Wyndham Clark Gets His Moment, Eagles the Last Hole as The Bay Edges Boston Common 5-4

Wyndham Clark laid up on a par 5 early in the night and got booed for it. He promised the crowd would be cheering for him soon. Then, with the match tied on the final hole of TGL's first tripleheader, he poured in a 10-foot eagle putt to beat Boston Common Golf 5-4 and keep The Bay Golf Club perfect on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

"I just want my moment, one time," Clark said at one point. When the eagle dropped, Ludvig Åberg gave him a playful shove. "That was your moment!" Åberg said.

It was the Bay's second win of the day and third of the season, and it moved the Bay into first place. Boston, still searching for its first win, played its best match yet and had no reward to show for it.

Triples: Hammer Chess From the First Tee

The Bay sent out Clark, Åberg and Shane Lowry, with Min Woo Lee sitting after his debut earlier in the day. Boston countered with Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Hideki Matsuyama, who was finally making his TGL debut.

Matsuyama made an immediate impression. On the opening hole, Boston threw the Hammer before his birdie putt of about nine feet, the Bay accepted, and Matsuyama rolled it in for a 2-0 Boston lead. One hole later, Clark chose to lay up on The Spear, the par-5 second, and the crowd let him have it. "We'll get 'em cheering for us here soon," Clark said.

The Bay answered with Hammers of its own. On the third hole, the Bay threw it and Boston declined, giving the Bay a point and making it 2-1. On the fifth, the Bay threw it again, and this time Boston accepted. Bradley had a six-foot birdie putt to win the hole and missed, and the Bay took two points and the lead at 3-2. That score held through the rest of the Triples session.

This was the first day of TGL's new Hammer rules, with each team holding three, and both teams clearly wanted to use them. The Bay spent its supply early. That decision would matter later.

Singles: Trading Blows

Bradley opened Singles in style against Lowry, holing a chip for eagle on the 10th to tie the match 3-3. Åberg answered on the 11th with a 15-foot birdie against McIlroy to put the Bay back in front at 4-3.

The 12th was a missed chance for the Bay. It threw the Hammer with Clark facing Matsuyama, and Clark had an eight-foot birdie putt that would have put the Bay up three with three to play. He missed, and the hole was halved.

Boston pounced on the 13th. Bradley got the better of Lowry for the second time, and when Boston threw the Hammer, the Bay declined, conceding one point to tie it 4-4. On the par-3 14th, Boston threw the Hammer again, making the hole worth two. McIlroy made birdie, and Åberg matched him, holing a six-foot putt to halve the hole and keep the match level.

That set the stage for the 15th, Clark against Matsuyama. Matsuyama had an eagle putt from a few feet farther away than Clark and missed. Boston called a timeout before Clark's putt, trying to ice him. It did not work. Clark buried the 10-footer for eagle, and the Bay won 5-4.

The Hammer Math Behind the Finish

McIlroy understood exactly how close his team had come. "This is the first day that we've had these new Hammer rules and every match was really tight," McIlroy said. He pointed out that the Bay had thrown its Hammers early and had none left for the final holes, which gave Boston the leverage late.

Boston used that leverage on 13 and 14. It got one point on the 13th when the Bay declined, and it put two on the line at the 14th. "If it wasn't for Ludvig holing that putt on the par-three, we would have went up going into that last hole," McIlroy said.

He was right. Åberg's six-footer on 14 was the most important putt of the night that did not win the match. Without it, Boston takes a 6-4 lead to the last hole, and Clark's eagle is only enough to make it close. With it, Clark's eagle was the winner. Lowry, meanwhile, had a rough Singles night, dropping both of his holes to Bradley, which is why the Bay needed every bit of Åberg and Clark at the end.

Zoom out and the whole day looked like this. All three Presidents Day matches were decided by a single point: Atlanta over Los Angeles 6-5 in overtime, the Bay over Atlanta 6-5, and now the Bay over Boston 5-4. After a first month full of blowouts, the extra Hammers produced exactly the kind of tension the league had been chasing. Every team had a weapon to swing late, every lead was vulnerable, and nobody in the building could relax until the last putt dropped.

There is also a lesson in the Bay's early aggression. Its Hammers on three and five turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead, which is precisely what they are for. But spending them early left the Bay with no counterpunch on 13 and 14, and it took two clutch putts to survive.

Stars of the Night

Clark gets the headline. The layup on two drew boos, the miss on 12 stung, and he answered by holing the biggest putt of the tripleheader. Åberg, playing on Monday after winning the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, delivered the 15-foot birdie on 11 and the six-footer on 14, and he has quietly become the Bay's most reliable putter.

For Boston, Bradley was outstanding for the second straight match. The eagle chip-in on 10 and the win over Lowry on 13 accounted for both of Boston's Singles points, and his missed six-footer on the fifth was one of the few blemishes. Matsuyama's debut was strong, with the Hammer birdie on the opening hole, even if his final eagle try slid by. McIlroy, who had called Matsuyama a potential silent assassin two weeks earlier, finally had him in the lineup and still could not find a win.

Standings and Stakes

The Bay improved to 3-0 with six points and took over first place in the SoFi Cup standings. Los Angeles sat one point back with five, Atlanta had four, Jupiter Links two and New York none. The Bay's earlier win that day was a 6-5 decision over Atlanta Drive, and the Bay has won every match it has played.

Boston fell to 0-2-1 with one point. After a 6-2 loss to Los Angeles in its previous outing, this was a far better performance, but it was still a loss, and the playoff line of the top four of six teams is getting harder to reach.

The schedule kept moving. Boston was set to face Atlanta on Feb. 24, and the Bay was scheduled to play Tiger Woods' Jupiter Links Golf Club on Feb. 25.

The Bay closed a marathon day with two wins, first place and a closer who finally got his moment. Boston closed it wondering how many more one-point losses it can afford, with its full four-man roster finally assembled and the clock on the regular season ticking.

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

The Bay leaves Presidents Day unbeaten and in first place. Boston leaves with its best performance yet and nothing to show for it.

Photo: TGL.