One year ago on the 72nd hole at this same CME Group Tour Championship, Lexi Thompson put an ugly yip-stroke on an 18-inch putt and it cost her the win.
Sure, she picked up a $1 million consolation prize with the overall season title but that yip was an outward sign that things weren’t all well in Lexi’s world.
She looked totally lost for most of the 2018 LPGA season. Her swing was off, her putting stroke was horrible and she was fighting her toughest opponent — herself.
At the tender age of 23 she was devoid of perhaps life’s most important thing — happiness.
She has money, fame, good looks and a great family but the biggest prize in life was missing — the little thing we all call “happiness.”
It can be a tough find these days. Keep in mind that this young lady has been playing high pressure golf since before she was a teenager. Prodigy is the word most often used and with it comes expectations, pressure and often times a childhood that is not normal, at least normal in the sense most of us understand.
Then there’s the burnout factor. Everyone knows what that is. Too much pressure too early, too much of everything except a normal life.
All Lexi ever wanted was some “normal” in her life — you could see it, sense it and feel it in the way she looked out there on the golf course. There was a lot of torment, a lot of uncertainty, not that many smiles. We won’t even mention the pressure that comes with being a world-class golfer.
At one point this past season, Lexi did the right thing — she stepped away from the game, took some serious time off — even if it meant skipping a major championship like the Ladies British Open.
Majors are great, happiness in life is even better.
Lexi was zero-for-whatever in the Happiness Hunt and she knew it. Add some really poor play into the equation and suddenly your life is one big mess.
The golf world starting getting tidbits here and there. She talked about a body-image issue, which makes you scratch your head when you consider she’s a world-class golfer who looks like a fitness model. She’s graced magazine covers with that prom-queen beauty of hers. Somehow she didn’t have that perception.
On the course, there were putting demons. She has extraordinary length off the tee. On the greens she wielded the putter like a 16-handicapper. When you miss from 18-inches, it does nothing for your confidence.
Which brings us back to this past week down in Naples.
Surrounded by her entire family and a bunch of friends, perhaps we got a glimpse of the restoration of Lexi Thompson. This was a different young woman on the fairways and greens at Tiburon during the CME Group Tour Championship. This is a power-player’s golf course, big fairways and Lexi showed what she’s capable of. An opening 65 was followed by rounds of 67 and 68 and she led 20-year-old Nelly Korda by three shots going into Sunday.
Korda didn’t have the experience and didn’t make enough birdies to threaten Lexi. By day’s end, Lexi was 18-under par, her closing 70 wasn’t spectacular but the good news is there were a ton of smiles on her face as she bantered all the way around with brother Curtis on the bag, her new caddie, for now.
Her putting stroke looked like it belonged to someone else, not the Lexi of 2017 or most of 2018. Her swing was better, she was on balance and under control. She went back to playing her familiar draw.
She won by four shots over Korda and beat the world’s No. 1, Ariya Jutanugarn, by six. She swapped spots with Jutanugarn. That missed putt at the 72nd hole last year gave the tournament to Ariya. This time the tournament was Lexi’s, her 10th win and it was Ariya walking away with that winner-take-all million from the CME Group.
Didn’t matter. What Lexi found was worth more than a million bucks.
Happiness. Finally.
Afterward, Lexi came up with the understatement of the year, referring to 2018 as “a little up-and-down.”
Welcome to life, Lexi, it’s always up-and-down.
“I’ve been playing golf all my life,” Thompson added. “I’ve come to realize that it’s just what I do. I have so much more to my life – my family and friends.”
And that little thing called happiness.
CME Tour Championship Scoreboard:
