WTGL Players Are Facing the Same Shot Clock Struggles As Tiger Woods

The first season of WTGL is underway, and the women are running into the same problem the men faced when TGL launched: the 40-second shot clock.

Tiger Woods found out the hard way in January 2025. During a match against Boston Common Golf, Woods was standing over an eight-foot birdie putt against Rory McIlroy when the clock expired. The one-stroke penalty cost him the hole and marked the first shot clock violation in TGL history.

Now the women are getting their first taste of the faster format. Following WTGL's opening match, Gaby López spoke with Kate Pettersen about how quickly everything moved.

"I feel that it went by so fast," López said. "Like once you start, all of a sudden you're in the ninth hole and we still have three hammers left, right or two hammers left."

The pace also leaves little room for indecision. Players have 40 seconds to assess their lie, determine a distance, select a club and hit the shot. Each team gets two 20-second timeouts per session, something López expects to become particularly useful.

"Sometimes you're in the rough and you don't know what to hit or how far is it going to be," López said.

It's the kind of situation that might warrant a longer discussion during a traditional tournament round. In WTGL, players have to make that decision before the clock reaches zero or use one of their limited timeouts.

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