The crowds buzzing with the return of legend Tiger Woods, and the potential of a tiebreaker match to bring home the championship, was not enough for Jupiter Links GC Tuesday night. Preventing a third match in Palm Beach Gardens, Los Angeles GC took home the win at the 2026 TGL Playoff Finals Presented by SoFi, winning 9-2.
In a best-of-3 format, LAGC – consisting of Sahith Theegala and Brits Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood – had defeated Jupiter Links GC earlier in the week, with Kevin Kisner instead of Woods. Woods made his first professional appearance in over a year, and his first start following back surgery in the fall.
“It was just interesting the shots because usually you have more of a rhythm when you’re actually playing a normal round of golf, hitting shots,” Woods said following the loss Tuesday night. “Here it feels like I’m getting iced a bit at times. It’s just a different rhythm.
“I had a couple drives I had to hit and then a couple putts. It was just – for me, it was different because I haven’t really done this. I’ve been watching these guys do it. They make it look easy. I haven’t done it in a while. It was a lot of fun, though, to be a part of it.”
Theegala, whose sole win on the PGA Tour was the 2023 Fortinet Championship, rose onto the scene as a potential Ryder Cup favorite for last year’s rendition at Bethpage Black, especially considering a ninth-place finish at that year’s Masters as well.
“You have a great week, you finish third or fourth. You played great to do that, but then you still lost to a guy or two,” Theegala said about the reality of winning on the PGA Tour. “It’s just a sport where you’re not on top a lot, so you got to savor every moment of being on top, and just so elated to do it with these guys.
“These guys are family now. It’s so, so special to do it as a team. I’m just so excited for us to celebrate this, and I’m already looking forward to next year.”
LAGC headed into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed, but not without their own roadblocks to get to the Finals on Tuesday. They narrowly defeated the defending champions, Atlanta Drive GC, 6-4 to start the playoffs. Early on in the season, they lost to Boston Common and The Bay Golf Club as well.
In the first five holes, it was all Jupiter Links, with Woods looking comfortable in Palm Beach, including a 45-foot attempt at eagle on the par-5 Showtime hole. Despite his surgery in October, this was the first glimpse of Tiger in the newest addition to professional golf. The TGL, which debuted in winter 2025, is played in a golf simulator-meets-putting green dome at SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College. The teams are mic’d up and compete in threesomes playing nine holes in a match-play style and the last six in individual competitions between golfers of opposing teams.
From Woods’ par attempt lipping out of the Cenote hole on No. 7 to Rose’s outstanding 3-up showing in the singles competition against Jupiter’s Max Homa, the cup was in the bag for LAGC. Once Homa narrowly missed his par on 15, a champion was crowned.
“Honestly, I have a lot of respect – this is not a joke – for NFL coaches and stuff because your brain goes everywhere, and when they threw it, I didn’t really understand why they were throwing it,” Homa said. “It was just a really dumb move on my part.”
After finishing at the bottom of the board in TGL’s inaugural season, Homa walks away hopeful for Jupiter Links GC, despite the upsetting end to their run this year.
“We were last and now we’re second. Only way is up.”
“I don’t know whether it’s resilient or adaptable, but I feel like we’ve won a lot of different ways, and I think that’s been the big difference in our team this year versus last year,” Rose said. “Like Sahith [Theegala] said, we don’t win a lot. If there’s a chance to put a trophy in the trophy cabinet, man, you’re putting it front and center. The only thing I’ve ever said about a trophy cabinet is you need to leave a space for the next one. We don’t know when it’s going to happen in the game of golf, but for now, that will sit proud.”
As for Tiger, his future remains as blurry as ever, especially with the Masters on the horizon.
“Just this body is – it doesn’t recover like it did when it was 24, 25. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying. I’ve been trying for a while,” he said. “I’ve loved being there since I was 19 years old. It’s meant a lot to me and my family over the years. I’m going to be there either way with The Loop that’s going up there, as well as the Champions Dinner.”
He’s no stranger to a game-time decision, though, as he decided to step in for Jupiter Link’s Kevin Kisner the night before the TGL Finals.
The TGL will return to SoFi Center in South Florida next year, with a new addition to the race for the Cup, Motor City Golf Club.
