It was a valiant effort from Lexi Thompson on Sunday at the Cognizant Founders Cup, but the 27-year-old ultimately fell to Australian Minjee Lee. Thompson fired a bogey-free, 3-under 69 with birdies on 2, 10 and 12 and hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. She was the only player in the field to shoot all four rounds in the 60s and it’s Lexi’s second solo second of the season – the last one came at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony – as well as her fourth top-10 in only six total starts. While she was hankering for her first win since the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer, Thompson is still chalking up her week at Upper Montclair Country Club as a success and is feeling good about the state of her game as the LPGA Tour heads into a meaty major season.
“It really is rewarding,” said Thompson who has two other top-five finishes this season. “I think as athletes we just want to see our hard work pay off, and when I'm home, I'm doing two workouts a day. I'm putting in five to six hours out on the golf course and to see it pay off means the world to me, and I'm going to continue to work my butt off and hopefully see the results.”
Thompson won’t be playing the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play in Vegas so the next event on her docket will be the U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club. Last year at Olympic Club, Lexi came close to notching her first major title since 2014, but a final round 75 dashed those hopes and she missed out on the playoff by a single shot. Thompson now has two weeks off on the horizon and you can be sure she will be grinding as hard as ever in preparation for the year’s second major, itching to redeem herself from last year’s final round heartbreak.
“It feels good to have my game going in that direction. I know I have two weeks off and then the U.S. Women's Open so I'm really looking forward to that. When I go home, I'm working on the little things I need to groove on and tighten up in my golf game It's all about putting in the productive practice and putting in the time,” she said. “The take-away from this week, honestly, I’m just proud of myself. Taking the positives away from staying in the moment and just really committing to my shots out there. I hit some bad ones, but hit some amazing ones and made some great putts. Nothing but positives, and I'm going to feed off that and enjoy my two weeks off with my family and see where that goes.”
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