Leix Thompson has stunned golf – and the US Solheim Cup team in particular – by announcing her retirement at 29. One of the biggest names in the female game, the Floridian chose to reveal her plans to quit at the end of the season as she was preparing to play in this week’s US Women’s Open. In many respects it is an appropriate tournament for her to shock her sport as it was at her national championship when she made jaws drop the world over by becoming the then youngest player ever to qualify for the event as a 12-year-old.
“While it is never easy to say goodbye, it is indeed time. At the end of 2024, I will be stepping away,” Thompson wrote on Instagram. “I’m excited to enjoy the remainder of the year as there are still goals I want to accomplish. I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life.”
Thompson has endured a few mediocre years by her standards and is now down in 54th in the rankings, having risen as high as second in peak when she won the Chevon Championship – then the Kraft Nabisco – in 2014. That remains her only major victory and on her current run of three successive missed cuts and without an LPGA Tour win in five years it is no shock to find her generally priced at 100-1 in the tournament in which she will be competing for a remarkable 18th time since her historic debut.
Yet while she is clearly not the Lexi of old who racked up 12 other top-threes in the majors, Stacey Lewis, the US Solheim Cup captain, still rates her and it will be interesting if she picks her again for September’s match in Washington DC. Last year, Lewis overlooked her poor form and enlisted Thompson as a wildcard for the match in Spain and her faith was rewarded as she won three points from her four games.
The US ultimately watched Europe retain the Cup for a third successive time, but if Thompson had not triumphed against Emily Kristine Pedersen in the bottom singles then the away side would not have had the consolation of drawing the encounter 14-14. Nobody in the Stars and Stripes has won more points than Thompson since she made her Solehim bow in 2013 and she will obviously be missed as America tries to reassert their superiority.
Thompson re-emphasised her quality a few weeks after the Solheim when coming within a few shots of making the cut in a PGA Tour event in Las Vegas. In truth, her career – although lit up with milestone such as becoming the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour when she was 16 – has been as famous for its crushing disappointments as much as her successes. Most notoriously, Thompson was hit with a four-shot penalty when leading in the final round of the 2017 Kraft Nabisco because of a controversial rules violation the day before and then four years later she lost a five-shot advantage on the Sunday in the US Women’s Open.
The news surprised everyone, including Thompson’s team-mate Nelly Korda. At Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania, he world No 1 is trying to win her first US Women’s Open, which would be her second major in succession and her sixth victory in her last seven events.
But it says plenty about Thompson’s celebrity that Korda was questioned about the 15-time winner in her press conference.
“I honestly heard probably 15 minutes ago,” Korda said. “I’ve been on the team with Lexi a couple times representing our country. It’s sad to see that she’s leaving and not going to be out here with us anymore.”
