Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf face an uphill battle if they’re to make the TGL playoffs after losing to The Bay Golf Club during Monday’s triple-header.
After suffering an overtime defeat to Jupiter Links GC in their first-ever TGL fixture, McIlroy’s team were dismantled by Los Angeles GC in the first week of February.
Boston Common faced yet more disappointment on Monday after Wyndham Clark eagled the final hole to send The Bay Golf Club to the top of the TGL standings, maintaining their 100% record.
All of the triple-header fixtures were closely fought after organisers opted to increase the number of Hammers available to each team. Now, three Hammers are given to each side, which gives the trailing team a better chance of closing a deficit.
Rory McIlroy reacts to TGL rule change
With golf fans demanding more competitiveness in the TGL, McIlroy is entirely behind the decision to increase the number of Hammers available despite losing for the third time.
“Yeah, I think — I mean, if you look at these three — you know, this is the first day that we’ve had these new hammer rules, and every match was really tight. I think it enables a team if they do go down in the match, to come back,” McIlroy said.
“We were 4-3 down going into the last three holes, but we still had two hammers, so it felt like we were almost — it felt like we were tied, you know, just knowing we had those extra two hammers
“So I think it’s a really good change. You still have to be strategic with them because you don’t want to—The Bay threw their hammers early in the match and didn’t have any for the last few holes, and we kept ours a little bit, which enabled us to keep ourselves in the match.”
The Northern Irishman continued: “If it wasn’t for Ludvig holing that putt on the par-3, we actually would have went up in the match without going into that last hole. So I think these new hammer rules are really good.”
Rory McIlroy struggles in first three TGL matches
McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf, made up of Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama, were well-fancied before the tech-infused league got underway. However, things haven’t gone entirely to plan.
McIlroy has now played 30 holes and registered just four points. For context, Justin Rose has 18 points from 32 holes played and Wyndham Clark 17 from 33.
Right now, Bradley is Boston Common’s standout player. The US Ryder Cup captain has seven points. Four of Bradley’s points have come during the singles matches. McIlroy has picked up just one point on his own.
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