Wasn’t the start Lexi Thompson was looking for.
Wasn’t the start she wanted or needed, wasn’t good at all.
The Princess Of Par Fives hit her opening drive at Tiburon into the marsh.
It would be a harbinger of things to come for the points leader in the grand finale down in Naples to determine the 2017 CME Globe winner.
There’s a lot on the line at their Tour Championship and there was Thompson, taking a penalty shot right off the bat.
Things didn’t get better. Her third found the same hazard but was playable, wasn’t wet, stayed up inside the red lines.
Thompson then hit a heckuva fourth just off the green and got up-an-down for bogey six.
“You don’t want to start that way, but I made a great putt for bogey and just tried to go on to the rest of the round with a positive attitude,” Thompson said. “I played some solid golf after that and committed to my shots a lot better.”
Maybe Thompson was tight, maybe she was a bit off after some time at home while the rest of the contenders played over in China. Whatever it was, Thompson basically got her doors blown off by playing partner Sung Hyun Park.
Park is a huge threat to take this overall title. She sits at second in the points race behind Thompson and now she’s projected to win it all. That’s because Park was her typically unemotional, surgical self as she fashioned a five-under par 67. She got there with birdies on two of her final three holes.
As for Thompson, the longest hitter out there, her downfall was her inability to take advantage of the par fives. The 485-yard par five 17th pretty much summed up her frustrating performance. She launched a perfect 280-yard drive, dead center. Her second came up just short, maybe six yards but no big deal, it was an easy up and down for just about anyone with their name on the side of their golf bag.
Or not.
Thompson’s chip left her with a testy seven-footer for birdie and on a day like the one Thompson was having, that’s the last thing she needed. Sure enough, she pulled it a tad and lipped it out.
She played the par fives in one-over, mind-boggling for a player of her skill-level.
The good news is that this tournament is a four-day marathon, not a one-day sprint.
But if Thompson is going to pull this one out, she’s going to have to catch fire because she’s behind the eight-ball from the get-go.
Park beat her by four. No. 3 Shanshan Feng beat her by a shot, so did No. 5 Brooke Henderson. The only top five player Thompson beat was So Yeon Ryu and she re-aggravated a previous shoulder injury and struggled just to finish.
The surprise leaders after the first 18 were rookie Peiyun Chien from Taiwan and Aussie Sarah Jane Smith. They were in with 66s.
But all American eyes are on Thompson.
She stumbled out of the blocks but has three days to make up for it.
She needs birdies, lots of them.
Desperately.
