It’s 8:45 a.m. on a Tuesday in August at Panther National — a luxe, newly constructed private enclave in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., with a championship course co-designed by Justin Thomas and Jack Nicklaus — and Lexi Thompson is already seated in the hair and makeup chair, prepping for a full day of shooting portraits, videos and sitting for a lengthy interview.
The occasion? A celebration — and retrospective — of a career well played. The 29-year-old, who lives 45 minutes southeast, in Delray Beach, and is among a handful of top-tier pros to hold a membership at Panther, is calling it a career at the end of the 2024 LPGA season.
Why would one of America’s brightest stars hang up her cleats at an age when many of the world’s best players are only just entering their competitive prime?
“I don’t think there’s anything really for me to prove,” Thompson says. “I’m forever grateful for being able to play golf for a living. But a lot of people don’t see the lonely times — going through the airport alone, going to the hotel alone with four or five bags and performing, then being alone. Good or bad, you don’t have someone to share it with most of the time.”
Thompson’s yearning for a break from the isolating grind of pro golf is understandable. She first entered the public consciousness as a prodigious 12-year-old qualifier at the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open, and she hasn’t missed a national championship since. At 16, she won her first LPGA title and successfully petitioned the LPGA for membership. More wins followed, including her first and, to date, only major championship: the Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the Chevron Championship) in 2014.
Thompson — who grew up in nearby Coral Springs in a household of competitive golfers (both of her brothers, Nicholas and Curtis, have had modest pro careers) shepherded by her parents, Scott and Judy — was an American darling from the moment she entered the pro scene, inspiring legions of young fans with her dazzling looks, bombs off the tee and a seemingly infinite willingness to sign autographs and engage with fans.
“I’ve always just wanted to be able to give back to the game, to leave it in a better place,” she says. “And that’s hopefully what people look to me as — not only a golfer but a great person that has given back, good or bad day.”
Even in the wake of devastating heartbreaks at major championships — a four-shot penalty that derailed her during the final round of the 2017 ANA Inspiration, a five-shot lead evaporating on the back nine of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, four back-nine bogeys to come up short at the 2022 KPMG — Thompson never lost sight of her personal mission to serve her fans and to help elevate the women’s game.
In our wide-ranging chat, she plumbs the depths of her disappointments and delivers a candid assessment of the joys and difficulties she’s endured in her life and career. But even as Thompson’s LPGA career winds down, a new chapter awaits. And the future is bright indeed.
