1 day Ago By Paul Kasabian
A battle of the GOATs went down on the golf course Friday as Wayne Gretzky defeated Michael Phelps in the finals of TNT Sports' The Match: Superstars tournament. This was the 10th version of The Match , which has raised over $41 million for charity since the series began in 2018. This eight-person contest featured celebrities and ex-star athletes.
That field was halved to four on Thursday in the quarterfinals. The semifinals aired Friday, with Phelps facing Mark Wahlberg and Gretzky playing Bill Murray in West Palm Beach, Florida's Breakers West Country Club. The contests were played over nine holes of match play.
In the first contest, Phelps beat Wahlberg in the first playoff hole after nine holes weren't enough. Wahlberg went up two after three holes, but Phelps struck back by winning the fourth and fifth, nailing a long putt on the latter hole to tie it. The 23-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer went one-up on the seventh, but Wahlberg struck back on the eighth.
The two couldn't decide a winner on the par-three ninth, so they did that one over again for the playoff. Phelps nailed a birdie on his first attempt for the win. The Gretzky-Murray matchup was captivating was well.
Murray got up one after the first, but Gretzky took the third and fourth holes, the latter with a long putt. But Murray made it all square on the sixth, and the two ended up going to the eighth all square. The Great One took over from there, winning the eighth and clinching the ninth with a long birdie putt for the two-up win.
During this match, a golf cart operator crashed into a nearby fence while Murray and Gretzky were being interviewed prior to a hole. Thankfully, no one was hurt, although the fence got a nice dent. In the final, Gretzky got up two early before Phelps got one back on the fifth.
However, Gretzky won the seventh hole to go up two with two holes remaining. Phelps could find no luck on the eighth hole, eventually conceding it to give The Great One the win..
