GOLFZON Tour’s Team Los Angeles defeats Team Tulsa in Match 10

This article was produced in partnership with GOLFZON.

What began as a 12-team, simulator-golf match-play competition for a $150,000 grand prize is now a two-team battle to the finish.

Ten matches have now been completed on the GOLFZON Tour — a new league in which regional teams of five players each from 12 selected GOLFZON host facilities (nine are in the U.S., the others are from London, Toronto and Mexico) compete against each other in a series of matches, with one team earning the grand-prize payout.

Missed the first round and quarterfinal action? Here’s a quick recap:

Team Orlando defeated Team Louisville in Match 1, while Team Minneapolis defeated Team Chicago in Match 2. Team London fell to Team New York in Match 3, and Team Houston defeated Team Mexico in Match 4. Match 5 featured another international battle, pitting Team Canada against Team Orlando in the first match of the quarterfinals. Team Orlando won in a sudden-death playoff to launch themselves into the semifinal round. In Match 6, Team Tulsa defeated Team Houston to become the second team to reach the semifinals, and in Match 7, Team Detroit was victorious over Team New York. The final team to grab a semifinal spot was Los Angeles, when they defeated Team Minneapolis in Match 8.

And in the first semifinal match of the tournament, Team Detroit defeated Team Orlando to punch their ticket to the tournament’s finale.

The Format

In this single-elimination bracket play tournament, teams of three players compete head-to-head by linking their simulators together over the Internet in a match-play format, with two of the best three scores for each team counting on each hole. Female competitors play 85 percent of the yardage of their male counterparts.

If, after 18 holes, there’s a tie, the match goes into a sudden-death playoff where all three players’ scores count. The first team to score lower than the other on a hole wins.

GOLFZON Tour Match 10 Recap: Team Los Angeles vs. Team Tulsa

The GOLFZON Tour semifinal matchups are played at an iconic venue: Pebble Beach Golf Links, an annual host of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour and site of multiple U.S. Open championships. The teams competed against each other in real time from their regional simulator locations.

Team Los Angeles got on the board first, winning three of the first four holes, but Team Tulsa bounced back with win on the 5th hole to cut the deficit back down to 2. A Team Los Angeles win on the 6th hole, however, brought LA’s advantage back to 3 up.

On the iconic par-3 7th, Team Tulsa rolled in a clutch birdie to win the hole and get back to 2 down. Ties on the 8th and 9th holes meant Team Los Angeles entered the second half of the match with a 2-up advantage.

Team Tulsa won the 10th hole to get back to 1 down, but Team Los Angeles bounced right back with a win on 12 to get back to 2 up. A clutch birdie on the 13th for Team Los Angeles proved to be a big moment. At that point, LA had a 3-up lead with only five holes to play — not a totally insurmountable deficit for Tulsa, but a difficult challenge for a team that had yet to lead the match.

When the teams arrived on the 16th tee, Tulsa faced a must-win situation to extend the match. They made a valiant effort with two birdies, but Team LA matched them, securing a 3-and-2 victory.

With the win, Team Los Angeles is now one of only two teams still in the running for the grand prize of $150,000, and will face Team Detroit next in GOLFZON Tour’s final round.

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The Teams

The 12 teams competing in this edition of GOLFZON Tour are:

East Division

Detroit – Tee Times – IN FINAL
London – The Golf Rooms – ELIMINATED (Match 3)
Louisville – Tee It Up Golf USA – ELIMINATED (Match 1)
New York City – Golfzon Social – ELIMINATED (Match 7)
Orlando – Golfzon Leadbetter – ELIMINATED (Match 9)
Toronto – Golfplay – ELIMINATED (Match 5)

West Division

Chicago – The Green – ELIMINATED (Match 2)
Houston – The Daly Round – ELIMINATED (Match 6)
Los Angeles – Golf Envy – IN FINAL
Mexico – Mulligan’s Monterrey – ELIMINATED (Match 4)
Minneapolis – Element Indoor Golf – ELIMINATED (Match 8)
Tulsa – BirdieBay – ELIMINATED (Match 10)

Follow the action

You can watch the matches in their entirety on GOLFZON’s YouTube page, where new episodes and match recaps have been released weekly. The final match will be played this week in Orlando.

To learn more about GOLFZON Tour — and view the match-play bracket progress — click here.