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Bonus golf is always fun. Bonus golf with four former FedExCup champions including Tiger Woods at a course he designed with great charitable causes benefiting – now that’s awesome.
In case you missed the fun at Payne’s Valley Cup – where Woods and Justin Thomas teamed up against Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose to open the first Woods designed public course – here are five takeaways to catch you up.
1. The Tiger Woods / Justin Thomas team won*. The event featured three separate formats with the first team to collect 2.5 points declared the winner. One point was available in team better ball, one point in alternate shot and two points in singles.
In the end it was a 2-2 tie but a clutch Thomas shot on the final hole proved the difference in a tiebreaker scenario.
The first six holes featured a team better ball format with the addition of the second ball counting if the low score was tied. Woods forgot that part of the format early when he snapped his opening drive over a cliff but didn’t continue on the hole. It meant a par, bogey combo for the European’s was enough to grab an early lead. The U.S. won the second but lost the third and fourth holes which helped the Euro’s to a 2&1 win and the first point of the competition. The U.S. did manage to win the Closest to the Pin (Thomas) and Long Drive (Woods) challenges inside those six holes.
Holes 7-12 were alternate shot. After the two teams were tied coming to the drivable 12th hole it was a lovely Woods pitch shot that secured a birdie and left McIlroy with a long putt to try to halve the match. It slipped by meaning a U.S. win and a 1-1 total. Rose picked up the straightest drive challenge while Thomas/Woods secured a drive the green challenge.
Holes 13-19, yes 19, were singles and featured matches between Thomas and McIlroy and Woods and Rose. The 19th was revealed as a par-3 called “The Rock” where $1million for charity was at stake for a hole in one and $500,000 for closet to the pin.
In the Woods/Rose contest Woods went 1 up on Rose with a nice birdie out of the gate but missed a golden opportunity to double the advantage a hole later from just six-feet.
After matching each other on 15 Rose stepped up and nearly made an ace to tie things up on the 16th. He then took the lead when he was able to get up and down from the sand on the 18th, a feat Woods couldn’t match, to take a 1 up lead to The Rock.
In the Thomas/McIlroy match Thomas fell behind immediately with a bogey but then took advantage of a tough McIlroy lip out a hole later to tie things up. Then things really went against the Northern Irishman.
He could only laugh when a chance to win the 15th also did a near 360 degree lip out and he dropped his club and threw his hands on his head in disbelief when a chip to win the 16th stopped hanging over the edge of the hole.
To add insult to injury Thomas then drained a long birdie bomb on the 17th and McIlroy’s effort to match burned the edge leaving Thomas 1 up with two to play. McIlroy was able to make a tester on the 18th to push things to The Rock.
The final hole started with Aaron Stewart, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player afforded a shot for the million. Stewart was just a little wide right whereas the two legends both found the surface, Player a tad closer.
Thomas then threw a dart in to eight-feet, seven-inches forcing McIlroy to take dead aim. He ended 13-feet, eight-inches under the hole. Given that in the event of a tie the match would be decided on who hit it closest to the pin it was a clutch shot from Thomas.
Rose opened the door for Woods when he left it about 20-feet from the hole but the 82-time TOUR winner spun his attempt back to almost the same distance. With a chance to win it Rose slid his putt past giving Woods the stage to win it all. But his putt pulled left and wouldn’t drop.
That left McIlroy with a must make putt to have any chance given Thomas held the tiebreaker but luck certainly wasn’t on his side and it slid past to hand the result to the Woods / Thomas combo despite a 2-2 overall score line.
“I’m just so proud of everyone who came together to make this possible,” Woods said. “It’s awfully special for me.”
2. Woods certainly has a knack for course design.
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Source: PGA tour
