The altered format, exhibiting the climax of the season in a much less attractive gentle, was merely all the way down to the necessity for an early end. Why? To permit the American networks to then change consideration to the lads’s motion on the PGA Tour.
“Bummed I gained’t have the ability to embrace all of the unimaginable followers on 18 as I end, hopefully some might be on the market on 9,” Thompson instructed her legion of social media followers when she lay thirtieth after the third spherical at Tiburon Golf Membership in Florida.
“Fairly unhappy once you’re at –4 within the season-ending occasion, which may simply be the final CME of your profession, and also you gained’t even end on 18 as a result of they resolve to double tee on the ultimate day because of TV protection window.”
This could have been a second to have a good time one of many extra important careers in LPGA historical past. Thompson’s farewell deserved the widest doable protection.
She celebrated just one main win, on the occasion now referred to as the Chevron Championship, a decade in the past. However she has been a fixture on the most important leaderboards; 4 instances she was runner-up amongst 13 top-5 main finishes.
And Thompson had etched her identify into {golfing} historical past lengthy earlier than that lone triumph at Mission Hills in 2014.
As a 12-year-old in 2007, she grew to become the youngest participant to qualify for the US Open. She made it to the grandest of the feminine slams once more in every of the subsequent two years and aged 14 performed all 4 rounds to complete in a share of thirty fourth place.
Thompson was only a yr older when she turned skilled and was runner-up on the Evian Championship in her inaugural summer time among the many paid ranks.
She appeared endlessly and globally newsworthy. Two months shy of her seventeenth birthday, Thompson posted her first win in Dubai to develop into the youngest skilled winner on the Girls European Tour.
It’s truthful to say that at each stage of her profession she has been a celebrity attraction. Posters to flog event tickets would invariably show her picture. She is likely one of the few feminine gamers to usually seem on the entrance cowl of golf magazines.
Sure, there have been considerably extra profitable careers, however Thompson was at all times field workplace.
When at her absolute best, there have been only a few who may stay along with her as a golfer. However there have been additionally frailties. Majors slipped from her grasp because of brief sport woes; her vulnerabilities making her all of the extra attention-grabbing.
Infamously, in 2017 a tv viewer noticed her incorrectly changing her ball on the inexperienced in the direction of the tip of her third spherical on the ANA Inspiration. However the offence solely got here to gentle on the ultimate day.
It was value a two-shot penalty, doubled as a result of she had obliviously signed for the flawed rating within the third spherical. It was so very Lexi. Her commanding place in that main was wiped away. Finally she misplaced a play-off to Ryu So-yeun.
Thompson was a mainstay of seven Solheim Cups, showing on the profitable facet thrice together with this yr in Virginia. Her general document of 10 wins and 10 losses from her 27 matches displays the enigmatic character of her profession.
She may usually be tetchy and guarded with the media however by no means with galleries. She related along with her followers – on target and on-line.
“I simply love watching her. She’s a lot greater than only a nice golfer,” I heard an AIG Ladies’s Open fan say whereas Thompson commanded essentially the most sizeable first-round galleries at a windswept St Andrews final summer time.
She is going to play extra tournaments, however final weekend was the tip of Thompson’s full-time profession and she or he deserved a extra rousing ship off.
Certainly the profitable $11m season-ending event, which additionally marked the tip of the careers of US Solheim gamers Ally Ewing and Marina Alex, warranted higher remedy from the networks.
The person placing his hand in his pocket to document impact, the title sponsor’s boss, Terry Duffy, raged towards the choice to not present the third spherical on stay tv.
“I believe that’s inappropriate for a event of this magnitude to be on tape delay,” the CME Group chief govt instructed the Palm Seaside Put up.
“If you’re going to proceed to construct girls’s sports activities, it’s important to give them the identical billing as males and cease the nonsense of claiming we have now to indicate the lads’s event as a result of they’re the lads.”
Thompson spent her profession proving the feminine facet of the game deserves a correct highlight. As the person who is ready to place thousands and thousands upon thousands and thousands into the ladies’s sport attests, it clearly nonetheless fails to shine to most impact.
