NAPLES, Fla. – Time has a funny way of making us forget. Something or someone can become so ingrained in our lives that we lose perspective about them. We forget the context.
Take Lexi Thompson. She’s only 30, so her announcement last year that she was stepping down from a full-time schedule came as a surprise. But it’s easy to forget just how long Lexi Thompson has been THIS. We forget that 18 years ago, she became the youngest ever to qualify for the US Women’s Open at age 12. She turned professional at the age of 15. A major, 15 professional victories and a number of close encounters followed. For 15 years, doing the same things every year, time hardly passed.
For half her life, Lexi Thompson has been Lexi Thompson, professional golfer. She has been grinding for longer. She’s still grinding, for that matter. But after a shortened season, Lexi Thompson is not only a professional golfer. She got engaged to her boyfriend, Max Provost, in January. The two will be married in March. She has spent more time with her friends and family. Got into wedding planning. Weekend trips and getaways. Time has a different meaning when your focus is not single.
For someone whose life has been spent with a cane in hand, making room for other things has been soothing to the soul.
“It’s been good. It’s put my mind at ease,” Thompson said after the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship. “It’s been a good balance, especially with the engagement, the wedding planning. I mean, this is my 15th year. I think a lot of people don’t realize how long I’ve been here and been in the game because I’ve been in the game a lot longer than just professional golf.
“(Golf) has taken a hit.”
When Thompson announced that he was leaving from a full-time program last year, she was showered with tributes and tearful send-offs usually reserved for players who hang up their spikes. But Thompson’s plan isn’t to stop working, nor to stop competing. It’s in her DNA. You don’t become Lexi Thompson if it isn’t.
So she played 13 events, including this week’s Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. She fought in like the Chevron Championship AND KPMG Women’s PGA Championship before you stumble into the weekend. She posted a runner-up finish at the Dow Championship. The work has not stopped. Thompson still trains hard at home – but says her body now feels more after “everything she’s been through”. She shot a kid under 70 on Thursday while dealing with a hip injury.
She’s still Lexi Thompson. But the work is no longer comprehensive.
And by allowing herself to be something other than a golfer, Lexi Thompson’s golf has benefited. As the pressure eased, freedom emerged.
“Yeah (I’ve loosened up) on the mental side of things,” Thompson said. “I’m not going to lie. I’m very hard on myself. I always am because I want the best of myself and I know how much work I’ve put in. I’m never okay with mediocre golf. But being able to pick and choose my events and have balance on my off weeks has helped me a lot because sometimes that’s even more important than practice is giving yourself that balance.”
A year of a part-time program has taken a toll on Thompson. If it was an experiment, it seems to have been successful. All signs point to this remaining the status quo for Thompson until she officially says goodbye to the professional game in her time.
But the 2026 schedule brings a question for Lexi Thompson who has found peace in the balance. With the Solheim Cup being played in the Netherlands in 2026, will Thompson, who has played in every Solheim Cup since 2013, change her hectic schedule to ensure she makes captain Angela Stanford’s team? Or will he continue to play when he chooses and let the chips fall where they may?
“I mean I love Angela. She’s someone I’ve seen for a long time now,” Thompson said. “The Solheim Cup has been my favorite event ever in my career. We’ll see. The first few months, I won’t even play because obviously there’s no tournament to play. Then with the wedding and the honeymoon and everything. I’ll take some time for myself and regroup and see where I want to go.”
That there are no concrete answers right now speaks to the impact the change has had on Thompson. Golf used to be everything: The driving force. Directional light. Her identity. But professional golf can also be isolating and unrelenting. There are many times when you don’t get back everything you put in and it can become a burden.
Walking away (not far), Lexi Thompson, child prodigy and great champion, found what she was looking for—what she needed.
“I’ve learned there’s more to life,” Thompson said. “With wedding planning and doing all of that, there’s more to it than just the game. If I’m struggling here, I try to remind myself that it’s okay, you’ve got another day and you’ve done great things here.”
Lexi Thompson will still be out here HOW she is 15 years old. But she won’t always to be here. Her mind will not be locked into a game that cannot be perfected. After 15 years, Lexi Thompson is allowing herself to be something else.
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