Thompson’s Resilience Leads to Victory at Kingsmill

Yesterday, while Billy Horschel, Jason Day and James Hahn were battling it out at the Byron Nelson, Lexi Thompson was continuing her historic romp at the Kingsmill Championship, shooting a final round 65 to win the tournament in wire-to-wire fashion. Thompson also finished the tournament at 20-under par, which surpassed Annika Sorenstam’s 19-under record set in 2008. This is also Thompson’s first win since the Honda LPGA Thailand Championship in February of 2016.

Not only is this her first win in over a year, but it is also Lexi’s first victory since a controversial ruling cost her a second major championship at the ANA Inspirational, just seven weeks ago (If you haven’t heard about the ruling, click here to read all about it). The fact that she was able to win so quickly after being devastated by such a ruling is impressive by itself, but her dominant, wire-to-wire, five stroke victory is even more jaw-dropping.

In my opinion, the victory at Kingsmill might be the biggest one of her career. To lose the ANA in such a brutal fashion can really mess with a player’s head. This can have drastic, adverse effects on a player, especially in a sport where mental resilience is just as important as physical strength. Lexi was gifted with the ability to hit the ball a freakishly long distance, and can overpower a course similar to Dustin Johnson on the PGA Tour. However, the smallest mental lapse can throw even the best golfer off, and the penalty at the ANA had the potential to do that to Lexi.

The fact that Lexi came back, seven weeks after being absolutely devastated by the ruling at the ANA, and won in a romp over the field gives her a tremendous amount of confidence moving forward. It proves that she can still win tournaments at the highest level, and it replaces the memory of a tournament slipping from her hands with the memory of a tournament that she was able to close out. Now I’m not saying that she’s going to go on a Tiger-esque run as a result of this win, but in the long run, it will do an awful lot for her confidence. The moral of this story is that Lexi Thompson has firmly supplanted herself as one of the most prestigious golfers in the world, and her latest victory proves that not even a little rules blunder will jeopardize that position.

Written by Paul Choma