Six Months Pregnant, Lexi Thompson Leads Motor City Into Its WTGL Debut Against Los Angeles

Lexi Thompson has played in Solheim Cups, Olympics and majors. Tuesday night brings something new: a simulator bay, a shot clock, prime-time TV in Palm Beach Gardens, and a baby due in February.

Motor City Golf Club makes its WTGL debut against Los Angeles Golf Club on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. ET on ION from SoFi Center, per the official WTGL preview (opens in a new tab). Thompson is in the starting three alongside Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning "Ronni" Yin, and the 11-time LPGA champion will tee it up about six months pregnant, according to The Palm Beach Post (opens in a new tab).

Playing for More Than a Point

Thompson is expecting her first child in February, per the Post, and she made it clear the decision to play was about the message as much as the match. "I just want to show women being pregnant doesn't stop you," Thompson told the Post.

She isn't sure how many of Motor City's matches she will play, according to the Post, and Tuesday could be the only one. "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," Thompson said.

There is precedent close to home. Thompson pointed to Madelene Sagstrom, who played the Dow Championship at 27 weeks pregnant and tied for ninth, per the Post. Thompson stepped back from a full LPGA schedule after 2024 but never really left, making nine LPGA starts this season, the last in Arkansas in late September, and earning more than $884,000 since the so-called retirement.

Detroit's Super Team on Paper

Motor City is the first new franchise since TGL launched in January 2025, per the WTGL. It is the seventh club in the men's league and the fourth in WTGL, under the same ownership group, which includes Michael Hamp, Peter Hamp, Kevin Kelleher, Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton and former Rocket Companies CEO Jay Farner, according to WXYZ Detroit (opens in a new tab). Michael Hamp pitched it as a club for everyone who loves the city and loves golf.

The roster backs up the swagger. Thompson, Thitikul, Yin, Brooke Henderson and Albane Valenzuela make up the five, and when Golf Digest's Keith Stewart ranked the five WTGL teams in September, Motor City landed at No. 1 (opens in a new tab), with three players then inside the top 11 of the Rolex Rankings. Thitikul alone carries a résumé most teams would build around. When TMRW Sports announced its first WTGL signings in January, the PGA TOUR noted that Thitikul had been world No. 1 since August 2025, swept the 2025 Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy, and won back-to-back CME Group Tour Championships.

The one red flag Stewart raised was timing, since Motor City's first two matches land during important LPGA weeks. Henderson and Valenzuela sit out Tuesday's lineup.

Los Angeles Already Knows the Room

Los Angeles has the edge that matters most in a new league: reps. L.A. beat New York 3-1 in Sunday's opener behind Michelle Wie West, Alison Lee and Gaby López, the first win in league history, and the WTGL preview points to that SoFi Center experience as a factor in triples.

Wie West stays in the lineup, with Aki Iwai and Kiara Romero rotating in. That is a bet on youth. Romero, described by the WTGL as the No. 1 amateur in 2025, is 20 years old with eight LPGA starts, per Golf Digest, which ranked Los Angeles fifth of five before the season. That ranking already looked shaky after Sunday, and a second win would make it look a lot older.

The Matchups

The format mirrors TGL. Each match is 15 holes, with nine holes of alternate-shot triples followed by six holes of head-to-head singles. Every hole is worth a point, and each team carries three Hammers, which raise the stakes of a hole by a point if the opponent accepts or hand over the hole if they decline, per the WTGL.

The singles card is loaded. Thitikul faces Wie West on Caverns and Lavender Lane. Yin draws Iwai on Loot on the Line and Cenote. In the anchor match, Thompson takes on Romero on SOS and Stone & Steeple, a pairing of two of the longest hitters on the floor, per the preview.

Keep an eye on Craic On, the hole the league chose to spotlight. A new tee box asks players to thread a 144-yard shot through an opening in a castle wall that is 22 feet wide at its widest point. In a room built for highlight shots, that one is designed to produce a few, good and bad.

What's at Stake

Each team plays four regular-season matches before the playoffs begin Dec. 20, per the WTGL, so one result swings a lot. Los Angeles can move to 2-0 and put real distance between itself and the field. Motor City can announce itself as the favorite the preseason rankings said it was.

The bigger story will outlast the scoreboard. A pregnant major champion choosing to play on prime-time TV, in a league built to put women's golf in front of new audiences, is exactly the kind of moment WTGL was designed for. Thompson said as much. The points just make it a competition.

Sources: WTGL, The Palm Beach Post, Golf Digest, PGA TOUR, WXYZ Detroit. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo Credit: PGA TOUR.