Lexi Thompson is calling it a golf career at 29.
Thompson announced on Tuesday that she plans to retire after the current LPGA season.
It can be lonely… I just think a lot of people don’t realize what we go through as a professional athlete,” Thompson told reporters on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Thursday’s U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. “I’ll be the last one to say throw me a pity party, that’s not what I want. We are doing what we love, trying our best every single day, we are mot perfect, we’re humans, words hurt.
“It’s hard to overcome sometimes but having the people around you that love you and support you, I feel like that’s been the biggest thing for me. I may not have a huge friend group, but to have the people that matter the most around me has gotten me through some real hard times. It’s a lot for everybody out here or any professional sport… I think we deserve a lot more credit than we get.”
“In my time covering the LPGA, no player made a bigger impact. I’ll miss her graciousness out there. But most of all, I’ll miss her ball-striking. What a f–king flusher.”
Thompson competed in a PGA Tour’s Shriners Open in October, attempting to become the first woman to make the cut at a PGA event since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945.
