Lexi Thompson, one of many largest stars in girls’s skilled golf over the previous 15 years, introduced Tuesday that this will likely be her remaining season competing full time on the LPGA Tour.
“Whereas it’s by no means straightforward to say goodbye, it’s certainly time,” Thompson, 29, posted to Instagram. “On the finish of 2024, I will likely 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, buddies, 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 look ahead to just a little time for myself.”
Thompson, a two-time Olympian and six-time competitor within the Solheim Cup, stated she wasn’t certain how a lot golf she would play sooner or later. She stated Tuesday she’d been considering retirement for a number of months.
“I am taking it daily proper now,” Thompson informed reporters on the U.S. Girls’s Open. “I am not going to say sure or no on what number of occasions I am going to play or if I do. I am simply going to take it daily and see how I really feel, particularly going into subsequent 12 months, however I am very content material with this being my final full-time schedule 12 months.”
Thompson grew to become emotional whereas explaining her choice Tuesday, saying psychological well being was an element.
“I feel all of us have our struggles, particularly out right here,” she stated. “Sadly in golf you lose greater than you win, so it is an ongoing battle to proceed to place your self on the market in entrance of the cameras and persevering with to work arduous and perhaps not seeing the outcomes you need and getting criticized for it. So it is arduous.
“I’ll say, sure, I’ve struggled with it — I do not suppose there’s any person out right here that hasn’t. It is only a matter of how properly you cover it, which may be very unhappy.”
Thompson, a onetime little one prodigy, will likely 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 document 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 Basic 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.
Lexi Thompson
• Born Feb. 10, 1995, in Coral Springs, Florida• 15 profession worldwide wins (11 LPGA Tour wins)
• One main win (2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship)• Six-time member of Solheim Cup workforce; stays youngest-ever U.S. participant (18)• Grew to become youngest winner in LPGA Tour historical past at 16 (Navistar LPGA Basic); document has since been damaged• Runner-up on the 2010 Evian Masters on the age of 15• Certified for 2007 U.S. Girls’s Open at age 12 (youngest to take action on the time); document has since been damaged
In her video “letter I wrote to the sport of golf” that she posted to Instagram, Thompson described her relationship with the game as “sophisticated at instances.”
She pulled out of the 2018 Girls’s British Open to “recharge her batteries” and give attention to her life off the course. She has not too long ago handled a lingering hand harm 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 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 strain. 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 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 neighborhood and understanding. Every time I share, it reinforces the message that it is OK to not be OK, and that looking for help is an indication of power, not weak point.”
One among one.
Lexi Thompson has introduced she will likely be retiring on the finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season. pic.twitter.com/TctyYr5xy2
— LPGA (@LPGA) Could 28, 2024
Thompson spoke extra in regards to the loneliness she has skilled as a golfer whereas addressing reporters later Tuesday. She made a imprecise reference to Grayson Murray, who spoke overtly about alcoholism and his struggles with melancholy and nervousness from life as a tour skilled. Murray died by suicide on Saturday.
“Being out right here is usually a lot. It may be lonely,” she stated. “I simply suppose — particularly with what’s occurred in golf, as of latest, too — lots of people do not understand a variety of what we undergo as knowledgeable athlete.
“We’re doing what we love. We’re attempting the very best each single day. You already know, we’re not excellent. We’re people. Phrases harm. It is arduous to beat typically. … I won’t have an enormous pal group, however to have the folks that matter probably the most round me have gotten me via some actually arduous instances.”
LPGA star Nelly Korda was amongst many gamers who have been stunned by Thompson’s announcement.
“She’s had such a tremendous profession,” Korda stated Tuesday. “I’ve gotten to be on the workforce along with her a pair instances 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 the very best on this new chapter of her life.”
Thompson got here painfully near including to her main whole, ending runner-up or third eight instances in her 63 main begins. She had 19 top-10 finishes and 35 high 25s, together with a tie for second within the 2022 Girls’s PGA Championship at Congressional Nation Membership in Bethesda, Maryland.
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 whole 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 affect extends far past the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan stated in a press release posted to X. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders — at all times displaying up and fascinating deliberately to assist additional the expansion and affect 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 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.”
Info from The Related Press was used on this report.
