{"id":59221,"date":"2026-09-01T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59221\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:00:09","slug":"minjee-lee-among-stars-unveiled-as-wtgl-announces-five-founding-team-rosters-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59221\/","title":{"rendered":"Minjee Lee among stars unveiled as WTGL announces five founding team rosters \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>              September 1st, 2026                <\/p>\n<p>\n                By Australian Golf Digest              <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australian major champion Minjee Lee will be among a stellar lineup of global stars featuring in WTGL, the new women\u2019s team golf league created by TMRW Sports in partnership with the LPGA, with the complete rosters for its five inaugural teams announced overnight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The five founding teams, Atlanta Drive GC, Boston Common Golf, Los Angeles Golf Club, Motor City Golf Club and New York Golf Club, bring together 25 players including World Golf Hall of Fame members, major champions, Solheim Cup winners and rising young stars. Competition begins in November at the custom-built, tech-infused SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WTGL\u2019s five founding teams are:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Atlanta Drive GC: Nataliya Guseva, Charley Hull, Andrea Lee, Minjee Lee and Yuka Saso<\/li>\n<li>Boston Common Golf: C\u00e9line Boutier, Chizzy Iwai, Megan Khang, Lottie Woad and Ina Yoon<\/li>\n<li>Los Angeles Golf Club: Aki Iwai, Alison Lee, Gaby Lopez, Kiara Romero and Michelle Wie West<\/li>\n<li>Motor City Golf Club: Brooke Henderson, Jeeno Thitikul, Lexi Thompson, Ruoning Yin and Albane Valenzuela<\/li>\n<li>New York Golf Club: Linn Grant, Danielle Kang, Lydia Ko, Yana Wilson and Rose Zhang<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lee, a three-time major champion, will represent Atlanta Drive GC, where she\u2019ll be joined by World No.7 Charley Hull, Nataliya Guseva, Andrea Lee and fellow major winner Yuka Saso. Her younger brother, Min Woo Lee, plays for The Bay Golf Club in TGL, the men\u2019s version of the competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI watched my brother, Min Woo, compete in TGL and saw how much he enjoyed the team environment and the atmosphere at SoFi Center,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWTGL is an exciting opportunity to bring that same energy to women\u2019s golf and I am looking forward to experiencing it myself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAtlanta Drive GC has built a winning culture in TGL having already won a championship and I am excited to represent the team in WTGL. Charley, Yuka, Nataliya and Andrea bring different strengths and personalities and I think that combination will make us a very competitive, but also very fun and entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/wtgl-team-roster-reveal-nelly-korda-charley-hull-jeeno-thitikul-michell-wie\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"151706\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WTGL rosters unveiled: What you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rufus Hack, President, Golf at TMRW Sports, said the league would give fans a new way to connect with the players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWTGL will combine teams of world-class LPGA Tour stars with the energy of fans inside SoFi Center to create a thrilling new experience for women\u2019s golf,\u201d Hack said. \u201cThe five teams will go head-to-head throughout November and December, creating a consistent spotlight for women\u2019s team golf and giving fans a new way to see the players\u2019 personalities, competitive instincts and decision-making as teammates. With the rosters now set, the teams\u2019 identities and rivalries can begin to take shape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 25 players announced for WTGL have a combined 112 LPGA Tour victories and 15 major championships and include eight of the top 15 players in the Rolex Women\u2019s World Golf Rankings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thailand\u2019s Jeeno Thitikul, who will represent Motor City Golf Club alongside China\u2019s Ruoning Yin, Canada\u2019s Brooke Henderson, American Lexi Thompson and Switzerland\u2019s Albane Valenzuela, said the format offers a fresh way to introduce the sport to new fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m very excited to be part of the inaugural season of WTGL,\u201d Thitikul said. \u201cThe team format, fast pace and technology can introduce golf to a new generation of fans while giving them a fresh way to see our personalities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have always enjoyed playing in Michigan and I love the mix of talent and personalities on our team. I\u2019m especially excited to play with Ruoning again. We won a team event together in Michigan in 2024, so we already know how to have fun and compete together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand\u2019s Lydia Ko, representing New York Golf Club alongside Danielle Kang, Rose Zhang, Linn Grant and Yana Wilson, echoed that enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am excited to be part of WTGL and help launch something new for women\u2019s golf,\u201d Ko said. \u201cThe team format, technology and energy at SoFi Center will challenge us in a different way and give fans another way to connect with the players and the LPGA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDanielle and I have been close friends for a long time and we have always enjoyed competing together in team events alongside Rose, Linn and Yana. To represent New York Golf Club together will make the inaugural season even more special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WTGL features five teams competing in a round-robin regular season, where every match carries postseason implications, building to the playoffs: single-elimination semifinals and a best-of-three final. Each team is built on a balanced five-player roster, with three players from each team competing in every match, putting a premium on strategy and lineup decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The competition was purpose-built to showcase the power, precision and strategic decision-making of the world\u2019s best women golfers, with LPGA performance data informing hole distances and design elements to create a variety of shot shapes and risk-reward decisions. The fast-paced format combines mic\u2019d-up access, strategic use of the Hammer, shot-clock pressure and real-time performance data, with matches lasting approximately two hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 1st, 2026 By Australian Golf Digest Australian major champion Minjee Lee will be among a stellar lineup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22031,44,1777,5318,1779,5638,7216,21969],"class_list":["post-59221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-atlanta-drive-gc","tag-golf","tag-jeeno-thitikul","tag-lpga","tag-lydia-ko","tag-minjee-lee","tag-tgl","tag-wtgl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}