The first match of the TGL finals lived up to its hype. Justin Thomas and the Atlanta Drive triumphed by a single point over the New York Golf Club, thanks to a final-round victory by Patrick Cantlay over Xander Schauffele. The 6-5 victory was defined by the usage of hammers as the New York Golf Club was left with two at the end of the contest.

Scahuffele recalled the loss, underlining his big regret. During the 11th hole, the New York Golf Club was leading by two after Cameron Young won the 10th hole against Justin Thomas.  The Drive threw in the hammer for the Billy Horschel – Rickie Fowler head-to-head and Schauffele decided to accept it. If he had denied it the score would have been 4-3. However, Horschel won the hole, making it 4 a piece.

“Cam did a lot of the dirty work to win us two points, which is a hard thing to do against them, and for us to give it right back, that’s probably my biggest regret was accepting that hammer where Billy made that putt. Just protect our lead,” Schauffele expressed his disappointment at the tough loss.

Schauffele further added, “We probably should have ended with one hammer. I thought I threw that out in a decent time, but that would have gotten us down to one, and throwing one the last hole probably wouldn’t have mattered. But maybe we would have had a one-point lead going in versus being tied. It was a big sort of coaching error that I can take a lot of responsibility for since it’s in my back pocket.”

Hammers have been a resourceful tool for quick points.  It is very rare to see a match end and that too a crucial one like the finals, end with one side using all their hammers and another side left with two unused ones. This has been the case ever since the rule change, which happened after the last time the New York Golf Club and the Atlanta Drive faced each other.

The hammer rule change

It was a peculiar match to witness. In the initial stages of the TGL, the hammer worked in such a way that one team held on to it and when they used it, it switched hands. That was the case, till the third TGL match that happened between the two finalists. The Drive raced to a two-point lead and the New York Golf Club was looking to fight back.

The problem? The hammer was with the Drive. So they were short of options for two quick points when they had the advantage. Atlanta Drive held on to the hammer till the end of the game, not even using it once. This allowed them to walk away with a win.

Do you think the hammer offers an unfair advantage to one team? Patrick Cantlay has turned out to be the resident hammer expert for Justin Thomas and Co. which gave them a significant advantage in the semifinals also. Should the New York Golf Club pay more attention to the use of hammers like how the Atlanta Drive does?