The Los Angeles Golf Club handed The Bay Golf Club their first loss in TGL action and secured the No. 1 seed in the playoffs by dominating singles to rally to a 5-3 victory on Monday.
Leading 3-1, Bay GC “threw the hammer” early on the par-5 10th hole, before Australian Min Woo Lee hit a shot in the water when playing against Tommy Fleetwood of England.
LAGC’s Sahith Theegala threw the hammer back at Lee on his teammate’s behalf, looking to increase the point value of the hole once again. Bay GC declined, conceding the two points to LAGC to tie the match.
Theegala then beat Wyndham Clark with a chip-in birdie at No. 12 to put LAGC (4-0-1, 9 points) in front. Fleetwood hit a chip-in of his own on the very next hole, halving No. 13 with Lee.
Theegala beat Clark again at No. 15 for good measure to provide the final margin.
After the match, Theegala explained why he did a celebration known to be Lee’s signature move when he makes a chip-in, “paging Dr. Chipinski.” Theegala said he knew it might fire up the other team.
“If you’re gonna be doing that stuff, you’ve got to be ready to take it as well, so we’re going to dish it back,” Theegala said. “It’s just the fun of it. It’s another thing that TGL kind of allows us to do. It’s kind of difficult to do that on a week-to-week basis on the PGA Tour. It was just all in good fun.”
Lee had made putts of 13 and 8 feet at the third and fourth holes to get Bay GC (4-1-0, 8 points) their first two points of the match.
The third member of Bay GC competing Monday, Shane Lowry of Ireland, said he found himself caring a great deal about the success of his team in the newly formed league.
“I think if anything, it might be a blessing in disguise going into the playoffs,” Lowry said. “It might be a bit of a kick in the backside that we need, and we can get our heads down and focus a little better going in there.”
–Field Level Media
