Motor City Golf, led by pregnant Lexi Thompson, cruises in WTGL debut
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PALM BEACH GARDENS — Motor City Golf Club brought out the stars for its WTGL debut.
Team owner Michael Hemp. Motor City TGL players Brooks Koepka and Bud Cauley. Former LPGA stars Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon and Karrie Webb, all of them Hall of Famers.
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But the star power was on the floor of SoFi Center.
World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul, Ronni Yin and Lexi Thompson made easy work of Los Angeles Golf Club, clinching its 8-3 victory with four holes remaining. Motor City lead 7-0 after nine holes.
"We just have good vibes … and we are making everything," Ronni Yin said during the match.
The beatdown was so decisive that LA made sure it celebrated finally winning a hole, No. 11.
"We're going to win a hole," Michelle Wie West said excitedly.
LA did their celebrating two days earlier on opening day, winning the inaugural WTGL match, 3-1, over New York Golf Club.
"It's nice to come together as a team and play a different format and give the fans also an insight of our personalities," Thompson said. "A lot of people just see us as golfers. They don't really get to know us that well besides our interactions through social media, our interviews.
"It's nice to have a little bit more of a relaxed setting and a different format."
Pregnant Lexi Thompson says she has a 'little mascot' inside her
All three Motor City players contributed.
Thitikul shook of any jet lag from traveling 20 hours from Japan the day before the match and made a 6-footer on No. 4 to save a possible two points after LA threw the Hammer ("Easy peasy," she said after the putt), and drained an 8-footer on No. 10 to halve her singles match against Wie West that clinched the match.
When Thitikul missed a 23-footer by four inches on No. 13, Wie West said: "She's human."
Thitikul, the Thailand native, arrived in Miami 24 hours before her match and immediately drove to northern Palm Beach County. She fought jet lag when she arrived at SoFi Center Tuesday afternoon to practice.
"I definitely had jet lag a little bit during the practice time in the middle of the day," Thitikul said. "When I jumped in the car driving here (for the match) I didn't feel any jet lag. I feel the nerves more than jet lag.
"The energy was too high for me to be jet lagged."
Yin made a 12-footer on No. 7 after Motor City doubled the hole's value by throwing the Hammer to give her team a 5-0 lead. Her 6-foot putt on No. 8 halved the hole.
Thompson, the Delray Beach resident who is six-months pregnant, holed a 15-footer on No. 5 to give Motor City a 3-0 lead before her 6-footer on the next hole tied the hole.
"To have a little team member in me, a little mascot, a little extra support … " Thompson said. "It's a blessing to play this sport for a living, be on center stage and (show) women out there pregnancy doesn't stop me and to follow your dreams pregnant or not."
Motor City's success on the greens was mainly responsible for pulling the team through this match. The slick surface and unfamiliar lighting have made the greens tricky for the men through the the first two years of TGL.
And LA and New York found saw the difficulty in their first match Sunday.
Motor City, though, turned the greens into their own putt-putt playground.
"It's definitely a tricky green," Thompson said. "The big slope on it. There's a lot of little subtle breaks as well right around the hole. As a team we picked our reads."
Said Thitikul: "We had the best caddie, Ronni. She read all the putts."
And the entire team made them all.
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Motor City Golf, led by pregnant Lexi Thompson, cruises in WTGL debut