Neal Shipley Makes TGL's First Hole-in-One as The Bay Routs Los Angeles 11-5

Luke Clanton asked for it out loud. "Give me a hole-in-one here. Please," The Bay Golf Club's debutant said as teammate Neal Shipley stood over a wedge at the par-3 fifth. Shipley, also making a TGL debut, obliged. The shot carried 112.8 yards to the back of the green, drew back down the slope and dropped for the first hole-in-one in league history, and moments later Clanton was riding on Shipley's shoulders.

The Bay Golf Club rode that moment, two Hammers in the first five holes and a closing Hammer flourish to an 11-5 win over Los Angeles Golf Club at SoFi Center on Feb. 9, 2026. It was The Bay's first win of the season, and it came with three of its four regulars on the bench.

"This is different than any hole-in-one I've ever had before. This is amazing. Wow. This is so cool," Shipley said, per the PGA TOUR recap (opens in a new tab).

Two rookies and a must-win

The lineups were unusual on both sides. The Bay, sitting at 0-2 and facing a must-win, went with Min Woo Lee and a pair of alternates making their TGL debuts: Shipley, a former Ohio State standout, and Clanton. Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark and Shane Lowry were all inactive. Los Angeles rested Justin Rose and Collin Morikawa and played Tommy Fleetwood, in his first match of the season, alongside Sahith Theegala and alternate Tony Finau.

The opening two holes were halved. The Bay broke through at the third, "The Last Toll," a new par 3 whose green had been reached by only one player before Monday. Lee became the second, hitting a 211-yard tee shot to about nine feet. The Bay considered throwing the Hammer and held it, and Clanton rolled in the birdie putt for a 1-0 lead.

The fourth was The Bay's own Team Hole, "Bay Breaker." This time The Bay threw the Hammer, Los Angeles accepted, and The Bay won the hole for two points and a 3-0 lead.

The first ace

Then came the fifth, "Set in Stone," a 110-yard par 3 that is the shortest hole ever played at SoFi Center. Clanton made the request. Shipley hit the wedge past the flag, watched it spin back and saw it disappear. The building erupted, the rookies collided, and The Bay led 4-0.

It took a while. Across 22 regular season matches and a full postseason, nobody had made one. In its 23rd regular season match, the league finally got its ace, and it came from a player who had never swung a club in the building in competition before that night.

Shipley is not a household name yet, but golf fans have seen the former Ohio State star in big moments, as the low amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2024. Loud rooms do not seem to bother the former Buckeye. The hole itself had a pedigree too: "Set in Stone" is a Jack Nicklaus design, which gave the first ace in league history a nice bit of symmetry with the game's greatest major champion.

Los Angeles fights back

Los Angeles did not roll over. At the sixth, "Straight Up," a par 4, LA threw an early Hammer, The Bay ended up conceding the hole, and Los Angeles took two points to cut the deficit to 4-2. At the seventh, "Stinger," Fleetwood's tee shot set up another Los Angeles point, and suddenly it was 4-3.

After a halved eighth, The Bay steadied itself by winning the ninth for a 5-3 lead into Singles.

Clanton then delivered the biggest swing of the night. At the 10th, with the Hammer in play, the rookie made eagle for two points and a 7-3 lead with five holes to go.

Los Angeles kept coming. Fleetwood won the 11th, the drivable par-4 "Cut the Sails," to make it 7-4 with four holes to play. At the 12th, the par-3 "Cenote," Theegala's tee shot was good enough that Los Angeles threw the Hammer, and The Bay declined to make it 7-5.

Shipley finishes what he started

The 13th was the moment Los Angeles needed. Finau's 122-yard approach looked like it was headed into the cup before sliding past on the left, and Clanton made a 10-foot birdie to tie the hole. Los Angeles was still down two with two holes left.

At the 14th, with the Hammer in play, Shipley rolled in a 16-foot birdie for two points and a 9-5 lead that clinched the match. The Bay also won the 15th with the Hammer in play, for an 11-5 final that looks more lopsided than the night felt.

Fleetwood summed up LA's evening. "We just couldn't quite build any momentum," he said. "It felt like we were always on the back foot and any time we did something right, we couldn't quite get over that hurdle."

What it means

The Hammer story favored The Bay heavily. It won two-point holes at the fourth, 10th, 14th and 15th, eight of its 11 points in all. Los Angeles got three points out of its two Hammers, two at the sixth and one when The Bay declined at the 12th. The Bay accepted when it had to, declined when the math said so, and threw when it had the edge.

The bigger picture is that a club with only one of its regular stars in uniform beat a Los Angeles side featuring Fleetwood. Shipley and Clanton combined for the ace, the eagle at the 10th, the birdie at the third, the tying birdie at the 13th and the clinching birdie at the 14th. In a league built around marquee names, two newcomers carried the night.

Los Angeles will not feel great about the result, but there were positives. Fleetwood looked sharp in his first appearance of the season, winning the hole at the seventh with his tee shot and the 11th in Singles. "It was great being back with the boys," he said, crediting Finau for getting the crowd going. The problem was timing. Every time LA closed the gap, The Bay had a Hammer answer, and LA's own big swing, at the sixth, came early in the night rather than at the end, when it could have flipped the result.

There was more good news for TGL players on the PGA TOUR, too. Chris Gotterup, who has been filling in for Atlanta, won the WM Phoenix Open the day before, making it two straight weeks a TGL player won on Tour after Rose took the Farmers Insurance Open. Gotterup credited a little TGL for helping him hit shots under pressure.

Standings and next

The Bay improved to 1-2 and moved back into the postseason mix with two regular season matches left. Los Angeles fell to 1-2. Boston Common leads at 2-0, Atlanta is 2-1, New York is 1-1, and Jupiter, Los Angeles and The Bay are all 1-2. With the top four making the playoffs, half the league is bunched within one result of each other.

TGL takes a two-week break and returns with doubleheaders. On Monday, Feb. 23, Atlanta faces Boston Common at 5 p.m. ET before Los Angeles meets Atlanta at 9 p.m. ET. The Bay is back Tuesday, Feb. 24, against New York at 5 p.m. ET.

The Bay's previous loss, 9-1 to Boston Common, and Los Angeles' last win, 8-4 over Jupiter Links on Rose's albatross, are recapped on Undrafted. The official match page is on tglgolf.com (opens in a new tab).

Sources: TGL, PGA TOUR, ESPN, Field Level Media. More TGL coverage on Undrafted.

Two weeks after Rose made TGL's first albatross, a rookie made its first ace. The league keeps finding new ways to make history.

Photo: TGL.