Lexi Thompson already caused quite a stir when she went on Instagram last week and said she was glad she missed the cut at the Evian Championship.
Seems she was ticked off over the conditions of the resort course there in Evian-les-Bains.
So here’s something to ponder — why didn’t Lexi head for England last Saturday?
There was total chaos at Woburn Golf Club just outside Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England on Monday. Players showed up for a little early practice for the 2019 Women’s British Open but there were no golf clubs.
Here’s what happened.
Evidently on the women’s tour, they don’t bolt town they way the men do. Lexi was hanging around (hopefully practicing her short game and putting) and did what a bunch of the other players did — allow their clubs to be loaded on a large van for ground (driving) transport to England.
Ian Wright was driving the van.
Wright said he left France a little after 8 p.m. Sunday and was about two hours out of Evian, about 45 minutes out of Geneva, when he got a call informing him that Thompson’s passport was on his truck. He believed it was Lexi’s father, Scott, who called. Lexi was in Geneva and needed the passport to fly out of there.
Wright said he was asked if he could pull over and wait while Lexi’s caddie, Benji Thompson, took a taxi ride from Geneva to meet up with him.
And thus began the cluster-f#&k.
Wright had to unpack the entire van, which was jam-packed, probably over-loaded. Can’t imagine how long that took. Lexi’s caddie (brother Benji) finally got there and they found the bag and found Lexi’s passport.
Now things got messy after that.
Wright missed the ferry he was originally booked to take to England, and then he ended up stuck in a few brutal morning rush-hour traffic jams. And they can get pretty bad over there, just like over there in the States.
Thompson ended up with her own travel delays. A British Airways strike caused a cancellation of her flight. She missed a day of practice, too, failing to arrive as planned on Monday while scrambling for alternative flights.
In all, the clubs of 38 players, including Ariya Jutanugarn, Nelly Korda, Carlotta Ciganda and Anna Nordqvist. Most of the players waiting were looking to play practice rounds on Monday. Sadly, Ian arrived five to six hours later than planned, so late that when he finally showed up, Woburn wasn’t allowing players to begin any more practice rounds so that the grounds crew could get on the course to start their work.
The range did, however, stay open until 7 p.m.
Bad news is that Lexi will get a ton of grief from this screw-up.
Moral of the story — spend some money, charter a quick flight to England, take your clubs with you!
And that passport.
