Tiger Woods saw the funny side of Rory McIlroy’s cheeky jibe about his age during the Tomorrow’s Golf League clash on Monday night.
Woods’ Jupiter Links triumphed in overtime in a gripping encounter over McIlroy’s Boston Common at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida.
But McIlroy managed to score points on Woods in a different way with a joke on the indoor course.
The Northern Irishman was seen singing ABBA’s Gimme Gimme Gimme during the event, although it wasn’t quite belted out like he did Don’t Stop Believin by Journey at the Zurich Classic.
American Woods was part of the unofficial audience for McIlroy’s brief rendition, and the latter couldn’t resist poking fun at the 15-time Major winner.
“A little bit of ABBA… it’s like your demographic!” McIlroy cheekily said to Woods.
“Oh, here we go,” Woods responded, before McIlroy let out a hyena-like laugh to himself.
There’s a 14-year age gap between the golfing icons, although it’s clear the pair are firm friends, with McIlroy referring to Woods as one of his heroes post-match.
McIlroy, who was joined by US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Australian Adam Scott, said it was ‘amazing’ to play against Woods under fresh conditions.
“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,” he said.
“It’s amazing to go up and to compete against one of your heroes.
“This is competition, at the end of the day, and we’re all trying to beat each other as best we can.”
And Woods, who incurred a penalty stroke for taking too long over an eight-foot birdie putt to halve the 10th hole against McIlroy, was delighted with what the match produced.
“It is so different to normal golf. It was definitely different than when we first played,” Woods said.
“This is what we had envisioned for TGL, to have an experience like this, and I think we delivered.”