The Bay Golf stymied Xander Schauffele and The New York Golf Club on TGL’s opening night, winning by 9-to-2. The final tally was not even that close, as The Bay opened up with a massive 5-to-0 lead just five holes in — it was all but over by then.
TGL fans rained ‘Bronx Cheers’ on Xander Schauffele, New York for poor performance
The New York Golf Club received plenty of boos on night one, but Xander Schauffele took it on the chin after.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
That led many of the 1,500 fans at the SoFi Center to shower boos down on Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, and Matt Fitzpatrick, the three players who represented New York. You certainly hear these Bronx cheers at Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and MetLife Stadium, but you rarely hear boos on a golf course unless it’s the Ryder Cup or WM Phoenix Open. That makes the TGL product unique: it’s an authentic stadium atmosphere where players take center stage.
“You just laugh it off,” Schauffele said of the boos.”
“They had good reason to boo. I probably would have booed me, too.”
New York struggled all night, rarely sticking their approaches close to the hole. The Bay, meanwhile, seemed to hit all of their shots inside of 10 feet, setting them up for plenty of opportunities.
“I don’t know what the stats will show, but it felt like every time their ball hit the screen, it was going right at the flag, and every time our ball hit the screen, it had a little too much curve or turn on it, and we’d end up 30 or 40 feet away on the wrong side of the green,” Schauffele said.
“When you see it hit the screen with a little bit of curve, we already know which way it’s going, and maybe we feel like it’s not that far off, but if it’s on the green to 45 feet from 205 yards, that’s where it would probably go, to be honest. It makes it worse, a little bit of salt in the wound when those guys are hitting it to five feet on every hole, stacking it on top of us.”
Schauffele noted that TGL’s simulator technology was “pretty accurate,” which only reinforces how poorly the New York team played.
The landslide took away some of the drama — similar to any other blowout in team sports — but golf fans still loved the TGL product overall. And if Schauffele remains as candid as he was after the match, it will only grow in popularity. But if New York — or any team does not meet expectations for that matter — expect to hear plenty of boos, which only adds to the overall scene.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
