Atlanta Drive Golf Club completes comeback, earns overtime victory vs. Los Angeles Golf Club
3 Min Read
Written by TGL Staff
There was a festival feeling in the air Monday ahead of the first Presidents Day tripleheader in TGL presented by SoFi history.
With Atlanta Falcons mascot Freddie the Falcon around the grounds and the music bumping, Atlanta Drive Golf Club scored a 6-5 comeback overtime victory over Los Angeles Golf Club.
The win moves Atlanta into second place in the SoFi Cup standings with four points after a 2-0 start to the year. Los Angeles remains in the lead with five points, earning one point for the overtime loss.
Atlanta trailed 5-2 after Triples in a match that was just getting warmed up, with both teams trading huge putts and clutch shots down the stretch.
Justin Thomas came through with what would prove to be the shot of the match with Los Angeles leading 5-4 entering the 15th hole, the par-5 "Quick Draw." After duffing a chip on his third shot, Thomas regrouped to hole his next shot with a wedge and win the matchup against Sahith Theegala to send it to overtime.
“Getting beat is one thing, but I didn’t want to lose,” Thomas said. “I didn’t want to hand that over to them, and I felt like I would have done that if I didn’t chip in. So, I was glad the hole got in the way.”
Justin Thomas flubs, then holes chip to force overtime at TGL
Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was there to watch the action wearing an Atlanta Drive hat, sitting alongside Falcons owner Arthur Blank. The four-time Pro Bowl selection is a strong player and frequent pro-am participant, and he liked what he saw from a strategy perspective.
“We’re actually accepting bets, we’re accepting the Hammer,” Ryan said. “We’re not scared to play a little bit. I like what (Atlanta) is doing so far.”
Ryan’s analysis would prove to be spot-on, with Atlanta later using its third and final Hammer for a two-point swing at the 13th hole, where Billy Horschel beat Justin Rose with a birdie to make it 5-4 in favor of Los Angeles with two holes to play.
With new Hammer rules announced last week, each team now begins the match with three Hammers that they can use at any point. The Hammer must be accepted if thrown before players hit their tee shots, and Atlanta did just that to give itself a chance down the stretch.
Patrick Cantlay kept Atlanta alive and nearly tied the match at the par-3 14th after hitting his tee shot to tap-in range for birdie. But the hole ended up in a tie after Tommy Fleetwood drained a dramatic 17-footer down the slope that got tennis legend and Los Angeles co-owner Serena Williams jumping to her feet.
The back-and-forth action set a high bar for the rest of the day, with players from The Bay Golf Club and Boston Common Golf trickling into SoFi Center midway through the match.
This was the first of two matches for Atlanta on the day, ahead of an afternoon tilt with The Bay. The Bay and Boston Common Golf play in the third match of the tripleheader Monday at 7 p.m. ET. Los Angeles is back in action at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 24 against New York Golf Club.
