Lexi Thompson flirted with disaster. Then something special came along
Lexi Thompson’s Open Championship almost ended in heartbreaking fashion.
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Lexi Thompson’s reaction says it all.
When a golfer hits a tee shot that is he can they find trouble, they stare at it. When a golfer hits a tee shot that is, without a doubt, absolutely dead? They went straight to the bag and grabbed another ball. It’s like a pitcher giving up such a big home run that he turns to the umpire before he even clears the fence: One Rawlings, please.
Thompson’s home run came in the second round of the AIG Women’s Open on 17th in St. Andrews, a brutal par-4 between the world’s most famous and most challenging holes. He picked up a tee driver but blocked it too far to the right, over the iconic Old Course Hotel, where (to extend the baseball analogy) it cleared the fence. By the time the ball arrived, Thompson was back in his bag. One Maxfli, please.
It seemed that the damage had already been done. Thompson came in at No. 17 for 3 over par. The cut line was 4 more. Suddenly he hit his third shot from the tee into the tightest hole on the course. Thompson switched from driver to fairway wood. He played away from the problems, sending it to the left of the fescue instead.
There were layers of pain built up in this grief. Not only was Thompson looking for a brutally missed cut; this was a brutal missed cut from OB’s tee shot on his 35th hole. This was a cruel miss in the last mejala of the year. This was a crucial miss in the finals of the year when Thompson announced his retirement. This was a brutally missed cut in what could have been Thompson’s final game always.
But it wasn’t like that.
From fescue, Thompson did the impossible. He sent the long iron rolling up the fairway near the fairway and up the slope in front of the green, where it landed six feet from the hole. When he rolled that into the rink, he had officially turned a double or worse into a bogey for victory. He was now 4 years old. Right on the cut line.
“That sounds like Lexi. In one example,” said broadcaster Grant Boone when the ball hit the bottom of the cup. He was right. Willingness to suffer a gut-punch, oh-no heartache. The ability to get up and fight again. Good. Bad. Wow. Again.
Thompson’s career has been largely described by those close to him as his talent and success. If that seems difficult, that’s because it can be a tough business. But there is beauty in the pursuit, too – in the obstacles the games set up and the tricks needed to jump over them.
At 18, Thompson ripped off his tee shot to the left of the fairway. From there he went down the long center of the pit, but he spun again. One thing left: he bogeyed his putt for birdie, rounding out a second-round 1-under 71 in style, making the cut with one shot left.
There is a lot to play for this weekend as well. Thompson hopes to wrap up his season as a member of the US Solheim Cup team, as he did in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023. (They switch to even-numbered years this season.) The team consists of 9 automatic players (players the top seven in the US Solheim Cup points standings and the top two players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings already qualified) and three more captains, meaning Thompson will need some help; enters this week at number 14 on the points leaderboard.
“I’m very hungry,” he said earlier in the week, when asked how hungry he was to make the team. “Whenever I can represent my country, my number 1 goal is to be in this team. That’s not the same. I feel like it brings out the energy and talent in all of us players that the fans don’t see every week. I think they really enjoy it.
“You’re not just playing for yourself. Golf is such a game. We get the opportunity to bring 12 girls together, build that friendship and relationship, play under our captain who we look up to. It’s a different thing. It is special.”
It will be good, then, for Thompson to have two more days to continue his interview in front of team captain Stacy Lewis.
Thompson did not speak to the media Friday evening; I’m not sure if he was asked. But something he said before the tournament spoke to his chances for the weekend.
“In weeks like this you just have to stay in the moment and take one shot at a time, be patient, know that there are going to be bad breaks or bad shots. You just have to go through them with a positive attitude and move on.”
This weekend, Thompson will continue. You got that chance.
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