When they were younger, the heated matches became family feuds, with daily chores and weekly allowances wagered on the fairways of TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs.
“I sort of stay out of that, I just play for score and stuff because it gets really intense, it’s like whoa,” said Lexi, the youngest sibling. “Usually one of us quits because they get so frustrated or get mad at one another.”
While tempers have subsided in recent years, now they’re playing for much more than bragging rights. That’s because if things go as planned, all three will soon be on pro golf tours at the same.
“I don’t think it would be much cooler,” said their father, Scott Thompson.
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Lexi made national news when, at age 12, she became the youngest golfer to play in a U.S. Open. Now at 16, she tees it up Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Lexi would already be a regular on the Tour if not for the tour’s 18-year-old age minimum. She turned pro last June, and in six events – which she played through sponsor’s exemptions – she earned more than $300,000. She’s had a rough start this year: after holding the lead after 54 holes at the Avnet LPGA Classic in late April/early May, she ended up finishing tied for 19th. She also missed two other cuts.
Lexi’s brother Curtis, 19, is on a full-ride scholarship at LSU and will begin his college career in the fall.
The eldest son, Nick, 28, earned more than $3 million on the PGA Tour from 2008-10. He is back on the Nationwide Tour this year but expects to be back next year on the PGA Tour.
“It’s pretty amazing the things we have the potential to do,” said Nick, who earned $28,800 after placing fourth in a June Nationwide tournament.
The Thompsons kids couldn’t have done it alone.
“They just thrived off of each other,” said their mother, Judy, who played golf in high school and junior college.
Nick started it all
Nick was the trailblazer of the family, taking up the game in junior high school through the urging of his grandmother, Mimi.
He really caught the golf bug at Inverrary Golf Club, where Scott would pay $5 green fees and play with his son until dark. When Scott and his wife Judy moved in 1996 to their current home along the 12th fairway at Eagle Trace, Nick began to play and practice seven days a week.
“It was obnoxious amounts of golf,” Nick said. “But that’s the way I am – I’m all in. That’s the whole family.”
Nick went on to earn All-American honors at Georgia Tech, a spot on the 2005 Walker Cup team and a PGA Tour card in his first shot at qualifying school. In three seasons on the PGA Tour he had eight top-10 finishes.
All the while, Lexi and Curtis were watching and waiting for their chance.
“That’s how it all got started,” Curtis said.
Curtis, who was home-schooled like Lexi, entered LSU a semester early to get a feel for college life and golf.
While Nick is the old hand and Lexi the phenom, Curtis is the unknown. The Thompson family thinks he may be the most talented of the three siblings.
“He is a natural, with no fear,” Judy said. “He will be the one you see in five years, six years.”
“He has to grow a little bit more mentally and get through that rough patch as an 18-year old boy,” Scott said. “But he has mad skills.”
The most buzz
But the Thompson who attracts the most buzz is Lexi.
A year after she became the youngest golfer to play in a U.S. Open, she won the U.S. Girls Junior Golf Championship in 2008.
While Nick earned almost $2 million on the PGA Tour in 2008, he remembered one day when a CBS commentator referred to him as “Alexis Thompson’s brother.”
Curtis, the family smart aleck, gave Nick a hard time about that. But big brother got the last word.
“‘[I said] If I’m Alexis Thompson’s brother, what does that make you? You’re Alexis Thompson’s brother’s brother,'” Nick recalled. “No one has seen Curtis that quiet.”
Being Lexi Thompson’s brother isn’t so bad, given little sis could be the next big thing in American women’s golf.
Last year she finished runner-up at the star-studded Evian Masters and 10th in the U.S. Open at Oakmont, at age 15.
Few LPGA players are as long as Lexi, who stands 5-foot-11 and hits the ball 280 to 290 yards off the tee – power derived from years of playing with older brothers.
“People that see her play are in awe,” Nick said. “I can’t wait until she’s allowed to play more or old enough to play more.”
Scott, 49, actually was a good golfer himself once, reaching a 3 or 4 handicap, and can still hit an occasional 300-yard drive. He taught all his kids how to play, but he pretty much gave up the game when Lexi starting beating him … when she was 9.
Scott quit his job four years ago and now travels with Lexi when she’s playing tournaments. But Lexi is on her own more than ever, too, and works with renowned instructor Jim McLean and plays golf with her friends.
That leaves Scott Thompson sounding like any other father, lamenting the fact that his little girl is growing up.
“I think that’s hard for every parent to accept, when your 16-year-old doesn’t want you around,” Scott said. “That’s normal. It sucks. But you just learn to deal with it.”
Still, the Thompsons will never drift too far apart. Golf keeps bringing them back together.
“The game has made us really close and will keep us close forever,” said Nick, who now lives near the 16th tee box at Eagle Trace.
“We feed off each other and we’re there to help each other and we’re there to push each other.”
