PALM BEACH GARDENS — Tiger Woods hit his last shot of the inaugural TGL season Tuesday night at 8:50 at SoFi Center, missing a par putt to end another lopsided loss.
Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club had been eliminated from the postseason Monday night when the New York Golf Club beat Boston Common, which also ended Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common’s season as well.
The question all sports fans want an answer to now, after Atlanta Drive’s 9-1 victory over Jupiter Links is, “When will Tiger play again?”
The Players next week? The Masters four weeks after that?
Very likely no on the first one. Does anyone think he’ll miss a trip down Magnolia Lane?
“This is the third time I’ve touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven’t really gotten into it,” Woods said. “My heart is not into practicing right now. I have so many other things to do with the Tour. Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I’ll start looking at the schedule.”
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TGL inaugural season struggle for Tiger Woods
Woods’ seven-week foray into the tech-infused league didn’t go as planned. First and foremost, Woods’ mother, Kultida, died on Feb. 4, a week after attending one of his TGL matches. Jupiter Links, which he owns a share of, won only once in five tries, and that was an overtime win against Boston Common. They only won a league-low 10 holes (out of 90). Woods also suffered through “one of the most embarrassing mistakes of my career” when, thinking he had 99 yards to the green, he actually had 199.
The good news is his wedge traveled 100 yards, while his teammates and competitors fell to the ground with belly laughs as Woods realized his gaffe.
Losing stinks, but Woods saw the big picture when asked to assess TGL’s first season. “I’m proud of my teammates,” he said, “I’m proud of what we’ve built here, the excitement we’ve been able to bring to Jupiter and, more importantly, the game of golf.”
As for his team winning just once: “I had a blast. We didn’t hit a lot of great shots, but we had fun. I think we led the league in mistakes.”
The Woods’ family, however, continues to win titles. Daughter Sam helped lead Benjamin to a state soccer championship last weekend, Tiger proudly cheering her on from the stands; and son Charlie was part of Benjamin’s state-winning golf team last fall.
“It was so special to watch her play,” Woods said. “There was a core of six or seven girls who have played together since they were 6. I’m just proud of her and the hard work she’s put into it to win a state title. The team deserved it.”
This country’s conspiracy theorists can’t point their fingers at TGL’s inaugural season, the way they overreact when quarterback Pat Mahomes gets touched to draw a roughing-the-quarterback penalty or LeBron James takes four steps on his way to the basket.
If any league wanted its stars to do well, it was TGL. But now that co-founders Woods and McIlroy don’t have to worry about when to throw the hammer, it’s left to squads from New York, Atlanta (4-1), San Francisco and Los Angeles to decide which team’s color will adorn the SoFi Cup.
The folks at ESPN can’t be smiling.
Woods eventually will turn his attention to returning to outdoors competition to break his tie with Sam Snead for most PGA Tour wins (82) and, perhaps, earn his 16th major title.
It was more, or less, of the same Tuesday night for Jupiter Links (1-4-0), which fell behind 2-0 after three holes. Jupiter never led and finished fifth in the six-team standings with two points.
Not what we’re used to seeing from Tiger. But at least we saw him.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: When will Tiger Woods rejoin PGA Tour after wrapping up first TGL season?
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