LPGA’s Lexi Thompson, 29, retiring from full-time golf

Lexi Thompson, one of many largest stars in girls’s skilled golf over the previous 15 years, introduced Tuesday that this will likely be her last season competing full time on the LPGA Tour.

“Whereas it’s by no means simple to say goodbye, it’s certainly time,” Thompson, 29, posted to Instagram. “On the finish of 2024, I will likely be stepping away from a full skilled golf schedule. I am excited to benefit from the the rest of the yr as there are nonetheless targets I wish to accomplish.

“I am trying ahead to the subsequent chapter of my life. Time with household, pals, and my trusted companion Leo. I’ll at all times search for methods to contribute to the game and encourage the subsequent era of golfers. And naturally, I sit up for a little bit time for myself.”

Thompson, a two-time Olympian and six-time competitor within the Solheim Cup, wasn’t certain how a lot golf she’ll play sooner or later. Thompson stated Tuesday she’d been considering retirement for a couple of months.

“I am taking it daily proper now,” Thompson informed reporters on the U.S. Ladies’s Open. “I am not going to say sure or no on what number of occasions I am going to play or if I do. I am simply going to take it daily and see how I really feel, particularly going into subsequent yr, however I am very content material with this being my final full-time schedule yr.”

Thompson, a onetime youngster prodigy, will likely be making her 18th straight begin within the U.S. Ladies’s Open. She was the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Ladies’s Open — doing it as a 12-year-old at Pine Needles in 2007 — and he or she made the minimize within the main as a 14-year-old in 2009.

She additionally received the U.S. Women’ Junior Championship in 2008 and compiled a 4-0-1 file for the U.S. crew on the Curtis Cup in 2010.

Thompson, from Coral Springs, Florida, turned professional in 2010 and captured the primary of her 11 LPGA victories on the Navistar LPGA Basic in September 2011. A 15-time winner all over the world, Thompson’s lone main championship victory got here on the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Nation Membership in Rancho Mirage, California.

In her video “letter I wrote to the sport of golf” that she posted to Instagram, Thompson described her relationship with the game as “sophisticated at instances.”

She pulled out of the 2018 Ladies’s British Open to “recharge her batteries” and concentrate on her life off the course. She has not too long ago handled a lingering hand damage and missed the minimize in 4 of her six begins this season. She is sixty fourth within the tour’s season-long factors race.

“Though this has been an incredible journey, it hasn’t at all times been a simple one,” Thompson stated in her video. “Since I used to be 12, as a golfer, my life has been a whirlwind of fixed consideration, scrutiny and strain. The cameras are at all times on, capturing each swing and each second on and off the golf course. Social media by no means sleeps, with feedback and criticisms flooding in from all over the world.

“It may be exhausting sustaining a smile on the skin whereas grappling with struggles on the within. By opening up about my battles, I have been capable of join with others who really feel remoted of their struggles, providing them a way of neighborhood and understanding. Every time I share, it reinforces the message that it is OK to not be OK, and that in search of assist is an indication of energy, not weak point.”

Considered one of one. 🌟

Lexi Thompson has introduced she will likely be retiring on the finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season. pic.twitter.com/TctyYr5xy2

— LPGA (@LPGA) Could 28, 2024

Thompson got here painfully near including to her main whole, ending runner-up or third eight instances in her 63 main begins. She had 19 top-10 finishes and 35 prime 25s, together with a tie for second within the 2022 Ladies’s PGA Championship at Congressional Nation Membership in Bethesda, Maryland.

“She’s had such an incredible profession,” LPGA star Nelly Korda stated Tuesday. “I’ve gotten to be on the crew together with her a pair instances representing our nation. I feel she does an incredible job for the Tour. She spends a lot time going to every pro-am get together. She actually devoted her time to rising the sport.

“It is unhappy to see that she’s clearly leaving and never going to be out right here with us anymore, however she’s had an incredible profession, and I want her the most effective on this new chapter of her life.”

Final season, Thompson turned the seventh girl to compete on the PGA Tour on the Shriners Kids’s Open in Las Vegas. She posted a 2-under 69 within the second spherical to change into the second girl to interrupt 70 in a PGA Tour occasion. With a 36-hole whole of even-par 142, Thompson almost turned the primary girl in 80 years to make the minimize in a PGA Tour occasion.

“Lexi’s impression extends far past the golf course,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan stated in a press release posted to X. “She embodies the spirit and dedication of our founders — at all times exhibiting up and fascinating deliberately to assist additional the expansion and impression of the LPGA. She is beloved by followers, persistently seen signing autographs and interacting with them irrespective of the consequence that day.

“… On behalf of the LPGA, I wish to thank Lexi for her unbelievable contributions to our Tour and to girls’s golf. We want her all the most effective in her subsequent chapter, and we, together with the followers, sit up for watching her compete and celebrating her all through the remainder of the season.”