TGL PLAYOFF SEMIFINALS PRESENTED BY SOFI: NEW YORK GC VS LOS ANGELES GC

March 17, 2025

Collin Morikawa

Sahith Theegala

Tommy Fleetwood

SoFi Center

Los Angeles Golf Club

Press Conference

New York Golf Club 6, Los Angeles Golf Club 4

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Los Angeles Golf Club to the media here at the SoFi Center. Not the result you guys wanted, but talk about the first playoff match that you guys just concluded here.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Well, yeah, New York played great, and I think we had our chances. I didn't play great. I take responsibility on that. You have to make putts in this format, and in these matches you have to make putts. You've got to hit some decent shots, but it comes down to making putts, and we weren't getting the ball in the first. That matters a lot.

And it sucks because I felt like we played, we had a nice rhythm throughout the season. Still love these guys. I think I'd take any of these guys on the LA team against anyone any day of the week, and it just happened to not be our day today.

Q. Tommy, can you talk a little bit about the strategy today and some of the hammers that were played out?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Strategy was good. Yeah, I think overall I think it was a pretty high standard of match. A couple of mistakes, but even with the chances that I feel like we could have taken, we're all the time people that are probably going to blame ourselves, but at the end of the day, I had a four footer there that would have taken us down to the last hole, and anything can happen from there. So even with the chances that we didn't take, we were still right there looking to take it to the last hole where I felt like even when we were put under so much pressure where we had to decline a couple of those hammers and were already down, I felt like we did a really good job of that.

At the end of the day, you look at it, they performed better, played better and holed the putts, and good luck to those guys in the final.

Q. Sahith, obviously not the result you wanted to end the season, but can you talk about the highlights and what you've enjoyed most this first season of TGL?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, I think, look, we didn't really all know what to expect fully, I think, and I think I can speak for a lot of these guys, it was a lot more fun than I thought. It was super competitive, and I enjoyed every moment of it. It went by too fast, to be honest. I honestly wish our season was a bit longer into the finals. But I feel like every match we played had a bunch of highlights. I think that just speaks volumes to the guys on our team. When the moment was big, they stepped up all throughout the season, and it just didn't go our way this match.

But yeah, we had a lot of highlights. I think this is a good -- the whole step that we have going is a good kind of highlight factory in a sense. It lets us showcase our skills to the best of our abilities, and I wish we had a few of those highlights today. We still had a few, but yeah, it just sucks to have just lost that.

Q. You guys pulled off a pretty big comeback last time you played this team with Sahith winning on 12 and starting that. Did you feel like that opening was there today when you won in singles today or were you disappointed not to capitalize on that momentum?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, I think like Tommy had said, and Collin, we had our opportunities today. We really played pretty well. I thought all the guys hit plenty of good shots, and we just didn't get the ball to go in the hole that we were able to do the last few times in our comebacks. But again, we think we had a good strategy. We had some very disciplined declines of the hammer. Did not want to decline them, but we just had to with the way the math was working out and the holes we had.

Don't love that we have gotten ourselves in holes a lot of the time, but a lot of the times, again, we've played really well, we've just gotten kind of horse raced out of the start by the other teams it seems like. A lot of long putts being made on us. Maybe I sound a little salty about that, but I feel like we've gotten a lot of putts made on us the three matches.

Again, I think we played really nicely and we had our chances. But there's just one or two putts that could have very easily gone in just lipped out for us, and that was kind of the deciding factor.

Q. I was curious what the last few days have been like, going from a premier event in Jacksonville and rolling into an elimination match in Palm Beach Gardens, what that's been like for you guys.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, like when we were playing THE PLAYERS, I truly think it's one of the best events we have all year. Your focus is obviously there, but I think after we had finished and Tommy and I thankfully finished before the storm, your mindset switches and it's not that, oh -- I guess these guys are playing this week, but it's not like, oh, I've got a few days to take a deep breath and relax. It's like we knew what we had ahead of us today, what we had to do essentially. We all put in the work.

Sometimes it just doesn't play out like that. Just because you put in the work doesn't mean you're going to be given something or you deserve something more. But that's what I love about our team, and even Rosey, we were willing to do what we needed to do to give ourselves the best opportunity to win. It's awesome to have these guys, and yeah, we were focused, ready to go, and just didn't happen.

Q. Tommy, can you talk about the process of that final putt, the time-out, the read, and what all went into it?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, well, we had -- you got to see Rickie's putt, but there was no point in rushing anything. I was just like, we'll take our time, we'll take our time-out when it comes, because that was it, really; that putt decided whether we carry on and have another shot at this or we're out. So we took our time.

I've been lucky to have these guys reading the putts really. I've really struggled reading the putts and executing the putts on these greens.

I felt like I hit a good putt. I just watched it on TV. It did look like it broke a lot. What else can you do? We took our time. We had three of us reading the putt, picked a line and hit it. Felt like I hit a good putt and I missed. Of course you're going to maybe dwell on it tonight overnight and I'm disappointed that I couldn't do better for the guys, but yeah, like if I could hit the putt again, of course I would, but I think at the time the line that we chose and the putt that I hit was good, and I missed, and that's that.

Q. As funny as it sounds, I want to talk to you about TGL course conditions. It seems like the rough has gotten thicker throughout the season, and specifically Collin, you're really analytical in your drops, just really looking at where you're dropping it. Do you practice that?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I didn't practice it at all. They don't really let us touch the rough when we're practicing.

Tommy found this nice patch in the front corner that ended up being really good. It's a guessing game, it honestly is, but sometimes you're luckier than others, and I think I was in the rough three times today, so I got lucky two out of three, which is pretty good.

Q. One season down now in TGL. You saw the league make changes mid-season with the hammer rule. Are there any changes you would like to see going into the next season after a full season down?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I mean, we'll see, won't we. I think everybody has enjoyed the format very much, and I think we've loved that. I would love it if the playoffs was the best of three or the first seed gets a bye. That would have been great.

Look, I think the guys have been good with the changes when necessary, and I'm sure it will continue to evolve. I'm sure there's different things that they can do with the conditions. I'm sure there will be new holes next time probably. But overall I think everybody has really enjoyed the format. It's just been so different for us and so new, but everybody has got really behind it. We've had a great group of guys and a great team, not just us but everybody around LA Golf, and we've enjoyed it so much.

I guess we have to wait now until we get our chance again and we'll see what changes there are in the future, but this one has been great.