Palm Beach Gardens (Sofi Center) – In the battle of the two best regular season teams, The Bay Golf Club matched up against another California juggernaut – Los Angeles Golf Club.
Playing without young phenom Ludvig Aberg, The Bay drew first blood with a birdie on the par 3 third, Tommy Fleetwood had a chance to tie from short range, but missed his putt wide right. The Bay took an early 2-0 lead when Min Woo Lee made a breaking 10 footer on the fourth, once again Fleetwood missed a short one to tie the hole.
On the 312 yard driveable sixth, Wyndham Clark nearly jarred his 3wood tee shot on the fly, settling 10ft from the hole – at this point The Bay threw The Hammer. LAGC declined the challenge and went down 3-0.
Still leading 3-0 with singles mode now in play on the 714 yard ninth, Clark hit his tee shot into the penalty area setting up LAGC to throw the Hammer, and after Theegala hit the fairway, LA did just that. The Bay declined, and the SoCal guys were finally on the board, 3-1.
On the 576 yard tenth “Serpent”, Fleetwood vs Min Woo Lee – Fleetwood found the rough, and Lee bombed his tee ball down the middle. The Bay immediately threw the Hammer and LA accepted. Fleetwood layed up, and Lee hit his approach in the water. LA reversed the Hammer, by throwing one of their own. The Bay declined, and we were all tied at 3.
On the 167 yard twelfth, Sahith Theegala continued to flip the script – chipping in from 20 feet away (just off the green). The birdie forced Wyndham Clark to match (after he stuffed his tee shot to 8′ 9″), but Clark couldn’t convert . . . and for the first time in the match the SoCal guys were in the lead 4-3.
On the 363 yard thirteenth, Tommy Fleetwood jarred his chip from the fringe after Min Woo Lee stuffed his approach inside 3 feet. The hole was tied, but it kept the momentum on L.A’s side.
On the 558 yard fifteenth, Theegala vs Wyndham Clark, the Los Angeles native found the fairway while Clark was in the rough. Clark layed up and Theegala found the green side bunker going for the green in two. Clark had 153 yards for his approach and hit to inside 10 feet. Theegala splashed out to 5 feet, Clark needing to make his putt to have any hope, pulled it left . . . and just like that LAGC became the no.1 seed in the inaugural season of TGL.
“We did a great job of finishing the match off,” Fleetwood said. “One of those things that just shows how quickly things can change in these matches and I’m happy to come out on the right side of it.” LAGC finishes the regular season with nine points in the SoFi Cup standings at 4-0-1, while The Bay fell to the No. 2 spot with eight points at 4-1-0.
The loss was the only defeat for The Bay Golf Club. The Semifinals begin March 17 at SoFi Center.
