Lexi Thompson, 29, to retire from LPGA Tour at the end of 2024 season
Lexi Thompson announced Tuesday that this LPGA will be her last as a full-time competitor.
The surprising announcement came on the eve of the U.S. Women’s Open, where Thompson is making her 18th consecutive appearance.
Thompson is expected to address the media at 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday from Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Country Club.
Thompson, who turns 30 next year, has been one of the headliners in the women’s game ever since she burst onto the scene as a tall, powerful teenager and prodigious talent.
After turning professional in 2010, Thompson set what was then a record for the youngest winner of an LPGA event, when she captured the 2011 Navistar Classic at the age of 16. After the LPGA rewrote its age-requirement rules to grant her full membership, she won three events in the next two years, including the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now called the Chevron Championship) for her lone major title.
In all, Thompson has won 11 times on tour, though not since 2019.
“While these achievements are remarkable in and of themselves, Lexi’s impact extends far beyond the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders – always showing up and engaging intentionally to help further the growth and impact of the LPGA. She is beloved by fans, consistently seen signing autographs and interacting with them no matter the result that day. … Lexi’s remarkable career and the way she has conducted herself both on and off the course have inspired countless girls around the world to pursue their goals with passion and perseverance.”
As the next wave of players began to dominate the LPGA, Thompson became known as much for her close calls as her bold, aggressive style of play. She surrendered leads at both the 2019 and 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, the latter after taking a five-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday. In 2017, while in position to win her second major championship, she was penalized four strokes for incorrectly replacing her ball on the green and eventually lost in a playoff at Mission Hills. Later that year, she missed a 2-foot putt on the final green to lose the LPGA’s season-ending title.
A six-time Solheim Cup participant and two-time U.S. Olympian, the big-hitting Thompson remained a fixture in the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings throughout the 2010s.
Thompson’s performance has slipped in recent years, however, and in 2023 she was in danger of losing her LPGA card before a late-season rally. This year, she is ranked 64th in the season-long standings and has four missed cuts in six starts while continuing to deal with a lingering hand injury.
Having grown weary of the constant attention, scrutiny and pressure over the past decade, Thompson took a break from golf in 2018, and in recent years she has prioritized her mental health. When she became the seventh woman to play in a PGA Tour event last fall, at the Shriners Children’s Open, Thompson, a popular figure on social media, said her lasting goal was to inspire young girls.
“She’s had such an amazing career,” said world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who has played on three Solheim Cup teams with Thompson. “She does an amazing job for the tour. She spends so much time going to each pro-am party. She really dedicated her time to growing the game. It’s sad to see that she’s obviously leaving and not going to be out here with us anymore, but she’s had an amazing career, and I wish her the best in this new chapter of her life.”