Lexi Thompson Make A Million Bucks The Hard Way

Is this the face of someone who just banked $1 million?

Lexi Thompson capped off quite the roller coaster year at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Remember, she endured the ridiculous 4-shot infraction ruling costing her a win at the ANA Inspiration major early in the year, her mother’s battle with cancer (thankfully she was recently declared cancer-free), her grandma passing away and her latest head-scratcher on the final hole at the CME via ESPN’s Bill Fields.

Thompson went to No. 18 leading by one and was on the green of the 425-yard par 4 in regulation. From 60 feet after reading the putt with caddie Kevin McAlpine, she lagged beautifully, cozying her ball two feet left of the hole. So little was left that if Thompson hadn’t been worried about stepping in the lines of fellow competitors Austin Ernst and Jessica Korda, she said she would have putted instead of marking.

When it was time, to finish off a tournament and end a trying season in style, there was no reason to call McAlpine over for his opinion. “I just mentioned to her, ‘You’ve got it,’ and my job’s done,” said McAlpine, who didn’t watch what happened next.

This is what happened next.

Sometimes it truly is “how” rather than “how much” with golf.

“I don’t really know what happened there,” Thompson said afterwards. “Yeah, it just happens. I guess it’s golf. I guess we all go through situations we don’t like sometimes.”

Golfweek’s Kevin Casey provides the post mortems.

Thompson came to the final hole Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club with a one-shot lead at 15 under and left herself a two-foot par putt to get herself in the clubhouse one ahead of everyone at that number.

Essentially, Thompson had a near tap-in, and if it dropped, Ariya Jutanugarn would need a birdie at the last just to force a playoff.

If Jutanugarn couldn’t, that would mean Thompson would win the event and the Player of the Year race thanks to the 30 points given to the player there for a victory in the season finale (and she would’ve moved to World No. 1!). Obviously, Thompson would’ve captured the Race to CME and Vare Trophy in this instance, too.

To make matters crueler for Thompson, she couldn’t even redeem herself in a playoff, as Jutanugarn would birdie the 18th to win by one and relegate Thompson to the T-2 finish that prevented her from capturing Player of the Year honors (which Sung Hyun Park and So Yeon Ryu ended up sharing).

With all that, a million bucks isn’t the worst consolation prize…