It would have made the perfect photo-op, but for one key missing ingredient — the news cameras.
Lexi Thompson must not have noticed.
The LPGA Tour superstar was playing in the Dana Open pro-am Wednesday at Highland Meadows when she spotted a father and son in the gallery on the second tee.
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She invited the boy to join her inside the ropes and began to ask all about his golf game, including how far he could bomb it off the tee himself.
Lexi Thompson signs autographs after finishing on No. 18 during round three of the LPGA Dana Open at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, in 2022.
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“One hundred fifteen yards,” replied 8-year-old Beau Harris of Toledo.
“Wow!” Thompson replied. “That’s awesome.”
After Dana CEO Jim Kamsickas then hit the pin from 150 yards, Thompson handed Beau her putter for the group’s resulting birdie try.
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His seven-footer burned the right edge, eliciting cheers all around. When Thompson sank the putt moments later, she high-fived the boy and said: “I had the perfect read.”
She and her newest fan both wore smiles wider than Tenmile Creek.
I share this for a couple reasons:
One, it was a feel-good highlight of a day that started with a literal bang. (One of the first amateurs off the tee yanked his drive dead left into … a display of new cars, smashing the window of a Subaru SUV.)
Lexi Thompson lines up her shot during the first round of the Dana Open at Highland Meadows in Sylvania, July 18.
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Also, it spoke to the great paradox of Thompson’s career.
While many athletes are known for acting one way when the cameras are rolling and another when they are not — Phil Mickelson comes to mind — she is just the opposite.
Perception is not necessarily reality, in the best sense.
With the media, Thompson can be difficult.
With the fans — and sponsors and volunteers — she is a delight.
I’ve seen it for a dozen years here. A lot of players talk about their part in growing the game. She lives it, saying yes to just about every request — namely, Can I have your autograph? — and yet still asking questions of her own.
“It is common for her to contact us ahead of the tournament to see if we’d like her to attend any tournament functions, visit children’s charities or meet with sponsors,” longtime Dana Open director Judd Silverman said. “Lexi always goes the extra mile to connect with kids.”
What can Thompson say?
“I love doing for others and making other people happy rather than myself,” she said. “I mean, it might be one of my better traits, but it also might be one of my worst ones, too. I just love seeing other people happy.”
As we celebrate Thompson during what may or may not be her final tournament here — the 29-year-old former phenom is retiring from full-time competition after the season — let us appreciate that part of her legacy, too.
It is not the side of her you might always see on TV.
In her retirement announcement, she characterized her relationship with golf as “complicated.” She could have said the same of her relationship with the media.
Thompson could be defensive and terse and even elusive. Thompson was blistered on social media for blowing off reporters after many of her major championship disappointments, most prominently the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at the Olympic Club. On that Sunday, she gave away a five-shot lead in the final round, then declined a TV interview and cut off her press conference after two questions.
Was that being unaccountable? Or human?
To me, it betrayed a conflicted soul and an understandable weariness after what must have felt like a lifetime in the spotlight.
A lifetime in the unsparing public eye after playing in her first U.S. Open at 12 and turning pro at 15, then experiencing great success — including 11 LPGA Tour wins — but never quite the heights everyone imagined. (Yes, it is hard to believe she’s won only one major.)
Again, it’s complicated.
But through it all, what never changed was her relationship with the constituency that mattered most.
The fans.
Thompson always returned every bit as much love as she received, including that night at the 2021 U.S. Open. All the while she was getting dragged for not facing the press, she made time for all the little girls and boys who spent the day chanting her name: Lexi! Lexi! Lexi! She signed for every one of them, through tears.
That might not be the superstar everyone knows.
But it’s the one that fans here know.
And the buttons they’ll receive Friday on her day of honor at the Dana Open will say it best.
Thank you, Lexi.
First Published July 18, 2024, 12:08 a.m.
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