Along with Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods was instrumental in the creation of the tech-infused TGL that capped off its second season on Tuesday night. The pair of supetstars knew it wasn’t going to be anything like traditional golf, but that was the point: to attract possible new and younger fans who would be cool with golf shots played amid spewing lava and through post-apocalyptic cityscapes.
They never said the golf was going to be easy, however, and after a year of cheering from the sidelines, Woods—playing for the first time in more than a year for his Jupiter Links squad—met his own monster in the lopsided season finale.
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Finding it tough to muster much rhythm while executing only nine shots total—four of which were putts—Woods made a couple of strong swings, but he also flew the green long with a wedge on a 110-yard par 3 and missed a 3½-foot putt on the seventh hole that gave Los Angeles Golf Club the spark it needed en route to a 9-2 rout that ended the match and the championship on the 10th hole.
Following its 6-5 win on Monday night in Game 1, Los Angeles swept the best-of-three competition, and Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala seized their first TGL title and the $9 million first prize.
“Feels fine physically,” Woods said after the match. “It was just interesting, the shots, because usually you have more of a rhythm when you’re actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots. Here it feels like I’m getting iced a bit at times. … It’s just a different rhythm. It’s like when you play Ryder Cup or Presidents Cups and you play in foursomes. Some matches you just don’t hit a putt for like 10, 11 holes and all of a sudden you’ve got to make a three-footer. That’s kind of what it feels like here.
“For me, it was different because I haven’t really done this. I’ve been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven’t done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it.”
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The announcement late on Monday night that Woods, 50, would play on the second night created some buzz for the return of the 15-time major winner who last played on the PGA Tour in the 2024 British Open. Woods’ only other brush with competition came when he and son Charlie finished second in the 2024 PNC Championship, and in the one match he played last March in TGL.
Since then, Woods underwent surgery on his Achilles last March and had L4-L5 disc replacement surgery last October.
In replacing teammate Kevin Kisner so that he could play alongside Tom Kim and Max Homa, Woods seemed genuinely excited to taste the battle. Before the action, he told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, “I love to compete. I really do.” He also said, “It’s just one step at a time. Tonight, it’s a nice step.”
Much to the chagrin of his fans, however, Woods didn’t make it sound like this was a strong stride toward playing in the Masters in less than two weeks. In the post-match interview, Woods, a five-time Masters champion, said he has been trying to prepare for competition, but …
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“Just this body, it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying for a while. I’ve had a couple bad injuries here over the past years that I’ve had to fight through and it’s taken some time. … I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ve loved being there [in Augusta] since I was 19 years old. It’s meant a lot to me and my family over the years.”
Rose said the night was going to be special as soon as it was announced that Woods would be playing. He said sharing the floor with a “legend” was “awesome.”
“He does bring so much to it,” the Englishman said. “I was just looking at it curious … yeah, it would be great to see where he’s at. He looked impressive. I don’t think he hit a bad shot. The only bad shot he hit was not a bad shot; it was just too good a shot almost with a wedge that went too far. But his fairway woods — everything looked great.
“Obviously the putting, missed a short one—that’s the bit that kind of shows if you haven’t been competing, so that can hopefully change for him in the not-too-distant future.”
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Adam Glanzman/TGL
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Winning the season title was a blast for the three from the L.A. team of two Englishmen and a young man in Theegala who is a native Southern Californian and grew up east of the city in Chino Hills. Rose has won the U.S. Open, Fleetwood captured this past season’s FedEx Cup, and Theegala has one tour victory and is battling back well this season after an injury derailed him in 2025.
“I’ve got two of the most successful English golfers that are going to go down in history as some of the best players in golf. They’ve raised quite a few trophies, but I think they can also agree that it’s just a brutal sport where you don’t win a lot,” Theegala said. “You have a great week, you finish third or fourth. You played great to do that, but then you still lost to a guy or two.
“It’s just a sport where you’re not on top a lot, so got to savor every moment of being on top, and just so elated to do it with these guys. These guys are family now. It’s so, so special to do it as a team. I’m just so excited for us to celebrate this, and I’m already looking forward to next year.”
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