RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Lexi Thompson was a combined 43 under at the Chevron Championship the past five years heading into this week. Lydia Ko stood closest to her in that stretch at 37 under.
Mission Hills is Thompson’s favorite stop on tour. The 27-year-old won here in 2014 and then put herself in the conversation at the season’s first major nearly every year after that. Of course, what happened in 2017 on the back nine of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course became a legendary nightmare: a four-stroke penalty that rocked the golf world and a comeback that sent chills down the spines of all who gathered around Poppie’s Pond to watch the finish.
But, of course, Thompson came up short to So Yeon Ryu that week. The rules of golf have since changed and many feel Thompson is owed one here. Had she won that week, what kind of trajectory would that momentum have taken her?
