Alexis Thompson Makes U.S. Women’s Open History
At the age of 12, Alexis Thompson has worked hard to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open and in doing so has made history. The seventh-grade schoolgirl from Coral Springs, Florida, is mingling with her idols such as world number one Lorena Ochoa, Swedish star Annika Sorenstam, Australian legend Karrie Webb and more at the 3.1 million-dollar LPGA event. “I’m just excited that I made it. This whole week is going to be really cool,” she said. “It has been an awesome experience already. I’m just going to act normal and play my game.”
Thompson’s historic first round Thursday afternoon will be off the 10th tee in the third-to-last group, playing alongside American Angela Jerman and South Korean Amy Yang at Pine Needles Golf Club. Her goals are modest ones. “I’m going to try to make the cut,” Thompson said. “If I don’t that’s all right.” Scott Thompson, who coaches his daughter, will also serve as caddie this week as he tries to help her handle the chaos and attention. “We’re just hoping to make it a lot of fun for her, if we can manage to avoid getting too caught up in everything that goes on,” he said. “This is a surprise. But she’s surprised me at every level I’ve put her at.”
The pre-teen phenom, who signed her first autograph at age 10, qualified for the tournament in a 36-hole event June 11 in Florida, taking the sixth of eight berths at stake with rounds of 72 and 71. Thompson achieved the feat at 12 years, four months and one day - seven months and 20 days younger than the old mark set by Morgan Pressel in 2001 when she debuted in the Open here. Pressel, 19, now ranks fifth in the world. “I don’t know her very well, but to think she also qualified to play here, the same place I did, is pretty cool,” Pressel said. “She’s obviously a very good player. I’m excited to see her play and I hope she does well.”
Pressel won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April, becoming the youngest major champion in LPGA history at age 18 with her first professional triumph. She said her most nerve-wracking tee shot was her first shot at the 2001 Open. But Thompson is confident she can conquer her first-swing nerves. “I don’t think it’s going to scare me,” Thompson said. “I can see myself setting up and looking down this little aisle because people are all up against the ropes. Then I just hit the shot. Split the middle.” Michelle Wie, who shared third in last year’s Women’s Open, was the hot prodigy but the Hawaiian has faded with a wrist injury and repeated failures to make the cut against PGA men and an inability to defeat women in LPGA events.
Pressel’s major triumph stole Wie’s thunder and now Thompson is looking to steal her status as the youngest to make a US Women’s Open cut. Wie, now 17, was 13 when she qualified for the weekend and shared 39th in 2003. Thompson, who began hitting golf balls at age five and started playing events at age seven, now hits the ball 240 yards with regularity. It is a family affair. Her oldest brother Nicholas, 24, is among the money leaders on the US development circuit and brother Curtis, 14, is also a junior player.
But Alexis rules, having already become the second-youngest winner of an American Junior Golf Association event, Vicki Goetze was two days shy of 11 when she won in 1984, after qualifying for the circuit by winning the Doral Junior Publinx last December, dispatching top high school talent along the way.