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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Author
Lexi Thompson, one of many greatest stars in girls’s skilled golf over the previous 15 years, introduced Tuesday that this might be her ultimate 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 might 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 wish to accomplish.
“I am wanting ahead to the subsequent chapter of my life. Time with household, pals, and my trusted companion Leo. I’ll at all times search for methods to contribute to the game and encourage the subsequent era of golfers. And naturally, I sit up for slightly 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. Ladies’s Open.
Thompson, a onetime baby prodigy, might be making her twenty eighth straight begin within the U.S. Ladies’s Open. She was the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Ladies’s Open — doing it as a 12-year-old at Pine Needles in 2007 — and he or she made the lower 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. crew 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 Basic in September 2011. A 15-time winner all over the world, 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 Ladies’s British Open to “recharge her batteries” and give attention to her life off the course. She has lately handled a lingering hand harm and missed the lower in 4 of her six begins this season. She is sixty fourth within the tour’s season-long factors race.
“Though this has been a tremendous journey, it hasn’t at all times been a simple one,” Thompson stated in her video. “Since I used to be 12, as a golfer, my life has been a whirlwind of fixed consideration, scrutiny and stress. The cameras are at all times 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 all over the world.
“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 capable of 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 assist is an indication of energy, not weak point.”
One in all one. 🌟
Lexi Thompson has introduced she might be retiring on the finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season. pic.twitter.com/TctyYr5xy2
— LPGA (@LPGA) May 28, 2024
Thompson got here painfully near including to her main whole, 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 Ladies’s PGA Championship at Congressional Nation Membership in Bethesda, Maryland.
“She’s had such a tremendous profession,” LPGA star Nelly Korda stated Tuesday. “I’ve gotten to be on the crew together with her a pair occasions representing our nation. I feel she does a tremendous 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 a tremendous profession, and I want her one of the best on this new chapter of her life.”
Final season, Thompson turned the seventh girl 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 girl to interrupt 70 in a PGA Tour occasion. With a 36-hole whole of even-par 142, Thompson practically turned the primary girl in 80 years to make the lower in a PGA Tour occasion.
“Lexi’s influence extends far past the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan stated in a statement posted to X. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders — at all times exhibiting up and interesting deliberately to assist additional the expansion and influence of the LPGA. She is beloved by followers, constantly seen signing autographs and interacting with them irrespective of the consequence that day.
“… On behalf of the LPGA, I wish to thank Lexi for her unbelievable contributions to our Tour and to girls’s golf. We want her all one of the best in her subsequent chapter, and we, together with the followers, sit up for watching her compete and celebrating her all through the remainder of the season.”
