The Hammer Whisperer, Patrick Cantlay, leads Atlanta to first-ever TGL finals | D'Angelo
PALM BEACH GARDENS — From the start, Atlanta Drive was strutting their stuff.
Billy Horschel was making a guarantee. Justin Thomas was taunting members of The Bay Golf Club.
And Patrick Cantlay? He was making all the important decisions when it comes to the Hammer before sealing Atlanta's spot in the TGL finals with a clutch tee shot on the 174-yard par-3 12th hole.
"They call him Paddy Ice for a reason and he came through," Horschel said.
And now, TGL's inaugural final series is set and it's not what anyone expected after Atlanta's 9-3 victory Tuesday at SoFi Center.
For the second consecutive night, the lower seed advanced, setting up a best-of-three finals between No. 3 Atlanta and No. 4 New York.
New York upset top-seed Los Angeles, 6-4, Monday.
The teams will play one match Monday (9 p.m.) and returned Tuesday at 7 p.m. for one or two matches.
L.A. and The Bay combined to go 8-1 during the regular season. And 0-2 in the playoffs.
The winning team will take home $9 million ($2.25 million per player). The losers earn $4.5 million ($1.125 million a man).
The Bay missed Wyndham Clark, who withdrew from The Players Championship last week because of a neck injury and was unavailable Tuesday. Clark led TGL in most categories during the regular season.
Min Woo Lee replaced Clark, joining Shane Lowry and Ludvig Aberg.
"I suppose the first few weeks were highlights for us," Lowry said. "We got off to an unbelievable start and we were looking for a while like the team to beat. Obviously, I don't think we performed anywhere close to what we could have tonight."
Cantlay's 7-iron sends Atlanta to TGL finals
Atlanta needed just 12 holes to end any drama, Cantlay's winning putt coming on a Double-Hammer hole worth three points.
Cantlay's 7-iron on was the closest to the pin on that hole the entire season.
The Bay threw the Hammer to start the hole. But after Cantlay did some quick math, he knew if he threw the Hammer before his short putt, the match was over if The Bay declined or he made the putt, which was worth 3 points.
Horschel and Thomas admit they are spectators when it comes Hammer strategy, leaving those decisions to the Hammer Whisperer, Cantlay.
"JT and I joined the smart group so we don't have to do as much work when it comes to that," Horschel said.
"It's like the kid doing the school project," Thomas said. "You just hope you get the 'A' at the end and you don't really do as much."
That 'A,' at least in the semifinal, was possible because of Atlanta's quick start. Horschel never even attempted his 6-footer on the second hole, telling Cantlay, "I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it."
So Cantlay threw the Hammer. The Bay declined and Atlanta led 1-0.
Horschel's 4-foot putt after Lee missed from the same distance on the second hole increased Atlanta's lead.
The Bay's downfall was its putting. They did not make one putt until the14th hole, after the match was decided.
"The team that gets off to the best start generally wins and the team that holes the most putts," Lowry said. "It's kind of simple."
No Tiger, no Rory in the playoffs. No problem
TGL is one week from ending a successful debut, even without its two founders and biggest names, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, sitting out playoffs after their teams finished at the bottom of the standings.
For Rory, that worked out OK. All he did on the same day TGL held its first playoff match was win the playoff at The Players Championship and the $4.5 million first-place prize.
But Tiger? Missing out on the TGL playoffs became the least of his worries. The 15-time major champion had surgery in West Palm Beach last week to repair a ruptured left Achilles, and at 49, no one knows what his golf future looks like.
While Tiger was home on Jupiter Island as the semifinals were taking place, McIlroy, who lives in Jupiter, was a spectator Tuesday and sat in The Bay's owner's box to cheer on good friend Lowry.
Although Rory's magic could not carry over to his mate on this night, that did not dampen the experience for Lowry.
"I had a blast," Lowry said. "Six months ago, I didn't know what to expect. But overall the whole experience I think has just been really cool. To have something different to kind of look forward to every couple of weeks is pretty cool. Yeah, I've nothing but good things to say about my experience at TGL."
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Atlanta defeats The Bay, faces New York TGL final
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