Justin Thomas ran his luck to win the 10th hole and hand the three-point buffer to Atlanta Drive GC on Tuesday night for the dominant 9-3 TGL playoff victory at Bay Golf Club at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Atlanta will play Zander Shaufele-led New York Golf Club in its first Best Three Championship Series next Monday and Tuesday. The winning team splits the prize money by $9 million.
“As you can see from tonight’s match and every match, what we’re getting looks completely different every night, but I like the team and I love the chance,” Thomas looks forward to the final.
The Atlanta trio of Thomas, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantray barely missed beats against the international trio of Shane Raleigh in Ireland, Minh u le Lee in Australia and Rudig Åberg in Sweden.
Wyndham Clark, who has the best TGL statistics this season, was unavailable due to a neck injury that forced him to withdraw at last week’s athletes championships.
Atlanta took a 4-2 lead after a nine-hole triple played. Thomas then headed straight with fellow major champion Laurie when the match switched to singles on the par 5 10th.
Both players spotted the virtual fairway on a good drive before Rory hooked the three-iron to the left, green, left, and turned their backs in disgust, even before the ball disappeared into the watery grave.
Thomas then hit a selfish four-iron that seemed to be heading towards the danger of green, but the ball safely made a random bounce, then got the hole with a two-putt par.
“It’s the lucky bounce I’ve ever seen,” newly crowned championship winner Rory McIlroy said during his guest commentary on ESPN.
Cantray held the match by defeating Abarg on the par 3 12th on the birdie.
“We were doing some things tonight with us, and that’s something that’s necessary from time to time,” Horschel said.
Thomas added: “We all went really well tonight. We all contributed.”