Rory McIlroy Loved What He Saw From Tiger Woods in Their First TGL Showdown

McIlroy said Woods was as intense as ever for their Week 4 match, the first close one so far in the indoor sim league.

Rory McIlroy praised Tiger Woods's intensity after their TGL match. / GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Monday night, Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf took on Tiger Woods’s Jupiter Links Golf Club for the fourth TGL match of the year.

In what was the league's first competitive match, Woods’s team took down McIlroy’s in overtime.

After the match ended, McIlroy commented on the intensity he saw from Woods throughout the night.

“It's amazing to go up and compete against one of your heroes. I've shared the course with him many times, and I've been in a couple of final groups with him, and he has just as much intensity out there tonight as he does when he's trying to win a major championship or trying to finish off a golf tournament,” McIlroy said. “He was feeling it out there, and it was really cool to see.”

The first three matches were not close, but one filled with drama and clutch shots might be exactly what the league needed in order to get back on track.

Last week, Rickie Fowler’s New York Golf Club took on Justin Thomas’s Atlanta Drive Golf Club and it was TGL’s third consecutive blowout with Atlanta winning 4-0. The ratings fell by more than 30% from Tiger Woods's debut in Week 2.

Next week, McIlroy and Boston Common Golf take on Los Angeles Golf Club. L.A. defeated Jupiter 12-1 two weeks ago.