Woods, requiring zero introduction, makes indoor golf league debut
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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods was the sixth and final player to emerge from the tunnel and onto the field of play for his TGL debut on Tuesday night.
No one announced his name. Wasn’t necessary.
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Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger blared and that was more than enough of an introduction for perhaps golf’s greatest player. It’s not like anyone inside SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College didn’t know who Woods was, and most were even probably aware of how he, Rory McIlroy and others spent years trying to make this notion of indoor golf on TV happen.
“It is a reality now,” Woods said.
Week 2 of TGL was Tuesday night — Woods joined Kevin Kisner and Max Homa of Jupiter Links Golf Club to take on the Los Angeles Golf Club of Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.
Woods’ team got itself on the wrong side of the scoreboard quickly, getting down 5-0. It could have been worse if Woods hadn’t made a 6-footer for par to help his team get a tie on the fifth hole. That putt came one hole after Woods slid a 7-footer wide to the left.
“It’s about time, Tiger,” tennis legend Serena Williams said on the ESPN broadcast. Williams is a longtime friend of Woods, so she found herself rooting for him — and she is part of the ownership group of the Los Angeles Golf Club, so she found herself rooting against him.
There were vintage Woods moments, like staring down shots he liked as the super-high-tech video boards told the tale of where the ball would have gone outdoors. There were also frustrating ones; he shook his head after he sent a 101-yard wedge into the water on the second hole of the 15-hole match — as son Charlie, sitting in one of the seats in the arena overlooking the course, couldn’t help but laugh.
Williams sat in the Los Angeles box just to the right of the players’ teeing areas, enjoying the spectacle of the walk-out introductions, light and smoke shows and booming music.
“It’s so wild,” Williams said. “It’s something that you see a little bit in tennis. We see it all the time in basketball, right? We don’t really see it so much in golf. Actually, we never see that in golf. It’s so good to kind of see their personalities and see them shine as golfers. … It’s so cool to see a new aspect.”
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