3 days ago
Lexi Thompson addresses non-retirement, begins three-week stretch of LPGA events at Meijer
Lexi Thompson addresses non-retirement, begins three-week stretch of LPGA events at Meijer
Lexi Thompson makes her first start of three in a row at this week's Meijer LPGA Classic. The Grand Rapids, Michigan, stop is one of her favorites on tour and it's easy to see why. In 10 appearances, the 2015 Meijer champion has six top-five finishes at Blythefield Country Club.
This week marks Thompson's sixth start to the season and next week in Frisco, Texas, she'll tee it up in her third major of 2025 at the KPMG Women's PGA.
Given how much she's played so far this season, the schedule certainly doesn't have the feel of a part-time player, but Thompson said she'll probably play around 10 times total this year, meaning the next half of 2025 should be substantially lighter.
At last week's U.S. Women's Open, Thompson wrote a post on social media in which she reacted to the slow-play accusations of early in the week and reminded folks that she never used the word retire.
'I feel like once I made the announcement I feel it really got misconstrued that I was retiring,' said Thompson when asked about the post, 'but I never said that word. I just said I was stepping back from a full-time schedule.
'Big picture, I probably shouldn't have said that I was stepping away because people thought I was retiring. Just really wanted to dial back my schedule and have more of a life balance, but at the same time, if I went through a phase where I didn't want to play at all, I left that door open as well.'
There certainly was no shortage of press conferences and farewells in 2024, beginning with a thank you letter to golf video she posted during the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster, in which she said "While it is never easy to say goodbye, it is indeed time." At the Dana Open, Friday was deemed "Lexi Thompson Day," complete with hats, "Thank you, Lexi" buttons and an F-16 flyover from the Ohio Air National Guard.
"There could be a point where I go through a few months of not teeing it up," said Thompson of her initial announcement. "I didn't want to just do that to my fans, just disappear on them. That's not right or fair.
"I wanted to give the tournaments or the fans an opportunity to watch me possibly the last time at that tournament or in their home city. So I was just putting everybody's thoughts into the announcement as well."
After the KPMG, Thompson plans to tee it up in the Dow Championship, a team event in Midland, Michigan, though she didn't think it was the right time to reveal the name of her partner. As for the last two majors of the season, she plans on taking a bit of a break. Thompson last played in the Amundi Evian in 2019.
'Not set in stone right now, but there are some personal things that I have to do when I'm home in the next few months,' she said. 'So we'll see.'
