Lexi Thompson received word last Sunday from her Arkansas manager that she’d earned a sponsor’s invite to the Shriners Children’s Open next week. Thompson will become only the seventh woman ever to compete on a PGA Tour.
The 28-year old, who will be teeing off in the Ascendant LPGA Benefitting Volunteers of America in Texas this week, said that it was the first time that she had been offered a place in a PGA Tour team.
She said, “I guess I’ve always played with the guys because I grew up around them and their friends.”
“I can’t say that playing on the PGA Tour has been a lifelong dream. It’s a given that I wanted to. “I learned so much from playing with the guys, and I’m very inspired by them. So it will be a wonderful opportunity for me.”
Meet the women who have competed in the PGA Tour
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Lexi Thompson chats with her brother and caddie, Nicholas Thompson, at the pro-am before the CME Group Tour Championship on November 16, 2020 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images).
The event will take place from Oct. 12-15, at TPC Summerlin. Last year’s course was 7,255 yards and had a par score of 71. A field of 132 players will compete for an $8.4-million purse.
Thompson, whose brothers both held PGA Tour cards said she was trying to gather as much information about TPC Summerlin as possible and that she planned to contact Las Vegas resident Danielle Kang to ask for tips.
She said that the invitation caught her off guard and that she had to change plans for the weekend, but she couldn’t miss out on what she called an “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Thompson, when asked what she expected from the week, said that all she hoped for was to enjoy it.
She said that her number one priority was to interact with the children and make a greater impact.
“I want to be a good golfer, of course. I know how to play my game, how hard I have been working and what my current game is. I must stay within my own game. “Don’t try to force things on a longer course.”
Brittany Lincicome, who competed in a PGA Tour tournament five years ago, was the last female to do so. Babe Zaharias did it first in 1935, at the Cascades Open. Zaharias, in 1945, made the cut for the Genesis Invitational. She is the only woman who has ever made the cut at a PGA Tour tournament.
