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<\/p>\nThe first time Gaby Lopez met Michelle Wie West was 10 years ago at the ANA Inspiration. And let\u2019s just say it was, well, awkward.<\/p>\n
Lopez was a 22-year-old LPGA rookie playing in a pairing with the most recognizable player in women\u2019s golf. Following in the gallery was Lopez\u2019s mom, Gabriela Burton, who was so proud of her daughter playing in the major\u2014now known as the Chevron Championship\u2014that she cheered loudly and used a hand-clapper in the gallery.<\/p>\n
At one point, Wie West approached Lopez to ask a favor: Could her mom stop using the noisemaker? Lopez happily complied. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a rookie and she\u2019s an all-time star on the LPGA, so we started with the wrong foot there,\u201d Lopez recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018Mom, you\u2019ve got to quit. And then she did.\u2019 She was distracting me from actually playing and competing and it was a major.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez can laugh about it now, and she and Wie West are friends. It\u2019s still a faux pau to bring clappers to a regular golf tournament, but not the new golf event that Lopez and Wie West are helping launch.<\/p>\n
The WTGL, a partnership between the LPGA and TMRW Sports, begins its inaugural season on Sunday, the opening match pitting the Los Angeles Golf Club against the New York Golf Golf at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN. The goal, of course is to following the footsteps of the two-year-old TGL in trying to attract new golf fans and younger fans.<\/p>\n
Wie West and Lopez are teammates on the L.A. squad, playing along side Alison Lee. Their opponents for New York include a lineup of Lydia Ko, Rose Zhang and Linn Grant. Zhang is set to hit the first shot in league history. Aki Iwai\u2014who is playing in the Toto Japan Classic this week\u2014and Kiara Romero round out the LAGC team and will play in other matches that run through December.<\/p>\n
All WTGL matches will be held in SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., an arena with a capacity for roughly 2,000 fans. Lopez\u2019s mom will be one of those fans, and maybe she\u2019ll have that clapper with her. Again, for this kind of golf, it would be welcomed.<\/p>\n
For Year 1, the WGTL will have five teams\u2014LAGC, NYGC, Atlanta Drive, Boston Common and Motor City\u2014each with five players. Three golfers play for a team during a match, the format mirroring the TGL in having team alternate shot and individual head-to-head matches over the course of 15 holes. Also mirroring the TGL is the atmosphere in the arena, where bright lights and walk-up music will be omnipresent while players are mic\u2019d up and encouraged to bring the noise themselves.<\/p>\n
Being mic\u2019d up during play is surprisingly a first for Wie West, who is coming out of competitive retirement to play in the WTGL. She\u2019s looking forward to the return, particularly the fact that her husband, Jonnie, and their two children will be in attendance. Her daughter, 6-year-old Makenna, is already a fan of the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s so excited. I took her to a TGL match last season. and she didn\u2019t want to leave,\u201d said Wie West, who is a part-owner of the TGL\u2019s LAGC. \u201cI had to take her home a little bit earlier, but she was obsessed. I took her out on the field, and they\u2019re warming up, and she was in awe of all of it. I think that\u2019s a really fun experience for in-person and also on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always keep it on at the house. But in person, there\u2019s music playing and it\u2019s so different from a normal golf tournament. For kids, it could not be a super fun experience for them because they have to stay still and they have to be quiet. Here, they\u2019re encouraged to dance along, sing along, yell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four of the top 10 women in the world are on rosters, with World No. 1 Nelly Korda being the most notable pro not in the WTGL. Korda hoped the WTGL would join forces with the TGL\u2014started by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy\u2014and be a mixed-team format with male and female golfers. That\u2019s not the case, at least for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have mixed feelings on it if I\u2019m being very honest,\u201d Korda told Golfweek earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019m surprised no other girls have, or no one\u2019s really spoken out about it. I think it\u2019s a huge and unbelievable miss that we\u2019re not playing alongside the men. There\u2019s no greater way to grow the game, and it would have been revolutionary. It would have been the first time, I think, that men and women are on the same playing field, playing for the same exact amount of money. But I also think it\u2019s great that we are getting this opportunity, so that\u2019s my mixed feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wie West is all in for mixed-team events, too. \u201cI hope so,\u201d Wie West said. \u201cI\u2019ve been pushing for that since the beginning. So we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Players have some fun on the putting green inside the SoFi Center during WTGL media day.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old Wie West and others participated in a media day in September, but there are some league golfers who haven\u2019t tried hitting in the venue yet. LAGC owner and lead investor Alexis Ohanian went to dinner with his team the night of media day for some roster bonding and Wagyu and foie gras among other delicious food.<\/p>\n
The indoor setup is different, but Wie West thinks it will be interesting for both golfers and fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably one of the very few players to even be in the arena. It was really exciting,\u201d Wie West said. \u201cAs an investor, it\u2019s really exciting to see the players come in and be in awe of the actual technology that\u2019s in the arena. I think the screen itself, it\u2019s something that you can\u2019t explain verbally. You just have to be able to see it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the one thing that we all kind of came across afterwards was just how fun it was. We had a blast just playing against each other. Just hitting balls into the simulator. It just was so different than what we do on a daily basis. I have a different, unique perspective as well because I\u2019m not playing competitive golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wie West and others have said the lighting is a little tricky to get used to, and she\u2019s not sure if she\u2019ll wear her glasses, which correct for astigmatism, or not. Players will play the same designed holes as the men in TGL, but there will be some differences, like the tee boxes. The statistical comparisons should be cool, too.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Players are excited to see what the atmosphere will be like when the first matches are held this fall.<\/p>\n
And the microphones will always be hot. Wie West wonders how and what it will be like to talk trash with opponents, since most players are nice and friendly. Lopez is ready for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I have an opportunity, I\u2019m going to trash talk the other team,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cI have no filter. I\u2019m happy to do it. We\u2019ve known them for a long time, so I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be fine, and I\u2019m expecting them to trash talk to us as well. We know that this is a different environment. I\u2019m really hoping they do it because we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And maybe her mom will join in with that clapper.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time Gaby Lopez met Michelle Wie West was 10 years ago at the ANA Inspiration. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,1379,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":["post-955004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}