Stop if you have heard this before: The Kansas City Chiefs laid it on their opponents early and often en route to a ho-hum victory. While this particular triumph didn't occur on the gridiron, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce's 3 & 2 victory over Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the eighth edition of The Match might has well been played at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs duo poured it on their Warriors counterparts from the NBA in a 12-hole charity exhibition at The Wynn Golf Club right off the strip in Las Vegas. Mahomes and Kelce won in 10 holes, though The Match was probably over a couple holes before that point.
After exchanging pars on the opener, the Kansas City pair ham-and-egg'd their way to birdies on Nos. 2-3 to surge ahead of the Splash Brothers just as the latter began to show some cracks in their games.
A 2 UP lead was the result for Mahomes and Kelce. While the par breakers began to subside for the leaders, the wins persisted. Pars on two of the next three holes saw the Kansas City teammates double their lead to 4 UP through six.
"We're a third-quarter team," Curry said stepping off the seventh green after a rare tie. Still, the third quarter heroics proved to be too little too late.
With a tie on the seventh, Mahomes and Kelce went to the eighth hole in possession of a 4 UP lead with an opportunity to close out the 12-hole match with ample room to spare.
Another closet-to-the-pin challenge presented itself, and it was the smooth-swinging tight end who stepped up to the plate. Hitting his tee shot inside 10 feet, Kelce gave Mahomes and himself a look for victory. Kelce lipped out his chance to seal the deal, and the Super Bowl MVP did his best Brett Maher impression, missing wide left.
The Chiefs pair continued to struggle on the greens on the ninth. Facing two putts to close out the match, both Mahomes and Kelce needed three from 25 feet; instead, they misread the putt giving Curry and Thompson their lone win of the day to extend the match.
This only delayed the inevitable. Mahomes drove the short par-4 10th with a low runner to put this match to bed and send everyone home -- an action he has inflicted on his opponents several times before.
"You've never seen me win a blowout," said Mahomes on the closing hole. "I just keep it real close till the end."