The post ‘Got our ass kicked’: Tiger Woods misses crucial short putt in failed TGL return appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Got our ass kicked’: Tiger Woods misses crucial short putt in failed TGL return appeared first on Golf.

Tiger Woods’ long-awaited return to competitive golf on Tuesday evening was a quick one. Woods and his Jupiter Links teams got dusted by Los Angeles GC to lose the 2026 TGL Finals. It only took L.A. 10 holes to finish Jupiter off 9-2.

While Woods put up a couple of highlights with the few swings he hit in his return, it was his worst moment — a short missed putt to lose a crucial hole — that may have turned the match.

Tiger Woods starts return with 2 bombs, 318-yard stinger

Tuesday night’s TGL action was Woods’ first appearance playing a competitive golf event in over a year, dating to a TGL match in early March 2025. His last time playing a real tournament was July 2024.

With that in mind, the biggest positive from Tiger’s brief foray back into competitive golf was that his swing looked good, albeit in a small sample.

After hitting a nice lag putt to set up a gimme birdie at the 1st hole, Tiger took his first full swing at the par-5 2nd hole, known as “Caverns.”

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After Tom Kim hit the tee shot for Jupiter, Tiger laced a 3-wood 272 yards to the right edge of the green, only 24 feet from the hole.

The ESPN TV both seemed impressed with the shot, “How about that? That looked really, really good,” one analyst remarked.

Jupiter would win the hole to take an early 1-0 lead in the match. After a sand wedge and a few more putts, Woods finally hit another full shot at the 6th hole, and it was his best of the night.

At the signature “Stinger” hole, Woods hit one of his trademark stinger shots, piping a driver under the overhanging rock and 318 yards down the fairway.

However, Tiger’s exemplary stinger was ultimately wasted. L.A., represented by Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Sahith Theegala, threw down the Hammer on the hole, then won it with a birdie make from Theegala.

Suddenly, the match was tied 2-2.

From there on out, things only got worse for Woods and Jupiter Links.

Tiger misses 3-foot putt, slams club in frustration

At the very next hole, the 250-yard par-3 “Cenote,” Homa hit his drive to 18 feet, while Rose missed the green for L.A.

Theegala hit a clutch chip to four feet, setting up an easy par putt for Fleetwood that gave L.A. a 3 for the hole.

Kim hit next for Jupiter, and he didn’t hit a great one. Facing an 18-footer, he left Tiger with over three feet for par to tie the hole.

With the ESPN cameras zoomed in close, Woods set up to the ball, took his stroke, then watched as his ball caught the edge of the cup and lipped out.

The ugly miss drew a minor club slam from the 15-time major champion, as he brought his putter down onto his offending ball. But with a turf green, no harm was done to the putting surface.

L.A. won the hole to take a 3-2 lead and never looked back. Three holes later, L.A. had officially wrapped their championship title with a 9-2 win.

Immediately after the match, Woods did not hide his frustration with the result or with himself.

“We got our ass kicked at the end… We didn’t respond, and I missed a short one at the beginning to kind of get it started, give them momentum, and never got it back,” Woods said Tuesday night.

Later, during Jupiter’s post-match press conference, Woods took a shot at himself over his short missed putt when asked if Jupiter’s missing teammate, Akshay Bhatia, could have helped the team Tuesday night.

“He probably would have made that two-footer that I missed,” Woods joked.

He continued: “We had to hold down the fort, and unfortunately we didn’t hold down the fort.”

And with that, Woods’ brief “return” was over. We don’t know when we will see him compete next. He confirmed again on Tuesday that he was trying his best to get his body and game ready for the Masters. But he also did not commit to playing. His decision needs to come soon, though. The 2026 Masters starts in two weeks.

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The post Tiger Woods’ TGL return brought electricity but didn’t provide the answer to his Masters question appeared first on Golf.

The post Tiger Woods’ TGL return brought electricity but didn’t provide the answer to his Masters question appeared first on Golf.

Tiger Woods has had many returns in his competitive career. Tiger has been “back” several times.

There was the return in 2009 after surgery to repair a torn ACL. In 2016, he came back to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge after a 15-month layoff following back surgery. He came back again at the 2017 Hero after taking several months off following a fourth microdiscectomy surgery on his back. The list goes on.

At 50, returning looks different for Tiger Woods now. But after spending over a year rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon and undergoing a seventh back surgery in October, Woods returned to competitive golf on Tuesday during the TGL Finals at the SoFi Center as his Jupiter Links squad took on Los Angeles Golf Club.

TGL, the simulator golf league co-founded by Woods and Rory McIlroy, is a far cry from a return to competitive PGA Tour golf. There’s no walking, which has been an issue for Woods ever since his 2021 car accident, and in a full match, he’d probably only take 15 or so full swings.

But with the Masters two weeks away, Tuesday night’s return was notable. Woods hasn’t played in a TGL match since March 4, 2025, and his last PGA Tour start came over 600 days ago at the 2024 Open Championship, where he missed the cut. Time is running out, and TGL provided Woods with a different arena to test his body with little risk.

Anytime the 15-major champion tees it up, even in a simulator league, the energy is different. The same is true of any legend in any arena. It’s why people watched highlights of Tom Brady playing in a flag football exhibition last weekend. Turning back the clock, if only for an hour, is something we all want.

For Woods, he’s still trying to push forward, to compete at a high level with an aging body. He told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt that he didn’t decide he would return for the final day of the TGL season until Monday and had low expectations for his simulator game.

Tuesday was just another creep forward for him. Nothing more, nothing less.

“I’m going to be rusty,” Woods said pre-match. “As far as setting myself up for the [competitive golf] future, it’s just one step at a time. Tonight is a nice step because I haven’t played competitively in a very long time. It has been a very long year of rehabbing. So go out here, compete, have some fun and contribute to the team.”

Woods’ first full swing came on the second hole, where he hit a 3-wood from 279 yards out to 24 feet.

“Welcome back, young man,” Homa said as Woods walked back following the swipe.

A few holes later, Woods unleashed his patented stinger drive, hitting a 176 mph ball speed on a shot that had just a 3-degree launch angle and went 275 yards.

Woods’ TGL return brought buzz to the golf world on a Tuesday, but was short-lived as LA made three straight eagles to close out the match 9-2 before Woods’ first singles match against Tommy Fleetwood even took place.

“I’m frustrated that we didn’t get it done,” Woods said after the loss. “It feels good to be back. I would like to have been back at better circumstances. That’s the way sports is. You put yourself out there, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and you deal with it.”

Even at 50, after numerous surgeries, Woods’ competitive fire and desire to be in the arena are the same as they have always been. But a return to a simulator league at 50 shows the new reality Woods and the golf world have been moving into for the past few years. The golf world is still clinging to the hope that Woods can author one final comeback. The arena in which he returned Tuesday was different than any that had previously played host to a “Tiger is back” moment — a baby step in a video-game league for a legend hoping to will his body to where he needs it to be so he can outrun the inescapable.

But while the golf was different, the questions remain the same.

After a “return,” of sorts, for Tiger Woods, is the Masters next?

The answer now is different for a 50-year-old who has a metal rod in his leg and has undergone seven back surgeries. Now, want and can are different.

“As I said, I’ve been trying,” Woods said when asked if his TGL return told him anything about his ability to play this year’s Masters. “Just this body is — 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 keep trying. I want to play. I love the tournament. I’ve loved being there since I was 19 years old. It’s meant a lot to me and my family over the years. I’m going to be there either way with The Loop that’s going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner.”

Asked if his decision would run right up until the Friday before the Masters, the five-time Masters champion didn’t have the answer.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Woods said. “I’ll be practicing and playing at home this week and keep trying to make progress.”

Woods has long said that if he tees it up in any event, it’s because he believes he can win. Even the thought of being an honorary starter at Augusta National wasn’t on his mind back in 2024.

“I still think that I can [win],” Woods said in 2024. “I haven’t got to that point where I don’t think I can’t.”

Believing that and willing it so are different. Since returning from his car crash, Woods has only made the cut at two out of eight majors, and his best finish was 47th at the 2022 Masters.

At a certain point, the body can only give so much, no matter what the mind tells it.

Woods’ acknowledgement that things are different at 50 is a dose of reality that comes to all generational athletes who once shaped things to their will. Time never stops moving. Moments of power and invincibility are fleeting for all who enjoy them.

That’s why Woods’ TGL return on Tuesday came with buzz. Because now, at this point, anytime you get to see him carve a stinger or sling a draw, even into a video game screen, is a moment where time stops. A moment where you start to believe there’s more to come.

It ended Tuesday with hope that Tiger Woods will return in two weeks and be able to make the ground at Augusta National shake once again.

That’s a hope Woods will certainly try to turn into reality. He knows no other way. Whether or not his body will let him is something a handful of swings at TGL couldn’t tell us, even if he tried desperately to see it.

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The post Tiger Woods to make surprise return for Tuesday’s TGL finals appeared first on Golf.

The post Tiger Woods to make surprise return for Tuesday’s TGL finals appeared first on Golf.

Tiger Woods will make a surprise return to competitive golf on Tuesday, according to TGL and ESPN. The 15-time major champion will tee it up for his Jupiter Links TGL team Tuesday night.

It will be Tiger’s first time playing a TGL match this year, and it comes on the last night of the season as his team tries to avoid a painful loss in the finals.

Tiger Woods’ return: What you need to know

Jupiter Links faced off against Los Angeles Golf Club on Monday night in the first match of the TGL finals. While it was a close contest all night, Los Angeles pulled off the victory on the final hole when L.A.’s Sahith Theegala earned a gimme for birdie and Jupiter’s Kevin Kisner failed to reach the green in regulation.

Woods, who was at the match on Monday acting as coach and supporter for his teammates, had this to say after the loss.

“I feel bad for them. As a team, we were together in this, all of us together, and it was close. We had our opportunities; they had their opportunities. We could have flipped in the middle of that back nine, and it came down to the last hole. We’ve been there before. We were in a playoff once, and this was damn near there.”

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He continued: “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but we have possibly two more matches. We’re not out of this. Even with a loss we’re still not out of it.”

“I feel pretty sh—y to be honest with you after losing the last hole. Basically because of the distance in TGL, I’m behind the 8-ball quickly,” Kisner lamented after the match Monday night. “It’s a great team. I enjoy it. I had so much fun competing and can’t wait to try to beat them tomorrow.”

But it turns out Kisner will not be playing on Tuesday night. Woods will take his place, though that wasn’t revealed until after Jupiter’s press conference.

Tiger will join Jupiter teammates Max Homa and Tom Kim as they try to stay alive by winning Match 2 of the finals on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET. on ESPN. That would force a decisive third match at 9 p.m. ET for the championship.

When did Tiger Woods last play competitive golf?

The news of Tiger’s TGL return is significant because he hasn’t played competitive golf anywhere, including on TGL, in over a year.

While Woods has been a regular presence at TGL matches this season coaching his team, he hasn’t played in any of them. He’s still recovering from a major back surgery he underwent last year.

Woods’ last appearance actually playing golf was in Jupiter’s final TGL match of last season on March 4, 2025. That was Jupiter’s final regular season match, as they didn’t make the playoffs in TGL’s inaugural season.

One week later, Woods announced that he’d torn his Achilles while prepping to make his return at the 2025 Masters. He missed the entire 2025 season as a result.

Woods had teed it up in the PNC Championship alongside his son Charlie in December 2024. But the last time Woods played in an official pro golf tournament was nearly two years ago the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon.

What does Tiger’s TGL news mean for Masters return?

The real question everyone wants to know is when Woods will make his return to pro golf. For a long time now, the most obvious tournament was the 2026 Masters. The Masters is now two weeks away, so the only remaining question is whether Tiger will be fully recovered and ready to play by then.

Woods decision to play in the TGL finale Tuesday night is a great sign that he’s feeling good enough to play the Masters. But he’s been coy about confirming his return all year.

At February’s Genesis Invitational, which Woods hosts, he said he was trying to return to competitive golf and the Masters was not off the table.

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“It’s just one of those things where each and every day, I keep trying, I keep progressing, I keep working on it, trying to get stronger, trying to get more endurance in this body and trying to get it at a level at which I can play at the highest level again,” Woods said then.

He’s also commented on his return during previous TGL matches this year. When asked if he felt healthy enough to return in early March, Woods teased that if he’s playing in a member-guest event, then he’s “ready to go.”

But just last week, Woods sounded less confident that he’d be ready for Augusta when asked after a different TGL match.

“I said I’ve been working on it,” Woods said. “Sometimes I have good days, sometimes I have bad days. Disc replacement is not a lot of fun. So Will Zalatoris went through it, he had two levels done, and it takes time. So as I said, I’ve had a lot of procedures prior to that, so the body doesn’t quite heal like it was when I was 24. Doesn’t quite bounce back. So I have good days when I can pretty much do anything, and other days where it’s hard to just move around.”

The 2026 Masters officially gets underway Thursday, April 9, at Augusta National Golf Club.

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The post ‘Let’s do it’: Bryson DeChambeau challenges Tiger Woods to LIV vs. TGL match appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Let’s do it’: Bryson DeChambeau challenges Tiger Woods to LIV vs. TGL match appeared first on Golf.

The pro golf world is trying hard to make team golf happen. As evidenced first by the creation of LIV Golf and soon after TGL, top golfers and stakeholders in the game are betting that the future holds a place for golfers competing on fan-supported teams as with other pro sports. Bryson DeChambeau is chief among them.

However, with the big exception of the Ryder Cup, team golf events haven’t broken through the public’s consciousness as traditional individual stroke-play events have. Next week’s TGL finale, for example, will not draw the same audience as the 2026 Masters in April.

But earlier this week, DeChambeau served up an idea that would surely interest fans: a grudge match between Tiger Woods’ TGL team and DeChambeau’s LIV Golf team.

DeChambeau floats LIV vs. TGL team match: ‘Big growing-the-game moment’

DeChambeau is in South Africa this week for LIV Golf’s first-ever tournament in the country. Hordes of fans are expected to pack The Club at Steyn City to watch Bryson and co. as they set off on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, DeChambeau sat for his Crushers GC team’s pre-tournament press conference.

As he has in the past, Bryson argued his belief that team golf could be at the “forefront” of the game in the coming years.

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“I do think there’s an opportunity in the future for team golf to be next to the forefront of golf, with all the — even the majors and whatnot. I do think at some point we can get close,” DeChambeau said on Tuesday in South Africa. “It’ll never be a major, obviously, but having team golf rivalries, whether it’s just the Crushers versus Southern Guards or whatnot is great.”

Then Bryson floated his idea for the ultimate team rivalry match: his Crushers LIV team against Tiger’s Jupiter Links TGL team.

“Imagine a scenario where we’re going up against Jupiter Links on an 18-hole showcase, four man/four man, going up against each other on a Netflix show or something, or whoever wants to put it on a show,” DeChambeau continued.

The way DeChambeau sees it, team golf could attract sports fans who don’t typically watch golf, using NFL football as an example.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity for teams to go up against teams in the future that could be a big growing-the-game moment of people that never played the game watching and just tuning in. Maybe they don’t ever play the game, but they tune in, just like football,” he said.

The big distinction is that far more people watch football than play it, while more people play golf than watch it, as DeChambeau explained on Tuesday.

“Only about 2 million people play football, but there’s like over 50 million that watch every week. The Super Bowl gets over 100 million people watching that, a two and a half, three-hour showcase,” DeChameau said. “In golf it’s almost the opposite where you’re getting 3 to 5 million people watching a week on various tours and you can add it together and — those aren’t the perfect numbers, but you know what I mean. Then there’s probably 50 to 60 million people playing the game… I think there’s an opportunity for the world to see the game for what it could be, which is rivalries and teams against teams.”

He continued: “I guess we’re an individual sport; I understand that. But we do play team events. We’ve got the Ryder Cup. We’ve got the Presidents Cup. There should be something else. Why not?”

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As for the hypothetical LIV vs. TGL match, DeChambeau suggested 4-on-4 stroke play for the format.

“How about the Crushers goes up against Jupiter Links in an 18-hole match, 4-v-4 stroke play. We can just call them out right now and say let’s go. Let’s do it,” DeChambeau declared. “Why not? That would be fun. Show them who’s the best, who’s the best team in the world, or any of them. LA, it doesn’t matter. We’d go up against them. Jon Rahm’s team, we’d all go up against them. How great would that be for golf, too, by the way?”

For now, DeChambeau will have to settle for LIV vs. LIV team matches. Heading into LIV South Africa, his Crushers squad is currently ranked seventh in the LIV team standings.

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The post ‘Preposterous’: Rory McIlroy dismisses TGL injury theory appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Preposterous’: Rory McIlroy dismisses TGL injury theory appeared first on Golf.

If you want to hear Rory McIlroy get his back up, bring up a theory about, well, his back.

“To put it solely on that is preposterous. No.”

That was McIlroy’s blunt response to The Palm Beach Post when asked about speculation linking a recent cluster of back injuries on the PGA Tour to players’ involvement in TGL, the indoor-simulator league he helped launch with Tiger Woods.

McIlroy was part of that cluster himself, withdrawing ahead of the third round of last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational with a balky back that also delayed his arrival at TPC Sawgrass for this week’s Players Championship.

The theory started swirling on social media after another big name, Collin Morikawa, withdrew from the Players after tweaking his back on the second hole of his first round. That one-two punch of two of the game’s biggest names proved irresistible to internet sleuths and self-appointed medical experts, who expanded on their diagnosis by pointing to recent back and neck trouble among other TGL participants, including Sahith Theegala, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas.

The thinking: TGL adds another competitive layer to already packed schedules. The league also unfolds in a simulator environment, where players hit into a massive screen and ball speed appears instantly for fans. Some have suggested that those digital displays inspire players to swing out of their shoes.

McIlroy says the numbers don’t support it.

“My ball speed on Tour is way faster than it is in TGL,” he said.

Billy Horschel also shot down the notion on X when Monday Q Info’s Ryan French initially brought up the idea that TGL is playing a role in the spate of back injuries on Tour.

TGL — which operates out of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. — features six four-player teams across a 15-match regular season, each team playing five matches, followed by playoffs. Matches run early in the week alongside the regular Tour schedule. McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf Club is among those in contention as the playoffs begin on March 17.

Faced with uncertainty about his back, McIlroy waited until Thursday morning before deciding to tee it up at TPC Sawgrass. He opened with a 74, then followed that with a 71 on Friday to finish just inside the cut line.

Back trouble on Tour is hardly new. Generations of players, from Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins to Tiger Woods, have dealt with them. Pinpointing a single cause is a slippery business. But many observers, including longtime Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, have argued that the modern swing’s emphasis on speed and distance is part of the problem.

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The post Tom Kim’s outrageous hole-in-one delivers dream TGL finish appeared first on Golf.

The post Tom Kim’s outrageous hole-in-one delivers dream TGL finish appeared first on Golf.

Look — if you’re not in on TGL, if you prefer your golf outdoors and un-screened, if you’re wholly uninterested in learning more about “the hammer” or who might play for “Bay G.C.,” I’m not here to convince you.

But that was a hell of a moment.

Tom Kim stepped onto the tee on the second-to-last hole of the season. His side was down one point, but they’d just thrown the hammer, doubling the value of the hole. If he lost the hole, Jupiter Links’ season was over. As TGL goes, this is as big as it gets. How’d he respond? By flying his wedge shot directly over the flag and watching as it rolled back into the middle of the bottom of the cup.

Here’s the moment — followed by five instant reactions on why this was a dream ending for TGL.

1. Tom Kim was built for this moment.

Week in, week out there just aren’t many golfers losing their minds after doing something cool. But put Tom Kim in a team setting — whether it’s the Presidents Cup or TGL — and you can just about guarantee that at some point he will go berserk. So when something mind-bending like this hole-in-one happened, it could not have been a more perfect guy in a more perfect moment. (We need Kim to find his game on the PGA Tour; he’s too fun not to have in the mix.)

2. Tiger Woods fist-pumping is a TGL dream.

Look, when Woods and Rory McIlroy and their various business partners were dreaming up TGL, they were probably picturing Woods fist-pumping his own hole-outs rather than those of his teammates — but anytime he’s dropping to his knees like he’s just holed that chip shot at Augusta National, it’s a win for whatever moment he’s celebrating.

3. It’s a miracle nobody got hurt.

Again, golfers aren’t used to celebrating and they definitely aren’t used to celebrating as a team.

“I’ve never been tackled before,” Kim said post-win.

It’s a miracle he didn’t take out Homa, he hit the deck, too, and given Woods’ health status it’s not comfy watching Kim jump into his arms, either. Let’s just be glad everybody’s walking away from this one…

4. This also meant redemption for Kevin Kisner.

Kim’s moment could have ultimately been for naught had Kevin Kisner gone on to lose the final hole. Given he was playing a lengthy par-5 against big-swinging Wyndham Clark — and given Kisner hasn’t exactly been the star of TGL up to this point — the odds didn’t seem to be in his favor.

“I texted Max Homa when I saw the yardage book at 7:15 this morning and said if it comes down to 15 we’re probably screwed, because Wyndham can get there in two and I can’t,” Kisner said.

But Kiz dissected the hole with two layups and a flagged short iron, Clark hit a mediocre greenside chip shot and the rest is history. Vindication for Kisner.

(Also worth noting Max Homa’s birdie putt at No. 13 made the entire thing possible.)

5. This playoff showdown is set

It’s not quite Rory vs. Tiger, because Tiger’s unlikely to play. (“Well, I’ll be here either way,” he said, leaving the door open.) Regardless, it is Rory McIlroy’s team vs. Tiger Woods’ team; the sides are set for a showdown in the semifinals in two weeks’ time.

Four of TGL’s six teams make the playoffs, so this isn’t exactly Cinderella-story stuff. But last year was a nightmare for the league when McIlroy’s Boston Common and Woods’ Jupiter Links were the two teams to miss the postseason.

This time around they’re set for a showdown.

Where’d this moment rank for Woods? He gave the perfect response.

“Best indoor experience ever.”

In the meantime, back to real golf. Not bad for a Tuesday night diversion, though…

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The post Breaking down the ‘unbelievable’ tip Butch Harmon gave Tommy Fleetwood appeared first on Golf.

The post Breaking down the ‘unbelievable’ tip Butch Harmon gave Tommy Fleetwood appeared first on Golf.

During the TGL matches earlier this week, ESPN featured a golden mic’d up moment for swing nerds.

During a conversation between Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, Fleetwood shared an “unbelievable” swing tip he recently received from coaching legend Butch Harmon.

“Butch gave me an unbelievable one the other day,” Fleetwood said. “So he wants me to stay high, hip back. Close the door with my left hip. Turn and then go on to it.”

You can watch the entire exchange below.

It’s a great tidbit for swing nerds, and one that can be useful to improve the ball-striking of players even at the recreational level. For a deeper dive on what the tip means, and how it can be helpful, we enlisted the help of GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Plecker, which you can read below.

Breaking down Butch’s ‘unbelievable’ tip

I loved the way Butch Harmon shared his viral “shut the door” swing tip with Tommy Fleetwood. With feel and imagery, it’s easy for a player of any caliber to understand.

Butch has long been regarded as one of the best instructors in the world because of his ability to communicate a complex, lightning-fast motion like the golf swing through one or two simple ideas. It certainly helps when you’re working with a hyper-talented athlete like Fleetwood, but the real takeaway is this: the information flowing from teacher to player must be simple, memorable and achievable.

This tip did just that.

So, what does the tip actually mean? First, he wants Tommy to raise his posture with the thought, “stay tall.” On the surface, that sounds static. In reality, it influences the entire motion. Staying tall elevates the backswing path and encourages a more level shoulder turn during the takeaway.

From there, Butch pairs that backswing feel with a downswing thought of “shutting the door,” which promotes proper lower-body rotation. When the lower body clears efficiently, the club naturally shallows in transition, setting up a more powerful and connected strike.

Finally, “go into it” frees up the release. Instead of steering the ball or holding angles too long, Fleetwood can move dynamically through impact. The swing becomes reactive and fluid rather than forced.

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The post ‘Netted out terrible for us:’ Rare ruling gives major champ mulligan in TGL match appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Netted out terrible for us:’ Rare ruling gives major champ mulligan in TGL match appeared first on Golf.

Tuesday night featured a TGL double-header, with two-time major champion Xander Schauffele’s New York Golf Club playing both matches. But the strangest incident came from the first match, when Schauffele was officially awarded a mulligan.

In a critical moment in the match, a bizarre situation and a rare ruling led to the mulligan. The good news for Schauffele was that the mulligan gave him a chance to replay a horrible bunker shot. The bad news is that his mulligan went horribly wrong, too, and may have cost his team the match.

Here’s what you should know.

Xander Schauffele squanders rare TGL mulligan opportunity

In the first TGL match on Tuesday night, Schauffele’s New York team faced off against the Bay Golf Club. The Bay Golf Club got off to a hot start, winning the first three holes.

But New York fought back and tied up the score 3-3 at the 11th hole.

When the match reached 13, Schauffele went up against Ludvig Aberg in singles. Schauffele’s tee shot ended up in a right greenside bunker, which is where things started going sideways fast.

As Schauffele set up to hit his bunker shot, Bay Golf Club’s Wyndham Clark decided to throw down the Hammer. If New York accepted the Hammer, the hole would be worth two points. If they rejected it, they’d have to forfeit the hole and give Bay Golf one point.

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With Aberg sitting pretty on the green, Schauffele’s teammates declined the Hammer. But it was too late. Schauffele went ahead and hit his bunker shot, and it didn’t go well at all. His ball failed to escape the sand.

That’s when a rules official intervened to give Schauffele a redo.

After video review, the official determined that Schauffele had already addressed his ball when the Hammer was thrown. Teams are not allowed to use the Hammer once an opponent has set up to the ball.

So the official ruled that the Hammer would be wiped out (as well as New York’s decision to decline it). Instead of forfeiting the hole, Schauffele would get a mulligan on his bunker shot.

But Schauffele failed to escape the bunker again with his second attempt. The end result? New York forfeited the hole anyway.

“Yeah, it netted out terrible for us. We were going to decline it anyways, and then I hit such a bad shot, they didn’t even have an opportunity to throw a hammer, so it actually worked out worse,” Schauffele explained after the round. “Maybe if I hit it a third time, it would be better.”

In his own post-match press conference, Clark put the blame on the ref.

“So Derek [Stafford], our ref, he normally puts his hand out, like there’s a signal he does, and you can’t throw it anymore. I look at him, and he hadn’t done it, and he kind of nodded saying you could do it. Granted, Xander was standing over the ball. I could see why they called it that way, but at the same time, the ref that was there gave us the okay,” Clark argued. “It could have been really controversial.”

Stafford, the referee in question, used to officiate NBA games. Clark’s teammate Shane Lowry suggested that had he made that mistake in an NBA game, it would have worked out very differently.

“If he made that call in his NBA days, I’m not sure the players would have been as nice,” Lowry said. He continued. “If we had have tied the hole, I would have been…” before Clark cut him off to complete his thought.

“I would have been pissed,” Clark said. “Or even if we lost it. Oh, my gosh, we might have gotten thrown out for charging.”

Of course, Bay Golf Club did win the hole despite the mulligan ruling. Better yet, they went on to defeat New York 5-3.

Unfortunately for New York, the second match was not kind to them either. They took a 9-2 whooping at the hands of Keegan Bradley’s Boston Golf Club to conclude the night’s entertainment.

The post ‘Netted out terrible for us:’ Rare ruling gives major champ mulligan in TGL match appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Nothing like this in the world:’ Inside the plans for a wild, indoor golf course appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Nothing like this in the world:’ Inside the plans for a wild, indoor golf course appeared first on Golf.

In Montreal this week, temperatures lingered in the single digits.

Bertrand Quentin would like to keep his handicap that low. But that’s tough to do in the Canadian city where he resides.

Montreal winters are long. The golf season is short.

“It’s a cycle,” Quentin told GOLF by email. “I’ll fight my way down to a single-digit handicap by October, only to wake up as a 12-handicap when the season finally opens in May. That six-month layoff is a real momentum killer.”

How do you keep the mojo going when you live in a cold climate? Some golfers install simulators in their homes. Others fly south for winter.

Quentin has come up with a different solution.

Enter: Megalodome.

Not to be confused with a megalodon, Megalodome Golf is indoor golf at an outsize scale, housed within a series of connected domes, on an actual course with artificial turf designed to bounce and roll like real grass. Plans call for it to open outside Chicago in late 2027.

Word of the project went viral on social media this week, complete with renderings and details that seemed plucked from a sci-fi future: an Arizona-style design, ornamented with palm trees, cacti, water hazards and sandy wastes, nestled in the village of Oswego, roughly an hour west of downtown Chicago, at a site that Quentin said he can’t yet disclose.

Indoor golf already exists, of course, most famously at the SoFi Center in Florida, which hosts TGL, the tech-forward league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. But TGL is simulator golf.

Quentin describes Megalodome as something entirely different.

“Put simply, there is nothing else like this in the world,” he said.

The design calls for four massive interconnected domes. Three will house a 9-hole executive course — six par-3s and three par-4s, playing to a par of 30 — designed by Montreal-based Huxham Golf Design. The fourth dome will contain a practice facility. There will also be a clubhouse, with views that Quentin said will extend “900 feet into the Megalodome Golf course on one side, and another 900 feet into the practice facility on the other.” The practice facility will include a short-game area and 50 stalls, with a range extending more than 275 yards.

“The scale is truly unprecedented,” Quentin said.

Quentin, a 65-year-old forest engineer, said the seed for his Megalodome dream was planted by a friend seven years ago. “Since then, it’s been an intense journey,” he said.

If the plans sound ambitious, so does the timeline. All of this completed by the fall of 2027? But Quentin said that he and his partner, Alain Desrochers, are “in a very healthy position to execute our current roadmap.” They are set to launch a $50 million investment fund and, Quentin said, are in “advanced discussions with major financial groups.”

They chose the Chicago area, he said, for its large market and its golf-shortened season. But they also have their eyes out for other locations down the line.

First things first, though: an eye-popping indoor project in a chilly city, modeled on golf in Arizona, a warm-weather state where, it turns out, Quentin has never played.

“I would like to play there,” he said, “but it’s very expensive I’ve heard.”

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The post ‘Unbelievable miss’: Nelly Korda criticizes TGL over separate women’s league appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Unbelievable miss’: Nelly Korda criticizes TGL over separate women’s league appeared first on Golf.

The 2026 LPGA season begins this week with the Tournament of Champions, and Nelly Korda is prepping for another run at the No. 1 ranking this year. But it’s Korda’s thoughts about another women’s golf league, the WTGL, that are causing a stir this week.

In comments to Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek, Korda expressed her “mixed feelings” about the new women’s version of TGL and strongly criticized TGL’s decision to sequester women into a separate league.

Korda hits TGL for keeping leaving LPGA golfers out

In early January, TMRW Sports, the company founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy that operates TGL, announced the creation of a new women’s-only TGL league, the WTGL.

The WTGL will feature stars of the LPGA Tour playing the same tech-infused simulator golf that TGL debuted last year at the SoFi Center in Florida. TMRW Sports, LPGA and many others heralded the inclusion of women golfers.

But Korda provided a contrary perspective this week. The former World No. 1’s primary issue with the WTGL news involves the exclusion of women.

News

In an interview with Nichols conducted as she prepped for the LPGA season, Korda characterized the decision to create the WTGL, rather than add LPGA pros to the existing TGL, as a “huge and unbelievable miss.”

“I have mixed feelings on it if I’m being very honest, and I’m surprised no other girls have, or no one’s really spoken out about it,” Korda told Nichols this week. “I think it’s a huge and unbelievable miss that we’re not playing alongside the men.”

She continued by arguing that having men and women competing together would have been “revolutionary” in terms of the growth of golf.

“There’s no greater way to grow the game, and it would have been revolutionary. It would have been the first time, I think, that men and women are on the same playing field, playing for the same exact amount of money,” Korda said.

But Korda was quick to explain that while she wishes women were included in TGL, the creation of the WTGL is still a positive development for women’s golf.

“I also think it’s great that we are getting this opportunity, so that’s my mixed feelings,” Korda said. “Like, I don’t think that there’s a downside. I just think that it would have been even greater to have both of them together.”

First WTGL players announced, Nelly Korda missing

On January 19th, TMRW Sports announced the first wave of LPGA stars who have committed to the inaugural WTGL season, which is tentatively planned for winter 2026-27.

The first announcement featured six players including World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, who took over Korda’s top spot in the world rankings in 2025. LPGA veteran and semi-retired pro Lexi Thompson was also revealed as a WTGL competitor, as were Lydia Ko, Charley Hull and Brooke Henderson. But Korda, the most famous women’s golfer in the world, wasn’t among them.

This week, young LPGA stars Rose Zhang and Lottie Woad, both former winners of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, also joined the WTGL. But still no Korda.

Nichols asked Korda about her thoughts on playing the WTGL, and while Korda didn’t commit to joining, she did say she was considering it.

“I’m just still weighing out the time commitment. I just haven’t really thought about it too much, because I’ve been really focused on trying to get ready for this season. I think logistically, they’re still trying to figure some stuff out, so I will just weigh out my options in the near future,” Korda said.

You can read Korda’s complete comments in Beth Ann Nichols’ story here.

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