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TNT Sports’ The Match: Superstars kicked off Thursday from West Palm Beach, Florida’s Breakers West Country Club.
Eight celebrities and ex-star athletes took centerstage in a match play and scramble format over nine holes.
In the quarterfinal round, Michael Phelps and Mark Wahlberg crushed Blake Griffin and Nate Bargatze four-up, finishing the match after six holes.
It was a tough day for Griffin, the six-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA player. He heard it from Barkley after missing a makable putt to tie a hole. Bargatze cleaned it up, though.
Wahlberg and Phelps were too strong, winning the first, second, fifth and sixth holes for the victory.
In the other half of the bracket, Wayne Gretzky and Bill Murray defeated Charles Barkley and Ken Griffey Jr. in an intense and close contest that ended after the fourth playoff hole.
The two pairs were all square after nine holes. Gretzky and Murray won the first hole, but Griffey and Barkley won the sixth and seventh to go one-up. Perhaps Barkley’s mid-round shirt change played a factor in his team’s improved play.
Griffey and Barkley’s lead was short-lived, though, as Gretzky drilled a putt on the eighth to make it all square.
Nine holes weren’t enough to finish the contest, so the pairs re-started the ninth hole and continued to play it until there was a victor.
On their fourth playoff attempt to break the tie, Gretzky got it done again, drilling a birdie putt for the win.
The semifinal round will see a shakeup to individual match play contests. Phelps and Wahlberg will play each other while Murray and Gretzky face off. The winners will then square off for a $1 million first-place prize.
Friday’s action will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT and Max.