McIlroy's Boston lose out to Jupiter Links as Fleetwood sends LA to TGL final
Jupiter Links GC defeated Rory McIlroy's Boston Common to reach the TGL final against Los Angeles' Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose.Tiger Woods continued to sit out of the 2026 season as he recovers from injury, while McIlroy returned to action after his unsuccessful title defence at The Players.
Jupiter Links GC, who finished in last in the inaugural season of TGL, upset McIlroy's Boston Common 9-5 at the SoFi Center, as Los Angeles Golf Club dethroned defending TGL champion Atlanta Drive 6-4 led by Fleetwood's strategic use of the Hammer on the 14th hole and several clutch putts from Rose.
"Now the 'Bad News Bears' can play," Woods said. "So we're back and we're now advancing into the finals and it's been incredible."As I said, the bonding that has, that occurs - no matter what team you're on whether you're playing for Ryder Cup or playing Presidents Cup, World Cups, whatever it is, the bonding that happens in this, in teams, it's so different and unique."
Akshay Bhatia, signed with Jupiter Links as an alternate in January, has shot par or better in 20 straight PGA Tour rounds since the start of February. He starred alongside Max Homa, Tom Kim, and Kevin Kisner.
"I think the bond is the biggest thing," Bhatia said. "I've definitely gotten a lot closer with Max, especially at tournaments. Now I feel like every practice round we're texting each other, and TK same thing.
"Obviously to have the greatest player of all time in your corner is really, really cool. I'm glad that I was an alternate for this team because this is definitely the kind of the best, you know, gathering of guys that I could have imagined."
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Homa, who was matched up against McIlroy in singles, delivered the clean sweep of their two holes together.His par-saver on No. 13, where he hit the Steph Curry 'Night night' celebration, proved to be the match-winning point."It's kind of win or go home. Unfortunately, we're on the 'go home' end of that tonight," said Adam Scott, who played alongside McIlroy and Keegan Bradley.Los Angeles overcame an early deficit with Rose nailing a 24-foot birdie to get Los Angeles on the board before the 45-year-old handed his team the lead for the first time in the match with a birdie at No 14.Fleetwood's strategic use of the Hammer on the 14th hole was a pivotal moment in the match.Los Angeles had been leading 5-4 and threw the hammer with Billy Horschel needing to make a par to tie.Patrick Cantlay tried to convince Billy Horschel to accept the hammer, so the team had a clean chance to win on No 15, but Horschel declined, and the team fell behind 6-4 and with it, the match.Rose called it "genius" after saying he had no clue what was happening."I was unaware of it," he said. "Next thing I knew the thing [Hammer] was on the ground. So it was like, 'What the hell's going on here?'""It just felt like the right thing to do," Fleetwood said. "It obviously gave them a pretty tough decision to make. Maybe I got lucky with thinking the right way at the right time."
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