Tiger, Team Jupiter Links falls to Morikawa, Team LA in TGL

On By Littum

January 14, 2025, 9:37 PM ET

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods was the sixth and final player to come out of the tunnel and onto the course for his TGL debut Tuesday night.

No one announced his name. Wasn’t necessary.

Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” blared, and that was more than enough of an introduction for perhaps golf’s greatest player. It’s not like anyone at the SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College didn’t know who Woods was, and most were even aware of how he, Rory McIlroy and others spent years trying to get this notion of indoor golf on TV to happen.

“It’s a reality now,” Woods said.

Week 2 of the TGL was Tuesday night – Woods joined Kevin Kisner and Max Homa of Jupiter Links Golf Club to take on the Los Angeles Golf Club of Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.

The final score: Los Angeles 12, Jupiter 1 in the 15-hole, made-for-TV team match with nine holes of triple play followed by six holes of singles play – two holes for each player on each team. Woods was all smiles throughout, even with the lopsided score. The format is such that he only took 20 shots during the match which lasted for a good two hours.

“We were entertaining,” Woods said, still laughing even after the route ended inside the arena being built just a few miles from his Jupiter Island home. “We hit a lot of shots. I think people there got to see how bad pros can be. It was just a boat race, oh my god. But we had a great time.”

Woods’ team quickly found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard, trailing 5-0. It could have been worse if Woods hadn’t made an 8-footer for par to help his team earn a tie on the fifth hole. That putt came one hole after Woods slid a 7-footer wide left.

“It’s about time, Tiger,” tennis legend Serena Williams said on the ESPN broadcast. Williams is a longtime friend of Woods, so she found herself rooting for him — and she’s part of the ownership of the Los Angeles Golf Club, so she found herself rooting for him at the same time.

There were vintage Woods moments, like staring down pictures he liked while the super-high-tech video boards told the story of where the ball would have gone outdoors. There were also frustrating; he shook his head after sending a 101-yard wedge into the water on the second hole of the 15-hole match — as son Charlie, sitting in one of the seats in the arena overlooking the course, couldn’t help but laugh.

“This is unique. This is something that golf has never seen before,” Woods said. “You have an arena like this and you out there with good guys, entertain everybody, just have fun.”

It wasn’t just Charlie Woods who chuckled at Jupiter Links’ play. So was Tiger Woods — especially when Kisner hit a shot from the sand and sent it ricocheting off the pin as his teammates ducked for cover.

“We honestly didn’t think anybody could possibly get hit in here,” Woods said.

Homa apologized to the technology.

Golf can be a hit. Woods hoped viewers watched to the end; Homa suggested that Duke fans would still tune in when the Blue Devils played Miami on ESPN after golf ended. And Woods, walking his son in a tournament last month, looked like he was physically fit — at least in the sense that he didn’t seem to be holding anything back while swinging.

Physically, he said he was fine. As for golf: “The walking is not the problem. My game is not good,” Woods said.

Sitting in the Los Angeles box just to the right of the players’ tees, Williams enjoyed the spectacle of walk-out introductions, light and smoke shows and booming music.

“It’s so crazy,” Williams said. “It’s something you see a little bit in tennis. We see it all the time in basketball, right? We don’t really see it that much in golf. In fact, we never see it in golf. It’s so good to kind of see their personalities and see them shining like golfers … It’s so cool to see a new aspect.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.