By Lexi Thompson announced on Tuesday ahead of this week’s U.S. Women’s Open that she’ll retire at the end of this season. Fittingly, the 29-year-old has been synonymous with the national championship since qualifying for the major in 2007 when she was just 12, starting a streak of 18 consecutive appearances before turning 30. It’s another “youngest to accomplish” record that Thompson holds, one of many she has set over her 15-year professional career.
“Pine Needles [in 2007] when I teed it up, that’s when I realized I want to play against the best,” Thompson explained. “It’s been an amazing journey. I’ve loved every bit of it. So to be able to tee it up on my 18th is unbelievable.”
Ahead of what could be Thompson’s final U.S. Women’s Open, here is a timeline of the top moments to know throughout her playing career.
2007: Qualifies for U.S. Open at 12
Thompson’s appearances started when she set the then-record for the youngest, at 12 years old, to qualify for the major at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club. She impressed with a 76-82 performance, one of only five times she would miss the cut. It was the first of three times as an amateur she would qualify.
2010: Undefeated Curtis Cup week
In Thompson’s only appearance at the USGA’s amateur team match-play event, she dominated with a 4-0-1 week. The then-15-year-old was the youngest player on the team, two years junior to Jessica Korda. In a similar format to the Solheim Cup, Thompson played in all five sessions, wrapping the week up with a commanding 6-and-5 singles victory over Sally Watson. The U.S. won 12 ½-7 ½ for its seventh consecutive title. Thompson turned professional the following week.
2010: Top 10 at U.S. Women’s Open in pro debut
In Thompson’s first professional event, she finished T-10 at Oakmont Country Club. The 15-year-old sat in sixth place in the final round, ending the week with a 73 for her first of five top-10s at the major.
2011: First career victory in Navistar LPGA Classic
Thompson’s first LPGA title came while trying to qualify for the tour. Two months before the Navistar win, Thompson successfully petitioned LPGA commissioner Mike Whan to let her try to qualify for the LPGA while she was 16. She medaled at the first stage of LPGA Q School by 10 strokes. Two weeks ahead of Stage II, Thompson broke away for a five-stroke victory at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail with a winning score of 17.
Since Thompson was not yet 18, she was not automatically granted LPGA membership for the victory. After another successful petition to Whan, she received her tour card for the 2012 season.
2014: Major breakthrough at Kraft Nabisco Championship
A closing bogey-free 68 on the Dinah Shore Course made Thompson, 19, the second- youngest major winner in LPGA history. Even though she would fall victim to one of golf’s most difficult rulings at the course three years later, the venue was arguably where Thompson played the best golf of her career. She would notch top-10s in seven of her next nine appearances.
2017: Rule-changing penalty in costly
Thompson held a two-stroke lead on Sunday headed to the 13th hole on the Dinah Shore Course when a viewer’s email may have changed the course of her career. LPGA vice president of rules and competition Sue Witters notified the 22-year-old she was being assessed a four-stroke penalty for misplacing her marked ball on the 17th green Saturday, which the LPGA reviewed after reading an email.
With the crowd on her side, Thompson rallied to get into a playoff with So Yeon Ryu. She lost on the first extra hole in the first of several painful major moments in Thompson’s career.
2017: An all-time Solheim half-point
Thompson’s opening singles match against Anna Nordqvist started terribly. She lost the first four holes to the Swede and still trailed by four when she made the turn at Des Moines Golf Club. After U.S. Solheim Captain Juli Inkster and assistant captain Nancy Lopez gave Thompson a pep talk, she broke out into one of the greatest stretches of her career, shooting eight under over seven holes. While Nordqvist won the 18th to halve the match, the half-point was part of a 16 ½-11½ American victory, the last time the U.S. won the Solheim.
2018: CME Group Tour Championship victory
Thompson took a three-week mental health break after withdrawing from the Women’s British Open in August, explaining she needed time away to feel like herself again. Three months later, Thompson triumphed at Tiburon Golf Club by four over Nelly Korda for her 10th career victory, Thompson’s first and only one in her home state of Florida.
2019: Eagle to win the Shoprite LPGA Classic
The week after a runner-up at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open, Thompson reached the par-5 18th in two, staring down a 20-footer for eagle to take a two-stroke lead. Thompson snuck the putt into the left side of the cup for an eventual one-shot win over the three-round event. The triumph marked her seventh consecutive season with a title. It was her last victory on the LPGA.
2021: U.S. Women’s Open collapse
Thompson held a five-stroke lead with nine to play before faltering on the Olympic Club’s back nine. A heart-wrenching closing 41 put the 26-year-old a stroke out of a two-player playoff won by Yuka Saso. Thompson joined Arnold Palmer, who lost a seven-shot lead with nine to play at the Lake Course at the 1966 U.S. Open, as victims of the track’s testing closing side.
2022: Major heartbreak strikes again in the Women’s PGA
Thompson, 27, held a two-shot lead with three to play at Congressional, setting the stage for redemption and a second major title. Instead, the short-game mistakes that plagued her game struck again: She scuffled to a bogey after getting greenside in two on the par;5 16th; missed the hole entirely on a two-foot par putt on the 14th; and left a 10-foot birdie putt to get into a playoff short on the 18th. The T-2 finish was her 17th top-10 in a major since her 2014 ANA Inspiration victory. Since then, she’s made only made one cut at a major in six starts, a T-47 at last year’s KPMG.
2023: Seventh woman to play on the PGA Tour
Thompson nearly became the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the weekend at a PGA Tour event, going 73-79 for an even-par finish to miss the cutline by two in the Children’s Shriners Open in Las Vegas. The then-28-year-old’s second round is only the second sub-70 score by a woman in tour history, joining Michelle Wie West’s 68 at the 2006 Sony Open.
