Lexi Thompson introduced Tuesday that this LPGA season will probably be her final as a full-time competitor.
The stunning announcement got here on the eve of the U.S. Ladies’s Open, the place the one-time little one prodigy is now making her 18th consecutive look.
“Golf has been my life ever since I used to be 5 years outdated. I haven’t recognized a lot of a life totally different, however it’s been a tremendous one,” Thompson stated in a information convention at Lancaster Nation Membership. “This sport has taught me lots, and I’ve discovered a lot alongside the best way, constructed so many friendships and relationships. I’m wanting ahead to what life has in retailer.”
Thompson, who turns 30 subsequent 12 months, has been one of many headliners within the girls’s recreation ever since she burst onto the scene as a tall, highly effective teenager and prodigious expertise.
After turning skilled in 2010, Thompson set what was then a file for the youngest winner of an LPGA occasion, when she captured the 2011 Navistar Traditional on the age of 16. After the LPGA rewrote its age-requirement guidelines to grant her full membership, she gained three occasions within the subsequent two years, together with the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now known as the Chevron Championship) for her lone main title.
In all, Thompson has gained 11 occasions on tour, although not since 2019.
“She’s had such a tremendous profession,” stated world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who has performed on three Solheim Cup groups with Thompson. “It’s unhappy to see that she’s clearly leaving and never going to be out right here with us anymore, however she’s had a tremendous profession, and I want her the perfect on this new chapter of her life.”
Thompson, in her 14th full season on tour, stated she contemplated stepping away through the previous few years however the timing was by no means proper. When requested why she was making the choice to retire now, she stated there wasn’t one overriding issue – it’s simply the place she is in her life and profession. She additionally didn’t rule out enjoying a restricted variety of occasions shifting ahead, including that she’s taking it “day-to-day proper now.”
“There’s extra issues to life than going to a event each week and doing the identical coaching daily,” she stated. “There’s simply extra to it, and I’m wanting ahead to experiencing that. I really feel like I’m very content material with the place my life is and the place this determination will lead me to. I’m simply wanting ahead to what life has in retailer apart from golf.”
As the subsequent wave of gamers started to dominate the LPGA, Thompson turned often called a lot for her shut calls as her daring, aggressive model of play. With eight profession top-3s in majors, she surrendered leads at each the 2019 and 2021 U.S. Ladies’s Open, the latter after taking a five-shot lead on the again 9 on Sunday. In 2017, whereas in place to win her second main championship, she was penalized 4 strokes for incorrectly changing her ball on the inexperienced and ultimately misplaced in a playoff at Mission Hills. Later that 12 months, she missed a 2-foot putt on the ultimate inexperienced to lose the LPGA’s season-ending title.
A six-time Solheim Cup participant and two-time U.S. Olympian, the big-hitting Thompson remained a fixture within the prime 10 of the Rolex Rankings all through the 2010s.
Thompson’s efficiency has slipped in recent times, nonetheless, and in 2023 she was at risk of dropping her LPGA card earlier than a late-season rally. This 12 months, she is ranked sixty fourth within the season-long standings and has 4 missed cuts in six begins whereas coping with a lingering hand damage.
At one level in her retirement press convention, Thompson turned emotional when reflecting on among the challenges in her profession.
“Lots of people don’t understand a whole lot of what we undergo as an expert athlete,” she stated, wiping away tears. “I’ll be the final one to say, like, throw me a pity get together. That’s the very last thing I need. We’re doing what we love. We’re making an attempt our greatest each single day. We’re not good. We’re human. Phrases harm. It’s laborious to beat typically. However having the individuals round you that love you and help you, that’s been the most important factor for me. I won’t have an enormous buddy group, however to have the folks that matter essentially the most round me have gotten me by way of some actually laborious occasions.
“Lots of people don’t know what we undergo – the quantity of coaching and laborious work that we put ourselves by way of, it’s lots. We deserve much more credit score than what we get.”
Having grown weary of the fixed consideration, scrutiny and stress over the previous decade, Thompson took a break from golf in 2018, and in recent times she has prioritized her psychological well being. When she turned the seventh lady to play in a PGA Tour occasion final fall, on the Shriners Youngsters’s Open, Thompson, a well-liked determine on social media, stated her lasting objective was to encourage younger women.
“Whereas these achievements are exceptional in and of themselves, Lexi’s impression extends far past the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan stated. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders – all the time exhibiting up and interesting deliberately to assist additional the expansion and impression of the LPGA. She is beloved by followers, constantly seen signing autographs and interacting with them regardless of the consequence that day. … Lexi’s exceptional profession and the best way she has performed herself each on and off the course have impressed numerous women around the globe to pursue their targets with ardour and perseverance.”
