Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers know a thing or two about winning NFL games on clutch plays, inside the last two minutes. Now the pair of future Pro Football Hall of Famers have bragging rights on the golf course over Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen after winning Capital One’s The Match on Wednesday.
The four NFL quarterbacks played a 12-hole golf exhibition at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, where Rodgers sank a clutch putt on the final hole to give his team a 1-up victory.
“I felt really good about [the putt], to be honest,” Rodgers said. “Tommy gave me a great read. I heard Trevor [Immelman] and Charles [Barkley] in my head telling me I was going to make it, and I felt good about the line when I hit it, I knew it was going in. It was a fun day.”
While it was must see TV and entertaining to watch the signal callers go at it on the course, it was also for a worthy cause. The teams were raising enough money to donate 10,258,000 meals for Feeding America.
The players took the match seriously, but also started to trash talk early on. Allen said he would play the round with a golf ball that had an image of a shirtless Brady taken at the 2000 NFL scouting combine. Allen took some playful shots himself. When Brady hit a short shot, he said he hit it chunky and “Josh Alleny.”
There were quite a few sub-par shots in the match, with at least one striking a spectator by a ball from Allen. Allen told the commentators that he presented the unfortunate fan a glove as a memento.
Brady and Rodgers came out of the gate in attack mode, making a birdie on the first two holes, to go 2 up early in the round. Mahomes and Allen eventually clawed their way back, fueled by some big time clutch putts from Mahomes. Mahomes had a two-putt birdie on the fifth hole to knot the match and made another putt in the late stages of the round to give his team the advantage.
The trash talk ceased as the match got tighter and closer to the final hole. The only banter late in the event came from match commentator Charles Barkley, who took shots at all the quarterbacks, fellow commentator Trevor Immelman and Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal.
Mahomes hit a shot on par-3 to 7 feet, 6 inches from the hole and match commentator Ernie Johnson said Mahomes hit it to about the length of O’Neal. Barkley saw his chance to make a remark about his NBA broadcast partner.
“That’s the one good thing about doing golf, man, I don’t have to be around that idiot,” Barkley said. “It’s more beautiful when Shaq’s not here. My life is way better when he’s not around.”
Barkley helped keep things light hearted as the quarterbacks were communicating less and less as it got closer to the final hole. The match was tied going into the par-3, when Rodgers hit the tee shot on the green and sank his putt for the win. It was the inaugural win for Brady, who entered Wednesday 0-2 in these exhibition matches.
