PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods was the sixth and last player to exit the tunnel and onto the fairway in his TGL debut Tuesday night.
No one announced his name. It was unnecessary.
Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” rang out and that was more than enough introduction to the greatest golfer of all time. It’s not like anyone inside the SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College didn’t know who Woods was, and most likely knew how he, Rory McIlroy and others spent years trying to make this idea of indoor golf on TV happen.
“It’s real now,” Woods said.
Week 2 of the TGL was Tuesday night — Woods joined Kevin Kisner and Max Homa of Jupiter Links Golf Club to play against Los Angeles Golf Club’s Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala .
Final score: Los Angeles 12, Jupiter 1 in a 15-hole, made-for-TV team match featuring nine holes of triple play, followed by six holes of single play — two holes for each player on each team. Woods was smiling throughout, even the lost points. The format is that he took only 20 shots during the match, which lasted more than 2 hours.
Woods’ team found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard quickly, falling 5-0. It would have been bad if Woods hadn’t made an 8-footer to help his team earn a tie on the fifth hole. That putt came one hole after Woods slid 7 feet wide to the left.
“It’s about time, Tiger,” tennis legend Serena Williams said on ESPN. Williams is a longtime friend of Woods, so he found himself rooting for him — and he’s part of the ownership group of the Los Angeles Golf Club, so he found himself at odds with him at the same time.
There were classic Woods moments, like staring down his favorite shots as high-tech video boards told the story of where the ball was going to land. There were also frustrations; shook his head after sending a 101-yard wedge into the water on the second hole of a 15-hole match — as son Charlie, sitting in one of the fairground seats overlooking the course, couldn’t help but laugh. .
Williams sits in the Los Angeles box just to the right of the players’ lounges, enjoying the spectacle of exit introductions, light and smoke shows and soulful music.
“It’s very wild,” Williams said. “It’s something you see a little bit in tennis. We see it all the time in basketball, don’t we? We don’t see it much in golf. Actually, we never see that in golf. It’s a great type of golf. See their personalities and see them shine as golfers … It’s great to see a new dimension.”
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