McAlpine’s dad, Hamish, a former Scottish football star, confirmed his son’s unexpected death while speaking to The Courier.

“We can confirm that Kevin has passed away in America. We are completely in the dark about what has happened. It is true that he has been unwell but we believed he was on the mend.

“There is to be an autopsy and at the moment there is very little we can say. We really don’t want to talk about this at this stage. As a family we are completely devastated. You can imagine how we are feeling.”

McAlpine had also been married to LPGA star Anna Nordqvist. But the three-time major champion revealed in August that the two were going through a divorce. According to Bunkered, Nordqvist has withdrawn from this week’s BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea to fly back to the U.S.

McAlpine was a Scottish Amateur champion, who played collegiately at Colorado State University. After failing to make it as a pro, he briefly took a job as a sales rep before getting into caddying and landing Lexi’s bag in 2017.

The two worked together for 18 months until parting ways ahead of the 2018 CME Group Championship. That time included Thompson’s controversial four-shot penalty, which cost her the 2017 ANA Inspiration.

McAlpine was also on the bag for Amy Yang as well as PGA Tour winner and fellow countryman, Martin Laird.

Main image: Lexi Thompson holds the Solheim Cup with her caddie Kevin McAlpine after the closing ceremony at the 2017 Solheim Cup. David Cannon

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She was just the seventh woman in history to try, and for a while, it looked like she might. Thompson played her way inside the cutline deep into her second round., but her rounds of 73-69 meant she was likely to miss as play continued on Friday. Her run but her run captivated and inspired the golf world along the way. And her good play wasn’t just the result of elite skill, but clever game management.

How Lexi chased roll

On the course, the primary issue that Thompson, like the trailblazing female golfers before her, was a relative lack of driving distance.

Thompson played from the same set of tees as her male counterparts at the Shriners. Her average ball speed hovered around 155 mph for most of the tournament. The PGA Tour’s average tour speed, by contrast, is 172 mph. It led to a distance discrepancy that left Thompson ranked 116th in the field in Driving Distance, with a 301-yard average.

Yet through an adept combination of elite level skill and smarts, Lexi was able to mitigate this disadvantage, and put herself in contention to make the cut anyway.

Thompson’s stock shot off the tee is a draw — a shot that moves from right-to-left. But as the tournament unfolded, golf fans watching closely could see Thompson turning the dial up and down on her draw at different points during her round.

On certain holes where Lexi didn’t need to stretch more distance out of her drives, she would turn the dial down, hitting a shot that that flew higher than her standard, with slightly more backspin, and mostly straight.

We saw this on the second hole, which moves severely from left-to-right (an awkward fit for her right-to-left draw players) during her first round.

We saw it also on the reachable par-4 15th hole during her second round. Lexi had the distance required to reach the green with a driver, so the priority became landing something soft enough to hold the green—which she did.

She’s got the ?????!@Lexi drives the green on the 296-yard par-4 15th @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/3CFrK7MrKQ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

Then, on holes where Thompson needed as much distance as she could muster, she turned the dial up. Her stock right-to-left draw became bigger and more severe, which reduced the amount of backspin on her drives. When Lexi turned to this shot the ball landed and rolled — a lot. It allowed her to maximite her driving distance to her fullest extend, especially as the fairways began firming up over the course of her rounds.

We saw this on the fourth hole, one of the longest par-4s on the course, during her second round.

Lexi roping right-to-left draws to maximize roll on a course that's firming up.

46 yards of roll on this drive

So awesome. pic.twitter.com/0mKtZJPpFj

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) October 13, 2023

You could also spot it on the nearly 600-yard 13th hole during her first round.

It’s not easy to conjure up this amount of curve on your driver and still maintain enough accuracy to hit the fairway, but Thompson did. She ranked inside the top 20 in driving accuracy over the week, which helped her SG/off-the-tee ranking (81st) jump higher than her driving distance ranking (116th).

It was an impressive display of control and creativity from a player who makes her money on the LPGA Tour leaning on her distance. But that’s what great players do. When the circumstances call for it, they adapt. That’s what Lexi did, and it was a joy to watch.

What the rest of us can learn

As for the takeaway for the rest of us? That too much backspin on drives is a driving distance killer. If you hit a slice, you almost certainly have too much distance-killing backspin. Same with if you have a driver that isn’t fit for your swing. It’s all about landing in your optimal zone.

Main image: Michael Owens

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With just five holes remaining on Friday, however, Thompson seemed on the verge of adding her name to a much shorter list of women who made the cut. The ledger included just one golfer — the legendary multi-sport athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who made two cuts in 1945. But with play continuing on Friday afternoon at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Thompson was going to fall short after making bogeys on two par 3s — her 14th and 17th holes.

Thompson, 28, finished with a two-under-par 69, good for an even-par total after an opening 73, and when she tapped in for par on 18, the projected cut line remained where it had been most of the morning, at one-under. Less than an hour later, it moved to two-under, meaning Thompson was all but eliminated.

“I knew the cut line would keep on going lower and lower with these guys, especially with not that much wind out there,” Thompson said after her round. “I would say the biggest challenge was … probably just some of the pin locations. They tuck them very close to the edges to where you have to hit high shots and carry it and be able to stop it within two bunkers or a narrow part of the green. … I don’t get it as far down as the guys, so I have a little bit longer of a shot.”

Thompson’s parents greeted her on the 18th green, and a few minutes later, she took pride in the bigger picture.

“It’s an amazing feeling … just to be able to come here and follow my dreams,” she said. “It’s something I wanted to do, playing against my brothers growing up, all the guys are so welcoming, so I’m very grateful for that. But the biggest thing was being out there and seeing the kids and meeting some of the Shriners kids as well. That’s what it’s all about.”

If she fell achingly short of her on-course goals, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Thompson began her second round on the back nine, made bogey on 10, but quickly rebounded with a terrific approach on 11 from 152 yards that set up an easy birdie.

Right at it ?@Lexi sets herself up for birdie on No. 11 @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/5FA8gKgcIS

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

On the par-5 13th, she followed up a 314-yard drive with a second shot that came to rest in the fringe, leading to a two-putt birdie. Two holes later, on the 296-yard par-4 15th, she unleashed the power that saw her gain nearly a stroke over the rest of the field off the tee in the opening wave on Friday and drove on to the green.

She’s got the ?????!@Lexi drives the green on the 296-yard par-4 15th @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/3CFrK7MrKQ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

Another two-putt birdie moved her to two-under on the day, and she rounded out her opening nine with a trio of stress-free pars. The peak of Thompson’s round came as the made the turn, when she poured in her longest putt of the day to that point at No. 1, a 23-footer that moved her to one-under.

A hole later, the putter stayed hot, and she drained a 28-foot birdie that, when it fell, put Thompson at two-under and gave her a legitimate chance to play par golf down the stretch and make the cut.

Back-to-back birdies for @Lexi!

She moves to 2-under and one shot inside the cutline @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/Z8kR9bfPX1

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

After two more pars, though, Thompson pushed her tee shot on the long par-3 fifth hole far to the right and was forced to take a penalty. She recovered impressively, hitting her third after a drop to five feet and saving bogey. But on eight, the next par 3, her tee shot ran through the green and she left her chip 11 feet short. (It’s possible she would have putted the ball if not for a sprinkler head in her path.) Thompson missed the par putt to fall back to even for the tournament, and while she gave herself a shot to reach one-under at the par-5 ninth, she couldn’t convert her six-foot birdie effort.

“I knew that this golf course can play very firm and that the greens could get super bouncy, so I was expecting that,” Thompson said. “But I had to play — even with wedges — play for about five to seven feet of bounce-out, and that’s not normal coming from a Florida golfer. It was something to get used to.”

“It was fun to watch,” said her playing partner Trevor Werbylo. “We were kind of rooting for her the last few holes to maybe make a birdie or two to make the cut, but it was fun. She was great, her game was great, and the crowd was awesome.”

A chorus of other players praised Thompson’s effort on Friday, including Cameron Champ, who held the lead at 12-under when Thompson finished.

“It’s a lot longer, probably slightly different conditions than what they play on,” Champ said. “And, yeah, I just think for the women’s game, it just inspires those other young girls that are watching her just to help grow the game in women’s golf. Definitely think it’s huge.”

Thompson admitted she became emotional at times with the sheer outpouring of support from the gallery.

“It’s the best feeling, just seeing the amount of kids that were out there screaming, ‘Lexi, Lexi, go Lexi!'” she said. “It makes me tear up sometimes, because that’s what I play for, to inspire these little kids, boys or girls, to just get a club in their hand and follow their dreams, whether it’s golf or anything in life.

“I’m tired,” Thompson added, summing up her physical state. “My body is definitely feeling it, but knowing me I’ll probably go to the gym this afternoon.”

Main image: Orlando Ramirez

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In every respect, the 11-time LPGA winner easily justified her invitation to play at TPC Summerlin. She’s the seventh woman to tee up on the PGA Tour, following Babe Zaharias (1935-46), Shirley Spork (1952), Annika Sorenstam (2003), Suzy Whaley (2003) Michelle Wie West (2004-08) and Brittany Lincicome (2018).

Thompson was one-over through 16 holes, although she’ll face a 21-foot putt for par at the difficult par-3 17th when play resumes. Beau Hossler is the leader with a nine-under 62.

“I played decent. I had one bad hole and a few iffy shots,” Thompson said after play was called. “But it’s golf. It’s been great this whole week. Everybody has been so welcoming and just a huge honour just to be able to tee it up here. The fans were amazing. So many people around that first tee and then following us those next few holes. There’s more to it than just golf. Shriners does amazing things for these kids.”

Thompson found a fairway bunker from the first tee shot, where she said the nerves were comparable to the first tee at the recent Solheim Cup in Spain. Thompson went 3-1-0 for the US. “I had a little bit of nerves, but not too much. Kind of similar to Solheim, but that’s what you play for.”

She handled those nerves well. Despite finding the fairway bunker at No. 1, the 28-year-old from Florida stuffed her approach to close range. Although she missed the birdie putt, Thompson found one at the next hole, where she hit a 304-yard drive and drained a 22-foot putt for a three.

“That was a very special feeling,” she said. “I hit a great shot into one and probably hit one of my worst putts. I hit an amazing putt on number two, so it was nice to have a good stroke there and make birdie on a more difficult hole.”

Her round fell apart briefly over the next six holes, with a bogey at No. 3, a double-bogey at No. 7, before another bogey at No. 8. But Thompson bounced back at the par-5 ninth, hitting a perfect drive and then a 255-yard fairway metal to reach the green in two. Her eagle putt just missed.

“I hit a good drive and just really stayed committed to that 3-wood,” she said. “I tried to make eagle, but definitely take a birdie.”

Thompson got another one back at the par-5 13th and rattled off three more pars before arriving at the 17th, where she missed the green and left her long bunker shot to 21 feet.

“[The 195-yard tee shot] is definitely not the shot you want to wake up super early in the cold and hit that tee ball,” she said of being able to hit that before play was called. “But yeah. I’ll see if I can make that putt tomorrow.”

Main image: Michael Owens

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“Yes, good golf is a successful week,” Thompson, 28, said in a press conference. But, she added: “If I can leave here inspiring others, and especially the kids, the Shriners kids, that’s what it’s all about and what this tournament is. There is more than just playing golf.”

Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA, received the invite from the Shriners in late September and said on Tuesday that playing in a PGA Tour event “means the world to me.”

Predictably, she and the tournament organisers faced some backlash for taking a spot in the field from a male player who could use the opportunity to further his earnings in the autumn events that are critical to players attempting to re-earn their PGA Tour cards for next season. Veteran Peter Malnati, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, initially reacted by calling Thompson’s inclusion a “gimmick.” But he back peddled on those comments later, adding: “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know that having Lexi play is a gimmick, but I don’t think the tournaments are going to have to go to those kind of lengths to drum up interest and get storylines that they can sell because I think these events are actually going to have a lot of meaning.”

Asked about her reaction to the comments, Thompson said: “No reaction. I knew some comments were going to happen with anything. Like I said, I’m out here playing of course with the men, but I want to leave a message just to the kids that I’m following my dreams and to go after what you want with a positive mindset and don’t let anybody’s comments or reaction get in the way of that.

“But it’s all good,” she added with a smile. “I mean, I expected it.”

The invite may be controversial, but its place in history is noteworthy. Six women have preceded Thompson in teeing it up against the men — the last being Brittany Lincicome on a sponsor’s invite in the 2018 Barbasol Championship. Lincicome missed the cut, though she shot 71 in the second round to join Michelle Wie West as the only women to break par in a PGA Tour event. Wie West holds the record of eight starts against the men, but she never reached the weekend. The only woman to make the cut is Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who pulled it off twice in 1945.

Those who followed Zaharias in playing against the men were Shirley Spork, Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley, Wie West and Lincicome.

Thompson, who struggled badly for much of the LPGA season but is coming off resurgent play in which she went 3-1-0 in the Solheim Cup and finished solo fifth last week in Texas, faces long odds to make the weekend in Las Vegas. Last year, the cut came at four-under par at TPC Summerlin, which is listed at 7,225 yards — or about 700 yards longer than Old American Golf Club was set up in last week’s LPGA Ascendent.

Though Thompson is among the longest hitters on the LPGA, ranking 12th in driving distance at 270 yards, there are six par 4s at Summerlin that measure more than 440 yards and two that are longer than 460. (One par 5 is listed at 606.) That will put a lot of long irons and fairway woods in her hands.

Still, Thompson said she is relishing the opportunity to “bomb driver everywhere”.

“The last few weeks I didn’t hit too many drivers, but you still have to hit the golf shots on the LPGA Tour,” Thompson said. “It’s just I don’t get to take advantage of sometimes my length on a few of those holes.

“Here, it’s driver on every hole, and I definitely like that. Fire away and swing, get the most distance I can on a few of those holes.”

On Tuesday, Thompson played in a practice round with Michael Kim and Ben Griffin, and both came away impressed.

“I thought she’s hitting it great,” Kim said on the LPGA’s Instagram account. “This course is probably a little longer than she’s used to, but I thought she was hitting it well.”

Added Griffin: “She was striping it. She was hitting it closer than us on a few holes. That’s to be expected. She has a ton of talent. She can handle it out there. Being firmer conditions, it’s a little different, but I think she’s adjusting well. She played awesome today and I think she can compete this week and have a chance to at least make it to the weekend.”

In his interview last week, Malnati said what many are probably thinking about Thompson’s appearance: “Who knows what’ll happen; she may go play really well, and it’ll be huge. She may play absolutely terrible and finish 132nd.”

At least for Thompson, the results seem hardly the point.

“If I can inspire one individual, I would feel like I’m making progress,” she said. “Of course, yes, I want to play good. That’s a whole other story. There is more to life than performing well. That’s what I want to do, inspire others.”

Main image: Lexi Thompson. Richard Heathcote

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“I just got a text this morning, so I don’t know much about it,” said Peter Malnati while speaking to the press at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship. “Obviously, I know that Lexi at times has been one of the top players on the LPGA Tour, and she’s obviously very athletic. Distance won’t be a problem. She’ll hit it far enough.

“My gut reaction when I saw that was like the tournament reaching to try to get — just trying to drum up interest. I think I understand that, if that is the case.”

Malnati, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, went on to say that the tour doesn’t need to “resort to gimmicks” and that he was surprised by the move.

Immediately, though, Malnati corrected himself.

?? Peter Malnati calls Lexi Thompson a ''Gimmick'' and then quickly retracts statement. pic.twitter.com/prCiPQsfQn

— PGA Bonus (@PGABonus) October 5, 2023

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Malnati continued. “I don’t know that having Lexi play is a gimmick, but I don’t think the tournaments are going to have to go to those kind of lengths to drum up interest and get storylines that they can sell because I think these events are actually going to have a lot of meaning.

“Like I said, change is hard for everyone at every level, so I assume if you’re a host organisation of a tournament … you just don’t know right now for sure what you have anymore because the fall is completely reimagined.”

Malnati isn’t sure how Thompson will fare next week, but he does know that she has the talent to make the cut and keep things interesting.

“Having Lexi play certainly will get a lot of headlines, and if that’s the goal for Shriners and the host organisation in Vegas there, that’s great,” Malnati said while choosing his words carefully. “Obviously, she’s a professional athlete. She’s accomplished a lot.”

Thompson competing on the PGA Tour will be the first for a woman athlete since Brittany Lincicome accepted a sponsor exemption for the Barbasol Championship back in 2018. We’ll find out soon enough if she gets paired with Peter Malnati.

Main image: Kate McShane/R&A

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The 11-time LPGA winner has accepted a sponsor’s invite to play in the Shriner’s Childrens Open, which begins on October 12 in Las Vegas. ESPN’s Michael Collins broke the news on Twitter.

“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’m grateful to Shriners Children’s for this opportunity to spend the week alongside these inspirational kids.”

Thompson has previously played with the men six times in the unofficial PGA Tour event, the QBE Shootout. She also has two brothers, Curtis and Nicholas, who have both played on the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours.

The 28-year-old Thompson will be the seventh woman to play in a PGA Tour event dating back to Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who made the cut at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Brittany Lincicome was the last to do it at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lexi to the 2023 tournament,” said Patrick Lindsey, executive director of the Shriners Children’s Open. “We are eager to have Lexi on the course and continue to break through barriers.”

Thompson has struggled in 2023, but she’s coming off her best finish of the season, a T-8 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. And the week before that she went 3-1 for Team USA at the Solheim Cup.

Main image: Alex Slitz

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A hard-fought match between Lexi and teammate Lilia Vu against Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall went to the final hole with the sides tied. The Americans seemingly had the advantage when Lexi’s second shot ended up just short of the green in the rough short of the hole. And Maguire’s third shot rolled off the green down a hill.

That’s when the vagaries of match play took over. Maguire chipped in for her latest Solheim Cup highlight moment, meaning that a half-point for the Europeans was secured if Lexi got up and down.

Turns out, Lexi would not get up and down … and instead provided a lowlight for what was otherwise a bright Friday for the Americans. She shanked a pitch shot.

Lexi almost took out her teammate, their caddies and even the cameraman with this shank ? pic.twitter.com/EW72Cma9Z8

— Stephen Hennessey (@S_HennesseyGD) September 22, 2023

Just brutal. Lexi ended up hitting a brilliant fourth shot to within two feet, but a par wasn’t good enough after Maguire’s heroics.

Lexi secured a point earlier in the day alongside Megan Khang, quieting the critics who questioned why Stacy Lewis would send out Lexi first after the Solheim Cup veteran made only three cuts all year. But Lexi responded … until that third shot on Friday. Her American side still will take a 5-3 lead into Saturday’s sessions.

Solheim Cup

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Listed under the player-profile sections in the official Solheim Cup programme are each competitor’s best results from 2023. European stalwart Celine Boutier’s, by way of example, takes up six lines and contains three wins, including her major championship victory at the Amundi Evian Championship. On the other side of the transatlantic aisle, America’s Nelly Korda has eight lines of text, detailing a plethora of top-10 finishes as well as a lone victory.

Then there is Lexi Thompson. Under her profile there is only a blank space. Sadly, by saying absolutely nothing, that gap spoke volumes. As has been well-documented, the 28-year-old Floridian has not played anything like her best this season. In fact, she had been a lot closer to her worst, a frustrating state of affairs for a player good enough to win a major title — the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship — while still a teenager.

Needless to say, the numbers are a long way from pretty. In 11 starts on the LPGA this year, Thompson has missed the cut eight times. Of the 28 rounds she has played, in only five has she hit the ball fewer than 70 times. Only eight times has she broken par. Her best finish (and her most recent) is T-19 at the Kroger Queen City Championship earlier this month.

A deeper dive into the statistics makes no more pleasant reading. While Thompson is a respectable 14th in driving distance on the LPGA — always a strength of her game — she is a subterranean 155th in accuracy off the tee. Four times out of 10 she misses the fairway. On every third hole she misses the green in regulation. And in those 28 rounds she averages 30.5 putts for the 18 holes. That places her 133rd on tour in that category.

Things do look a little better when Thompson’s record against the Europeans is taken into account. Her overall record is 6-6-7, made up of 2-3-3 in four-balls, 3-2-1 in foursomes and 1-1-3 in singles. Not bad, but not great either.

All of which added together made it only natural that the world No. 26 (a tribute to the quality of her play before this year) should be asked about her form, or lack of it, coming into her sixth Solheim Cup. It was an obvious question, which received a predictably defiant answer.

“Well, I don’t think match play has anything to do with it,” said Thompson in response to a politely worded inquiry as to whether playing without a card in her hands might make a positive difference to her confidence level this week. “Match play, stroke play, you still have to play your game and golf. But, yeah, this might not have been the year that I wanted, but this is this week. I’m not focusing on the past. I’m here with my team this week and going to represent my best.”

Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang. Stuart Franklin

Citing the recent struggles of two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas and adding to the “all for one” atmosphere, Thompson’s teammate, Danielle Kang, was quick to chip in with some mildly sarcastic support for her compatriot.

“It’s like Justin said: ‘Any shot, any moment can change your game,’” countered Kang. “Can’t rely on an entire player’s career on just how she’s been playing lately, right?”

Kang didn’t exactly strengthen that argument when, in reference to her own game, she said: “Numbers don’t lie, man. One plus one equals two. I love it. Just keep telling me my stats.”

It is, however, hard to imagine Lexi Thompson feels the same way. Not right now at least.

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Lexi Thompson’s 12th season on the LPGA Tour is unlike any other in her career. Instead of remaining a consistent force atop the tour’s leaderboards, the American star’s struggles heading into the AIG Women’s Open have Thompson facing questions she has never had to answer throughout her career. Can she, at 28, maintain her spot for her sixth consecutive Solheim Cup team? And even stranger to ponder, can the 11-time winner maintain full LPGA status?

“I have been struggling this year,” Thompson said on Wednesday at Walton Heath, where the Women’s Open begins on Thursday. “I can’t deny that. I started off with a good finish in Saudi Arabia, but I’ve been a little bit off since then. Everyone has those years or tournaments though. I just have to continue to stick with it and put in the work. Productive work, that is.”

Since Thompson’s runner-up at the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International in mid-February, she’s spent most of the year on the LPGA Tour either not playing in events or when she does tee it up, just trying to make the weekend.

Heading into the Women’s Open, Thompson has played in only seven events, the least of her career going into August. Of those tournaments, she’s only made two cuts, and even those have been a struggle. Her T-47 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in late June took a run of four straight birdies over her final five holes just to get to the weekend, and her five missed cuts so far match a career high.

“You shouldn’t read too much into [the lack of starts],” Thompson said. “I’ve just been trying to enjoy my life and take some more time for myself. This is my 13th year out here, so it’s my choice to play when I want, and when I don’t want to. I was dealing with a little bit of an injury. But I’m fully healthy now. I want to be sure I’m fully ready when I do tee it up.”

The lack of success has Thompson in foreign territory at 156th on the LPGA’s CME points list, which the tour uses to determine status for the following season. To put that in perspective, since the LPGA introduced CME points in 2014, she hasn’t finished worse than 34th.

Thompson can reach three benchmarks of CME points by the end of the season to improve her playing opportunities. Finishing in the top 100 of the CME provides Category 11 status, allowing players to get into most fields, getting into the top 80 provides Category 1 status, the best the LPGA has, and getting into the top 60 puts Thompson into the CME Group Tour Championship. She has played in every Tour Championship since 2011.

The Women’s Open is worth 25 per cent more CME points than regular tour events, allowing Thompson to surge up the standings in one week with a strong performance. She can move into the top 60 with a T-3 or better, top 80 with a T-5 or better, and top 100 with a T-8 or better.

She doesn’t have to make the gap up before the end of the week, but the conclusion of the season is quickly approaching. Currently, Thompson is entered in two of the remaining seven full-field events, but is eligible to play in all of them.

Thompson’s career money earnings also give her a one-time option to maintain full status on the LPGA. The top-20 career earners can play via Category 2, as Cristie Kerr is doing this season.

A quicker deadline coming up is Team USA finalising its Solheim Cup roster after the CPKC Women’s Open ends on August 27. Thompson is in seventh place on the Solheim Points list, the last automatic spot on the team.

Lexi Thompson hits a shot during the Women’s Open pro-am. Chloe Knott/R&A

Even with the fall down the points list, Thompson’s spot is likely safe. Only Andrea Lee, with a fourth-place finish, can pass Thompson without winning this week.

Should Thompson get passed for the final points position, she still can make the team by her Rolex Women’s World Rankings spot. She is 20th in the World Rankings, ahead of fellow Americans Rose Zhang (32nd) and Angel Yin (34th)

If the worst-case scenario happens that Thompson does not earn her way on to the team, Team USA Captain Stacy Lewis can use one of her three captain’s picks on her. The 12-year LPGA veteran, even amid a drought in performance, remains steadfast in her belief of the value she would bring to the team in Spain this year.

“Golf is such an individual sport it helps to have someone with experience to help out and interact with the other players,” Thompson said. “I hope to bring strength and determination, too, and being there for the other girls. I know in the past when I have been struggling, girls have come up to me and gave me advice. I know how important that is. It’s crazy to think I am one of the more experienced players at the age of 28.”

Likewise, Thompson explained she’s working on everything in her game to try and rediscover the form. She pointed out ball striking, which has also drastically fallen this year. She’s hit 65.3 per cent of greens in regulation this season, which is 98th on tour, while being a 10-per cent dip from her career average and an 11.9 per cent fall from last year. During her career, Thompson hasn’t finished outside the top 11 on tour in greens in regulation.

Thompson can answer these potentially career-altering questions with four quality rounds at Walton Heath.

“This week is important, of course,” Thompson said. “But I don’t want to put any added pressure on myself. The Solheim Cup is my favourite event. But it is next month. For now, all I can focus on are my emotions and taking things one shot at a time. Any time you force things by focusing on the long-term or big-picture goals, it can get you off track in the moment.”

—John Huggan contributed to this report.

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