Alexis Thompson watches her tee shot on the 13th hole during round one of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club on June 28, 2007And while she didn’t play the weekend that year in North Carolina, little did the golf world know just who that kid would become one day.
Now, seventeen years after that life-changing moment and still wearing those ladybug earrings, Lexi is an 11-time LPGA Tour winner, a major champion, a two-time Olympian, a six-time U.S. Solheim Cup team member and one of the most recognizable faces in golf.
And she announced on Tuesday morning that this will be her last year competing on the LPGA Tour, as she plans to retire from professional golf at the conclusion of the 2024 season.
In a lot of ways, Lexi is one of one. Fans have had a front-row seat to her every triumph, heartbreak, struggle and success since she burst onto the golf scene all those years ago. She was one of golf’s original teenage superstars, a wunderkind that adults and kids alike gravitated towards as Thompson was someone they wanted to root for, someone they identified with.
She has carried the mantle of women’s golf forward, never considering it a burden but rather a privilege to do so. It’s the littlest of things that Lexi has done that make the most lasting of impacts – signing every hat, glove, flag and ball handed to her over the last nearly two decades and always entertaining the requests of every person at autograph alley no matter how good or bad she plays. Funny enough, she still signs as Alexis Thompson, not Lexi, an autograph that she’s stuck with since that first U.S. Women’s Open all those years ago.
Her love and respect for her fans was something that Lexi’s mother instilled in her from a very young age, often telling her that it was almost her duty to make at least one person’s day better every time she left the house. And that has driven Thompson throughout her entire career, particularly as she’s pushed boundaries in the golf space. Lexi is well aware of the platform that her LPGA Tour success has afforded her and leverages every opportunity she has to serve as a role model for those around her.
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