Lexi Thompson grew up competing against the boys. Older brothers Nicholas and Curtis, who also became touring professionals, provided tall measuring sticks during her youth in southeast Florida.
Thompson will get another shot at the guys this week when she becomes only the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event, having accepted a sponsor exemption for the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada, tournament officials announced Wednesday.
“I’m hopeful that my ability to play with the men next week at the Shriners Children's Open sends a great message to the young women that you can chase your dream regardless of how hard it is,” Thompson said in a statement before last week’s Ascendant LPGA event in Texas. “I’m grateful to Shriners Children’s for this opportunity to spend the week alongside these inspirational kids.”
After posting a 3-1-0 record as a captain’s pick in the Americans’ Solheim Cup loss to Europe three weeks ago, (Thompson) finished eighth at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Peter Malnati, a PGA Tour Policy Board member, redirected himself after referring to the exemption as a “gimmick” in an interview before the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“I don't think we're going to need to resort to gimmicks to drum up interest,” said Malnati, who had been talking about the tour’s new fall series. “I shouldn't have said that. I don't know that having Lexi play is a gimmick, but I don't think the tournaments are going to have to go to those kind of lengths to drum up interest and get storylines that they can sell, because I think these events are actually going to have a lot of meaning.”
Thompson is concluding an otherwise forgettable season on the LPGA Tour. However, she has shown flashes of her best golf in her two most recent outings. After posting a 3-1-0 record as a captain’s pick in the Americans’ Solheim Cup loss to Europe three weeks ago, she recorded two consecutive top-10 results: eighth at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship and fifth during the past week's Ascendant LPGA. They are her only top-10 results in 13 starts on the LPGA, including eight missed cuts, this season.
Thompson, 28, a former child prodigy and an 11-time winner on the LPGA, hasn’t won on her home tour in four years, though she did win a Ladies European Tour event in 2022.
She would be the first female competitor in a PGA Tour event since Brittany Lincicome missed the cut at the 2018 Barbasol Championship. The other women to compete on the PGA Tour: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Shirley Spork, Annika Sörenstam, Suzy Whaley and Michelle Wie West.
Only the late Zaharias, a former Olympic gold medalist in track and field who would become one of the LPGA’s 13 founders, has made a 36-hole cut at a PGA Tour event, in 1945 at stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson.
Meanwhile, the LPGA will resurrect its four-stop Asia Swing beginning this week after the coronavirus pandemic restricted travel forced cancellations or limited the fields to only local players in recent years. The tour will play the Buick LPGA Shanghai this week in China, followed by the BMW Ladies Championship on October 19-22 in South Korea, the Maybank Championship on October 26-29 in Malaysia and the Toto Japan Classic on November 2-5 near Tokyo before returning to the U.S. for a season-ending fortnight in Florida.
Steve Harmon