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Lexi Thompson has blamed the LPGA Tour for a ‘pretty sad’ end to her career as a professional golfer.
After announcing her retirement this year, Thompson, 29, confirmed the CME Group Tour Championship would be her final event.
But the Tour opted for a shotgun start on Sunday, putting paid to Thompson’s farewell plans.
“Pretty sad when you’re at –4 in the season-ending event, which could easily be the last CME of your career, and you won’t even finish on 18 because they decide to double tee on the final day due to TV coverage window,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Bummed I won’t be able to embrace all the incredible fans on 18 tomorrow as I finish, hopefully some will be out there on 9.
“But just know I’m grateful for you all.”
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It was ahead of the final round at Tiburon Golf Club, in Florida, where Thompson was in a tie for 30th place.
She was nine shots off the tied lead, however, as Angel Yin and Atthaya Thitikul were matched at 15-under-par.
After three days of playing in pairs, the LPGA decided that the 60-player field would tee off in threesomes on Sunday on holes one and ten.
Thompson, an 11-time winner on Tour, was handed an 8.50am tee time from hole ten, with live TV coverage scheduled from 1-4pm (ET).
The decision comes just one day after Terry Duffy, CEO of the CME Group, blasted the LPGA over live coverage of the third round.
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Saturday’s action was shown on a tape delay from 4-7pm on Golf Channel, which Duffy labelled “bulls**t”.
Speaking to The Palm Beach Post, he said: “I think that’s inappropriate for a tournament of this magnitude to be on tape delay.
“I have told Mollie I don’t like that. I will leave it in her hands to see where that ultimately ends up.
“If you are going to continue to build women’s sports, you have to give them the same billing as men and stop the nonsense of saying we have to show the men’s tournament because they’re the men.”
Earlier in the week, world No.1 Nelly Korda called for the women’s game to receive primetime TV coverage.
“We need more hours on TV,” she said. “I mean, we have a great product out here. We have so many amazing stories. We just need to be on primetime TV.”
