NAPLES, Fla. – Time has a funny way of making us forget. Something or someone can become so ingrained in our lives that we lose perspective around them. We forget the context.
Take Lexi Thompson. She’s only 30 years old, so her announcement last year that she would be retiring from full-time employment came as a surprise. But it’s easy to forget just how long Lexi Thompson has been at it this. We forget that 18 years ago at the age of 12, she became the youngest ever to qualify for the US Women’s Open. She turned pro at the age of 15. A major, 15 professional victories and several close calls followed. For fifteen years, doing the same things every year, time barely seemed to pass.
Lexi Thompson has been Lexi Thompson, professional golfer for half her life. She’s been grinding for a while now. She’s still grinding by the way. But after a season with a truncated schedule, Lexi Thompson is no more just now a professional golfer. She got engaged to her boyfriend Max Provost in January. The two are getting married in March. She has been spending more time with her friends and family. Immersed myself in wedding planning. Made weekend trips and outings. Time has a different meaning when your focus is not unique.
For someone whose life has been spent with a club in hand, making room for other things is soothing to the soul.
“It was fun. It calmed me down,” Thompson said after the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship. “It’s been a nice balance, especially with getting engaged and wedding planning. I mean, this is my 15th year. I think a lot of people don’t realize how long I’ve been here and been around the game because I’ve been around the game a lot longer than just professional golf.”
“[Golf] has taken its toll.”
When Thompson announced last year that she would be stepping away from a full-time schedule, she received tributes and tearful farewells normally reserved for players hanging up their spikes. But Thompson’s plan isn’t to stop working, nor to stop competing. That’s in her DNA. You don’t become Lexi Thompson if you don’t.
So she played 13 events, including this week’s Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. She competed in both the Chevron Championship and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship before stumbling this weekend. She took second place at the Dow Championship. The work has not stopped. Thompson still trains hard at home, but says her body is feeling it more now after “everything she’s been through.” She fired a two-under 70 on Thursday while dealing with a hip injury.
She’s still Lexi Thompson. But the work is no longer all-encompassing.
And by allowing herself to be something other than a golfer, Lexi Thompson’s golf has benefited from it. As the pressure decreased, freedom emerged.
“Yes [I have been freed up] as far as the mental side of things goes,” Thompson said. ‘I’m not going to lie. I’m pretty hard on myself. I always do that because I want the best of myself and I know how much work I put into it. I’m never satisfied with mediocre golf. But being able to choose my events and having the balance in the off weeks has helped me a lot, because sometimes that’s even more important than practice: giving yourself that balance.
A year of part-time work has lifted a heavy burden from Thompson. If it was an experiment, it appears to have been successful. All signs point to this remaining the status quo for Thompson until she officially retires from the professional game on her own time.
But the 2026 schedule raises a question for Lexi Thompson, who has found peace in the balance. Now that the Solheim Cup is being played in the Netherlands, will Thompson, who has played in every Solheim Cup since 2013, adjust her tight schedule to ensure she makes captain Angela Stanford’s team? Or will she continue to play when she wants and let the chips fall where they may?
“I mean, I love Angela. She’s someone I’ve looked up to for a while,” Thompson said. “The Solheim Cup has been my favorite event ever in my career. We’ll see. I won’t even play for the first few months because obviously there’s not really a tournament to play in. Then with the wedding and the honeymoon and all that. I’m going to take some time for myself and regroup a bit and see where I want to go.”
The fact that there are no concrete answers now says something about the impact the change has had on Thompson. Golf used to be everything: the driving force. The guiding light. Her identity. But professional golf can also be isolating and unforgiving. There are many cases where you don’t get back everything you put in, and that can become a burden.
By taking a step back (not away), Lexi Thompson, child prodigy and great champion, found what she was looking for – what she needed.
“I learned there’s just more to life,” Thompson said. “With planning a wedding and all that, there’s just more to it than just the game. When I’m struggling here, I try to remind myself that it’s OK, that you still have another day and that you’ve done great things here.”
Lexi Thompson still will be out here like she has been that way for 15 years. But she won’t always be out here. Her mind will not be locked in a game that cannot be perfected. After fifteen years, Lexi Thompson allows herself to be something else.
“>
#Golf #Lexi #Thompsons #life #wanted