Two Hammers, One Statement: Motor City Rolls Past Los Angeles, 8-3, in Its WTGL Debut

Two nights ago Los Angeles owned the first win in WTGL history. On Tuesday the league's newest club took the building from them, and it wasn't close.

Motor City Golf Club beat Los Angeles Golf Club 8-3 at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in its first match as a franchise, per the official WTGL match page (opens in a new tab). Lexi Thompson, Jeeno Thitikul and Ronni Yin made up Motor City's three. Michelle Wie West, Aki Iwai and Kiara Romero answered for L.A. SB Nation (opens in a new tab) summed it up as easy work, and the scoreboard backs that up.

The Hammer Did the Damage

Every WTGL match runs 15 holes: nine holes of triples, where all three players share one ball in alternate shot, then six holes of head-to-head singles. Each hole is worth a point, and each side carries three Hammers that can double a hole if the other team accepts the challenge.

That last part decided the night. Four Hammers came out on Tuesday, according to SB Nation, and only two of them were won outright. Motor City won both, and both came during triples. Two Hammer holes at two points apiece is four points, which is half of Motor City's total on two swings. In a league where a regular hole is worth one, that is how a debut turns into a rout.

The WTGL's own highlights point to who cashed them. One clip from the night shows Thompson sinking a clutch putt to win a two-point Hammer hole. Another shows Yin holing a pressure putt to tie a Hammer hole, which is the less glamorous half of the same job: when the other side doubles the stakes, walking away with a halve keeps the damage at zero. Thitikul also drained a putt to tie a hole, per the league's clips.

Los Angeles threw at least one of its own. The WTGL posted Wie West sinking a putt and then throwing the Hammer, the kind of sequence that is supposed to flip momentum in this format. It never really did. Of the four Hammers on the night, none of the ones that were won went L.A.'s way.

Thompson's Night

Thompson was the story before a ball was struck, and she delivered on it. The 11-time LPGA champion is expecting her first child in February, per The Palm Beach Post (opens in a new tab), and she played on prime-time TV about six months pregnant.

She had been clear about why. "I just want to show women being pregnant doesn't stop you. You can still achieve what you want," Thompson told the Post before the match. She also left her schedule open, telling the Post, "If I play all the matches or if I just play one, just to be able to grow the game, that's what it's all about."

On Tuesday she did more than show up. Beyond the Hammer putt, the WTGL highlighted a second Thompson moment, a winning putt to earn another point. Two of the night's signature clips belonged to her, and the preview storyline turned into the actual result.

Iwai Kept L.A. Honest

If there was a bright spot for Los Angeles, it was Aki Iwai. The WTGL credited Iwai with the hole that put L.A.'s first point on the board, and with winning two singles holes. The WTGL preview had Iwai paired with Yin in singles on Loot on the Line and Cenote, so the head-to-head stretch is where L.A. found its footing.

The near misses tell the rest of L.A.'s story. The league's clips show Wie West nearly chipping in and Romero nearly holing out an approach. Thitikul also came close on a long putt for Motor City. In a format this short, those are the swings that separate 8-3 from something a lot tighter, and on Tuesday the close calls mostly stayed out of the hole for Los Angeles.

The result went in the books on Hole 15, per the official match page, so all 15 holes were played.

Where It Leaves Both Clubs

Motor City is 1-0 after one night, and the start matches the hype that followed this roster in. Thitikul, Yin and Thompson won the Hammer battle in triples, and that built a cushion Los Angeles never closed. Two more Motor City players, Brooke Henderson and Albane Valenzuela, sat this one out, so there is still depth that hasn't seen the simulator. That is a scary thought for the rest of the field.

Los Angeles drops to 1-1. Two days after the 3-1 win over New York that opened the league, L.A. rotated in Iwai and Romero around Wie West, and this time the putts and the Hammers broke the other way. One loss is no verdict on a roster, but a round robin this short punishes a bad night, and the Hammer math on Tuesday left little room to recover.

A regulation win is worth two points in the WTGL standings, which puts Motor City level with Los Angeles on points after a single match.

Up Next

Motor City is back next Monday against Boston Common Golf, per SB Nation. Every result counts a lot in a season this compact.

The early lesson is simple. In WTGL, as in TGL, you can play solid golf for most of a night and still get buried by two holes. Motor City came out on top of both Hammer holes that were won, halved a Hammer hole when it had to, and made the putts that mattered. Los Angeles now has to figure out how to make the next Hammer hurt someone else.

Sources: WTGL, SB Nation, The Palm Beach Post. More WTGL coverage on Undrafted.

Photo Credit: WTGL.