Lexi Thompson, one of many greatest stars in girls’s skilled golf over the previous 15 years, introduced Tuesday that this can be her closing season competing full time on the LPGA Tour.
“Whereas it’s by no means straightforward to say goodbye, it’s certainly time,” Thompson posted to Instagram. “On the finish of 2024, I can be stepping away from a full skilled golf schedule. I am excited to benefit from the the rest of the 12 months as there are nonetheless targets I need to accomplish.
“I am wanting ahead to the subsequent chapter of my life. Time with household, associates, and my trusted companion Leo. I’ll all the time search for methods to contribute to the game and encourage the subsequent era of golfers. And naturally, I look ahead to a little bit time for myself.”
Thompson, 29, is predicted to deal with the media Tuesday at Lancaster Nation Membership in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the positioning of this week’s U.S. Girls’s Open.
Thompson, a onetime little one prodigy, can be making her 18th straight begin within the U.S. Girls’s Open. She was the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Girls’s Open — doing it as a 12-year-old at Pine Needles in 2007 — and she or he made the minimize within the main as a 14-year-old in 2009.
She additionally received the U.S. Ladies’ Junior Championship in 2008 and compiled a 4-0-1 file for the U.S. workforce on the Curtis Cup in 2010.
Thompson, from Coral Springs, Florida, turned professional in 2010 and captured the primary of her 11 LPGA victories on the Navistar LPGA Traditional in September 2011. A 15-time winner around the globe, Thompson’s lone main championship victory got here on the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Nation Membership in Rancho Mirage, California.
In her video “letter I wrote to the sport of golf” that she posted to Instagram, Thompson described her relationship with the game as “difficult at occasions.”
She pulled out of the 2018 Girls’s British Open to “recharge her batteries” and deal with her life off the course. She has not too long ago handled a lingering hand damage and missed the minimize in 4 of her six begins this season. She is sixty fourth within the tour’s season-long factors race.
“Though this has been an incredible journey, it hasn’t all the time been a straightforward one,” Thompson mentioned in her video. “Since I used to be 12, as a golfer, my life has been a whirlwind of fixed consideration, scrutiny and strain. The cameras are all the time on, capturing each swing and each second on and off the golf course. Social media by no means sleeps, with feedback and criticisms flooding in from around the globe.
“It may be exhausting sustaining a smile on the skin whereas grappling with struggles on the within. By opening up about my battles, I have been in a position to join with others who really feel remoted of their struggles, providing them a way of group and understanding. Every time I share, it reinforces the message that it is OK to not be OK, and that searching for help is an indication of power, not weak spot.”
Certainly one of one. 🌟
Lexi Thompson has introduced she can be retiring on the finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season. pic.twitter.com/TctyYr5xy2
— LPGA (@LPGA) Might 28, 2024
Thompson got here painfully near including to her main complete, ending runner-up or third eight occasions in her 63 main begins. She had 19 top-10 finishes and 35 prime 25s, together with a tie for second within the 2022 Girls’s PGA Championship at Congressional Nation Membership in Bethesda, Maryland.
“She’s had such an incredible profession,” LPGA star Nelly Korda mentioned Tuesday. “I’ve gotten to be on the workforce together with her a pair occasions representing our nation. I believe she does an incredible job for the Tour. She spends a lot time going to every pro-am occasion. She actually devoted her time to rising the sport.
“It is unhappy to see that she’s clearly leaving and never going to be out right here with us anymore, however she’s had an incredible profession, and I want her the very best on this new chapter of her life.”
Final season, Thompson grew to become the seventh lady to compete on the PGA Tour on the Shriners Kids’s Open in Las Vegas. She posted a 2-under 69 within the second spherical to change into the second lady to interrupt 70 in a PGA Tour occasion. With a 36-hole complete of even-par 142, Thompson almost grew to become the primary lady in 80 years to make the minimize in a PGA Tour occasion.
“Lexi’s influence extends far past the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan mentioned in a assertion posted to X. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders — all the time exhibiting up and fascinating deliberately to assist additional the expansion and influence of the LPGA. She is beloved by followers, constantly seen signing autographs and interacting with them regardless of the outcome that day.
“… On behalf of the LPGA, I need to thank Lexi for her unimaginable contributions to our Tour and to girls’s golf. We want her all the very best in her subsequent chapter, and we, together with the followers, look ahead to watching her compete and celebrating her all through the remainder of the season.”
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