal if the race for fourth comes down to tiebreakers. Its last outing was the 4-0 shutout loss to Atlanta Drive, which makes this turnaround even more striking.

Jupiter fell to 1-2 with two points. Its only win came in the 4-3 overtime thriller against Boston Common in January.

The Bay led the league, unbeaten, with Los Angeles and Atlanta close behind. New York was set to face Los Angeles on Feb. 24, and Jupiter was scheduled to play the Bay on Feb. 25.

Six matches remained in the regular season after this one, and the race for the last playoff spot had suddenly become very real. New York, the team nobody was talking about, had just put itself right in the middle of it.

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. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

New York leaves with its first win and a playoff spot to defend. Jupiter leaves with a founder still finding his game and a lot of ground to make up in the standings before the regular season runs out.

Photo: TGL.