With Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy absent and no debut match curiosity, TGL needed a spark — or a competitive match — to keep up the hype during its third match. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver, quickly becoming a snooze fest instead.

When Thomas made his second putt of at least 23 feet to halve a hole on No. 13, he said, "we really don't want them to get a point, so that was huge."

Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Billy Horschel represented Atlanta; they grabbed the lead over Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young on the first hole of triples. Only one more point was awarded across the final eight holes of the first session as Atlanta doubled its lead heading into the six holes of singles.