Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. – Billy Horschel hit a 18-foot bird on the slope and Patrick Cantlay played with another clutch chip title as Atlanta Drive won the inaugural TGL title Tuesday night and returned to beat New York with a 4-3 victory.
Atlanta won two games in the two-thirds TGL final, which ended the first season of the high-tech indoor league at the Sophie Center.
New York led the entire game, and the 14th hole rose 3-2 when Horschel provided the biggest shot of the night. Atlanta presents a “hammer” challenge that New York accepts, making the penultimate hole worth two points. Rickie Fowler is in a bunker.
Fowler splashed 4 feet. Horschel faced a sharp ridge and broke two ways, and when Horschel raced from the green it turned left and turned into the cup, threw his putt and hat, screaming, “My F — Ing House!”
“Two feet away, I know it’s in the hole, I’m blacked out,” Hotchel said.
New York put up a hammer challenge in the last hole, making it worth two points. Both Cameron Young and Cantlay missed the 5-shot green. Cantlay checked the pitch at 60 feet and stopped a foot from the hole. Young had to force another game, his court slipped into a narrow hole.
Atlanta Drive won $9 million and shared Horschel, Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Lucas Glover, who don’t compete in the three-man race.
New York received $4.5 million for Young, Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick.
The Associated Press contributed to the story.
