What to know ahead of the inaugural WTGL season

The best women golfers in the world are taking their game indoors in the inaugural Women's Team Golf League season, which tees off Sunday at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Los Angeles Golf Club will face New York Golf Club in the first match Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). New York's Rose Zhang will take the first swing in WTGL history.

Motor City Golf Club takes on Los Angeles Golf Club on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, ION).

"It was a no-brainer for me to be a part of the WTGL," said 11-time LPGA Tour winner Lexi Thompson, who plays for Motor City. "Any chance that we're able to be able to grow the women's game, I think it's our highest priority. But I think it's something so different than our usual golf tournaments, our day-to-day rounds, and I think that's what golf needs.

"It needs something a little bit different. Being able to see our personalities, how we interact with each other, not just the super-focused rounds that we're playing week in, week out."

The five WTGL teams will play a round-robin schedule and the top four will advance to the playoffs. Each team consists of five golfers; only three will compete in a match.

New holes were added to the virtual course for WTGL, including a par 3 that was designed by 10-time major champion Annika Sörenstam, which pays homage to her Swedish roots. The hole features a Swedish warship that sank in Stockholm Harbor on its maiden voyage in 1628.

There's a new "Showtime" hole that features L.A.'s most famous sights, and "Belle of the Ball" is set on Belle Isle in the Detroit River.

Thompson's playing partner

Lexi Thompson stepped away from full-time golf on the LPGA Tour in 2024. She made only nine starts this year, her last one coming in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in late September.

Thompson, 31, announced in August that she and her husband, Max Provost, are expecting their first child, a girl, in February.

"It's definitely a little bit different, but I just want to show women being pregnant doesn't stop you," Thompson said. "You can still achieve what you want. Of course, it might slow you down towards the end a little bit, but you want to just take the time for yourself and your upcoming family and your growing family.

"But yeah, I'll see how big I am come November, December. We'll see how this works. We'll see if she sticks with me throughout the team."

How the matches will work

The 15-hole matches will be split into two sessions: nine holes of alternate shot and six holes of singles. Three players from each team will hit alternate shots in the first nine holes. In the final six, the golfers will compete head-to-head, with each golfer playing two full holes during the session.

Each hole is worth one point and there are no carryovers. If the two teams are tied at the end of regulation, an overtime determines the winner. WTGL's overtime period is similar to a penalty shootout in soccer. Three golfers from each squad will compete in a best-of-three, closest to the pin competition until a team successfully hits two shots closer than its competitors.

The golfers will play the overtime period on the 15th hole, which will remain unchanged from regulation. The shot will be played from between 25 and 50 yards, and the on-course official will determine the pin location and distance before the match. A ball must land on the putting surface to be eligible.

Every match will consist of 15 holes -- even if the outcome has been decided. Tiebreakers in the season-long standings will be determined by the total number of holes won during the regular season.

There's a shot clock and timeouts

There won't be any slow play in WTGL -- it's designed to be fast and entertaining.

Each match will feature a shot clock that displays a countdown of 40 seconds. Players must hit their shot within the allotted time frame or their team receives a shot clock violation and incurs a one-stroke penalty. The 40-second time frame is based on the United States Golf Association's recommendation on pace of play.

When the shot clock hits 15 seconds, a heartbeat sound pulses in SoFi Center.

"Our beat is kind of wild," Michelle Wie West said. "I'm generally a really fast player and I never want to think about the clock and then when the heartbeat comes on, it kind of throws me off. I never thought I'd be in that situation, but that timer goes really fast, and once it gets faster, it's kind of fun."

Each team has four timeouts per match, two timeouts in each of the two sessions. Unused timeouts during the first session do not carry over to the second session. For the team that is playing its shot, timeouts may be called at any point until the shot clock expires. The opposing team may call a timeout until the other team's player has addressed the ball. A team cannot call back-to-back timeouts while on the current shot.

A referee will be on the course to enforce WTGL's rules and regulations, and another official monitors the action from a booth.

There's still a hammer

WTGL golfers will be allowed to throw the hammer, which increases the value of a hole by one point. The team on the receiving end can either accept it or decline, which is sort of like turning down a press during a Saturday morning match. If a team turns down the hammer, it concedes and loses the hole.

Each WTGL team can use three hammers per match, but it can use more than one on each hole. A team can throw the hammer -- which is actually an orange towel -- before a player addresses the ball on any shot. If a team throws the hammer before a player hits her drive, the opposing team can't decline.

There's a caddie (sort of)

WTGL golfers will be allowed to use a digital caddie, which is a 50-inch touchscreen yardage book, which reveals distances, penalty areas, wind, green topography and elevation changes on each hole.

TGL says the interactive app, custom built by Full Swing, "allows players to use a number of quick, user-friendly tools to research their next shot, set their target, and get a preview of what they will see on the hitting screen when they step up to hit their shot."

The digital caddie is another way to ensure that the pace of play is lightning fast.

The teams

Atlanta Drive GC

Nataliya Guseva
Charley Hull
Andrea Lee
Minjee Lee
Yuka Saso

Boston Common Golf

Celine Boutier
Chizzy Iwai
Megan Khang
Lottie Woad
Ina Yoon

Los Angeles Golf Club

Aki Iwai
Alison Lee
Gaby López
Kiara Romero
Michelle Wie West

Motor City Golf Club

Brooke Henderson
Jeeno Thitikul
Lexi Thompson
Ruoning Yin
Albane Valenzuela

New York Golf Club

Linn Grant
Danielle Kang
Lydia Ko
Yana Wilson
Rose Zhang

The schedule

Sunday: Los Angeles Golf Club vs. New York Golf Club (3 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+)
Tuesday: Motor City Golf Club vs. Los Angeles Golf Club (8 p.m. ET, ION)
Monday, Nov. 16: Boston Common Golf vs. Motor City Golf Club (8 p.m. ET, ION)
Tuesday, Nov. 24: Atlanta Drive GC vs. Boston Common Golf (8 p.m. ET, ION)
Sunday, Nov. 29: Boston Common Golf vs. New York Golf Club (1 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+)
Sunday, Nov. 29: Motor City Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+)
Tuesday, Dec. 1: New York Golf Club vs. Motor City Golf Club (8 p.m. ET, ION)
Sunday, Dec. 6: Atlanta Drive GC vs. Los Angeles Golf Club (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+)
Tuesday, Dec. 8: New York Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC (8 p.m. ET, ION)
Tuesday, Dec. 15: Los Angeles Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf (8 p.m. ET, ION)

The playoffs

Semifinals match 1: Sunday, Dec. 20 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+)
Semifinals match 2: Monday, Dec. 21 (8 p.m. ET, ION)

Finals match 1: Tuesday, Dec. 22 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+)
Finals match 2: Wednesday, Dec. 23 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+)
Finals match 3 (if necessary): Wednesday, Dec. 23 (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+)