Major winner Lexi Thompson to retire at 29 after rollercoaster career

 

Lexi Thompson is retiring this year from full-time competition, ending a career defined by her powerful game, appeal to young fans and plenty of star-crossed moments in majors.

Thompson will this week play in her 18th US Women’s Open, and the fact she is only 29 speaks to a career that began at such a young age.

Thompson was 12 when she qualified for the 2007 US Women’s Open at Pine Needles, at the time she was the youngest ever to qualify for the event. She also set an LPGA Tour record as the youngest winner when she captured the Navistar LPGA Classic at the age of 16.

Both records since have been broken.

Thompson won 15 times on the LPGA Tour, but claimed only one major, at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2014, when she was 19. She was a runner-up in four other majors, most notably when she was penalized four shots in the final round of the 2017 Kraft Nabisco for a rules violation the day before. She also lost a five-shot lead at The Olympic Club in the 2021 US Women’s Open.

She grew up playing with her brothers, two of whom reached the PGA Tour, and was renowned for her power. Thompson accepted an exemption last year to play the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, where she threatened to make the cut until fading.

For all her prodigious power, Thompson has gone nearly five years since her last LPGA victory, though she did win a Ladies European Tour event in 2022.

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