Lexi Thompson wants to set a couple things straight.
After missing the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, Thompson took to social media on Sunday morning to defend her pace of play and maintain that she’s not, in fact, retired.
Multiple photos and video clips showed Charley Hull, who was grouped with Thompson and Nelly Korda for the first 36 holes, seemingly frustrated with the slow pace. In one image, Hull was sitting on the ninth tee box at Erin Hills before Thompson finished up her eighth hole. Hull was also filmed sighing as Thompson took a while to stroke her putt on the opening hole.
“In reality, my game wasn’t ready for the week, even though I put a lot of hard work into it, but that wasn’t going to stop me from fighting through the week,” Thompson wrote. “I also want to add on this, because pace of place was a huge talk this week. Want people to realize our group basically waited on every single hole on the group in front. We were never out of position, warned, or [put] on clock. I’ll be the first one to say I’m not as fast as my playing partners the two days, but I’m also the last person that wants to be out there for six hours. So, before you make assumptions, make sure you get all the facts right before basing it on pictures and little clips. That’s all!”
Thompson then transitioned to the subject of her retirement, or non-retirement. It was at last summer’s U.S. Women’s Open where Thompson announced she was stepping away from full-time golf. The announcement was made via a long video montage while the LPGA put out a release that read, “Lexi Thompson announces retirement from LPGA Tour.” For the rest of the season, Thompson was showered with thank-you messages from tournaments and fans. When she ended her year at the CME Group Tour Championship, she tearfully said, “It was very emotional. Really wasn’t until I got to No. 9 for some reason. Kind of all hit me. Yeah, it’s just always a special week regardless if it was my last tournament as a full-time schedule or not.”
This week’s U.S. Women’s Open was Thompson’s fifth start of the year. Last year, she made her seventh start of the season at the championship.
“I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to repeat this, but I never used the word retire,” Thompson wrote. “I said not a full-time schedule, because I’m not sure how much I will play. Just taking it one at a time. That’s why I’m still playing the tournaments I actually enjoy or want to play in.”
