Lexi Thompson’s stunning retirement got here with a heart-wrenching motive.
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LANCASTER, Pa. — On Tuesday on the U.S. Women’s Open as with most days, the gang stared at Lexi Thompson.
And on Tuesday as with most days, Lexi stared proper again.
“Lexi! LEXI!!!” They yelled, one after the following, a endless stream of memento flags and selfie requests testing the boundaries of the ropeline, little arms poking by means of like little bayonets, every pointed sq. at Thompson’s chest. Every autograph signed and photograph taken spawned one other three, and earlier than lengthy the gang started to really feel much less like a gaggle of people and extra like a steadily rising, amorphous blob of wanting. But it didn’t matter. For a couple of moments, Lexi wished too. Not for the gang’s consideration or admiration, however to interrupt the bubble between her world and theirs.
And so she did.
If there’s a manner the crowds will keep in mind Thompson, it’s for her endurance. Patience that has allowed her to host hundreds of autograph periods like this one all through an 18-year skilled profession, which she introduced Tuesday would conclude on the Solheim Cup in September. Patience that has allowed her to attach with tens of hundreds of individuals outdoors of the ropes, lots of them younger girls, with a small gesture of goodwill. And endurance that has allowed her to do all of this stuff even within the wake of a few of the golf world’s most unimaginable lows — lows that she addressed for the primary time throughout a press convention asserting her retirement on U.S. Women’s Open Tuesday.
“Being out here can be a lot,” she mentioned by means of tears. “It can be lonely. Sorry if I get emotional. I said I wasn’t going to.”
I nonetheless keep in mind the primary time I witnessed Lexi’s reward for endurance. It was on the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles, minutes after Thompson had fallen brief once more on the most important stage within the girls’s sport, ending T20 in a bid to undo the earlier 12 months’s collapse. She signed autographs for near half-hour then, tears streaming down her face, stopping solely as soon as every of the women contained in the child-only space had acquired her consideration. I keep in mind most up-to-date time I’d witnessed it, too, on the Solheim Cup final September. Another devastating defeat, extra tears, and yet one more similarity: a couple of dozen younger women who departed with autographs and smiles.
Those scenes felt exceptional on the time and this one, early Tuesday morning, felt exceptional too, given Thompson was asserting her choice to retire from a “full-time playing schedule.” She’s a child by skilled golf requirements, simply 29 years outdated in a sport the place many gamers don’t hit their prime till effectively into their 30s. But she’s an historic 29 by life expertise, 17 years into knowledgeable profession that has introduced her fabulous wealth and, on multiple event, unfathomable heartbreak.
Sometimes the load of a golf profession could be measured not in wins, losses and accidents however in scars, and as Lexi opened up on “years” of struggles on Tuesday afternoon, it was clear the latter finally proved crippling.
“I just think, especially with what’s happened in golf, as of recently, too, a lot of people don’t realize what we go through as a professional athlete,” Thompson mentioned. “I’ll be the last one to say, throw me a pity party. That’s the last thing I want. We’re doing what we love. We’re trying the best every single day. You know, we’re not perfect. We’re humans,” she mentioned. “Words hurt. It’s hard to overcome sometimes.”
Lexi’s humanity has by no means been trigger for debate — the truth is, the examples of her flawed brilliance are too many to rely. There have been the back-nine collapses on the ’21 U.S. Open at Olympic and the ’22 Women’s PGA, the prolonged depart of absence on the top of her powers for causes associated to psychological well being, and who might neglect the TV-viewer controversy on the 2017 ANA Inspiration that value her the event, later altering the principles of golf?
But humanity additionally comes with its prices. For all her affection amongst the followers, Lexi has loved an embattled relationship with the general public. She has earned a status among the many press for avoiding questions after her greatest setbacks, and even Tuesday’s retirement “letter” featured a reference to what she known as an “unfair” profession. While her greatest moments have revealed her to be fallible, her quiet moments have led some to accuse her of being fragile, or worse, missing accountability. On Tuesday, although, Thompson’s retirement presser featured none of these qualities.
“I might not have a huge friend group, but to have the people that matter the most around me have gotten me through some really hard times,” she mentioned. “I think it’s a lot for everyone out here or in any professional sport. A lot of people don’t know what we go through. The amount of training and hard work that we put ourselves through, it’s a lot. I think we deserve a lot more credit than what we get.”
Perhaps these have been the phrases of a participant who’s come to grips together with her personal {golfing} mortality. Or maybe they have been the phrases of somebody who, after 17 early life within the golf fishbowl, has realized that life continues after the heartbreak stops.
“The hardest moment of my career was like a blessing because it was just I learned so much and I gained fans that I never thought I would have,” she mentioned on the finish of her press convention, welling up once more as she recalled catastrophe on the ANA. “I’m not going to sit here and say that moment didn’t hurt. It still does, but it’s part of a career.”
As her apply spherical reached its conclusion, Thompson stared out into the gang. Her dad and mom had funneled into the again of the inexperienced together with her canine in tow. Legions of her fellow opponents cooed praises from the apply vary simply ft away, whereas a crowd waited for her with near-unanimous pleasure.
If this was the fruits of her profession, Lexi Thompson appeared joyful. She had spent a lifetime looking for one thing, and it turned out she’d had all of it alongside.
It was proper there on the opposite aspect of the ropes, staring her straight within the face.
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