Tiger Woods was the sixth and final player to come out of the tunnel and onto the playing field for his TGL debut on Tuesday.
No one announced his name. It wasn't necessary.
The song “Eye of the Tiger” from Survivor blared and that was more than enough of an introduction for perhaps Golf’s greatest player. It's not like anyone inside Palm Beach State College's SoFi Center didn't know who Woods was, and most probably even knew how he, Rory McIlroy and others spent years trying to make this game happen indoor golf.
“It’s a reality now,” Woods said.
Woods' team quickly found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard, losing 5-0. It could have been worse had Woods not made an eight-foot putt for par and to help his team secure a tie on the fifth hole. That putt came one hole after Woods slid seven feet to the left.
“It's about time, Tiger,” laughed tennis legend Serena Williams during the ESPN show. Williams is a longtime friend of Woods, who is part of the Los Angeles Golf Club ownership group.
-There were touching moments of footage of Woods daydreaming about shots he loved while on the high-tech scoreboard. There were also frustrating moments; Tiger shook his head after hitting a 101-yard wedge into the water on the second hole of the 15-hole match – while his son Charlie, sitting in one of the arena seats overlooking the course, couldn't stop laughing.
Williams sat in the Los Angeles dressing room, just to the right of the players' starting areas, enjoying the spectacle of the presentations, light shows, smoke shows and music.
In this second week of the TGL, Woods teamed up with 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.
Final score: Los Angeles 12, Jupiter 1 in a 15-hole, made-for-TV tag team match. Woods always smiled, despite the unfavorable score. The format is such that he only hit 20 shots during the match, which lasted a little over 2 hours.
