It’s not entirely surprising that Lexi Thompson is the player who will become the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event. She played alongside the men in the QBE Shootout for six years and has two brothers who have held PGA Tour cards. One of the most powerful women in the game, for years Thompson has seemed like a prime candidate to land a PGA Tour sponsor exemption.
That time has come for Thompson, who will tee it up on a sponsor invite at next week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, Golfweek has learned. The event will be played Oct. 12-15 at TPC Summerlin, which last year played 7,255 yards with a par of 71. The field of 132 will compete for a purse of $8.4 million.
That Thompson chose to seize the opportunity this season, however, may raise some eyebrows. But the good news is that her game is trending after a 3-1-0 Solheim Cup performance and her best finish of the season – a share of eighth – at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. It marked her first top-10 finish since November 2022.
“I’m hopeful that my ability to play with the men next week at the Shriners Children’s Open sends a great message to the young women that you can chase your dream regardless of how hard it is,” Thompson said in a statement. “I cannot wait to come to the city of Las Vegas, and I’m grateful to Shriners Children’s for this opportunity to spend the week alongside these inspirational kids.”
An 11-time winner on the LPGA, the 28-year-old Thompson has grown up on big stages since she first qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 12.
Thompson missed five cuts in a row over the summer and looked like a liability for Team USA when she made the 12-player squad based on her Rolex Ranking. But she undoubtedly found something in the month of September, and it was enough for captain Stacy Lewis to ask Thompson to hit the first tee shot in Spain and anchor her singles lineup on Sunday.
“We are thrilled to welcome Lexi to the 2023 tournament,” said Patrick Lindsey, Executive Director of Shriners Children’s Open. “Shriners Children’s mission is to help all children live their best life regardless of what medical challenges lay in front of them. We are eager to have Lexi on the course and continue to break through barriers, just as our more than 1.5 million patients do every day.”
The history of women competing in official PGA Tour events is short but fascinating. The great Babe Zaharias, the original LPGA needle-mover who was named “Woman Athlete of the 20th Century” by the Associated Press, remains the only female to make a cut in a PGA Tour event, doing so at the 1945 Los Angeles Open.
In photos: See Lexi Thompson through the years
Annika Sorenstam credits her triumphant but controversial Bank of America Colonial appearance in 2003 as the event that took her game and her drive to another level. Sorenstam missed the cut by four strokes, but that week also took her status in the sports world to a new sphere.
“I left with so much confidence and obviously I took my game to a different level,” Sorenstam told Golf Channel earlier this year. “I worked so much harder and pushed myself. Being under the microscope and playing against the men, it tested every little bone in my body. I told myself if I could handle this pressure, I can handle any pressure. … It was a different me.”
Michelle Wie West came astoundingly close to making the cut at age 14 when she came within a stroke at the 2004 Sony Open after a second-round 68. She’d tee it up seven more times against the men but never made the weekend.
Brittany Lincicome is the most recent woman to receive a PGA Tour sponsor exemption at the 2018 Barbasol Championship. The two-time major winner had a string of three consecutive birdies in the second round as well as a hole-out for eagle on the 17th, but it wasn’t enough to make the cut in soft conditions.
“Just being inside the ropes with the guys, hitting on the range, on the putting green, it’s just a cool feeling,” said Lincicome after her second-round 71. “I feel like I’m at home here. The guys just made me feel so comfortable.”
