For the first time in 19 years, Lexi Thompson won’t be playing in the U.S. Women’s Open. The 11-time LPGA Tour winner qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open in 2007 as a 12-year-old amateur and has competed every year since, a streak ending this week at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
On Monday, Thompson, 31, posted photos from the first time she played the championship and a long message on her Instagram account.
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“I never could have imagined that week would be the beginning of a career that would take me around the world, allow me to compete against the best players in the game, and help me live out my dream of playing professional golf,” Thompson wrote. “For the first time since that week, I won’t be competing in the U.S. Women’s Open. Definitely not a great feeling, I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But I have to remind myself that I’ve played in 19 in a row at the age of 30, and I’m very proud of that. It’s also made me reflect on how much this championship has meant to me. Some of my most special memories, biggest challenges, and greatest lessons have come from this event. It helped shape me not only as a golfer, but as a person.”
There are several exemption categories for players to earn their way into the championship. Among them is being ranked inside the top 75 in the Rolex World Rankings, but Thompson fell short at the deadline (98th). Players also can get in by winning an LPGA event, but Thompson’s last win came in 2019. One other route is to play in Final Qualifying, and Thompson was scheduled to do just that last month in Florida only to withdraw a few days before the event to instead play in an LPGA tournament.
It was two years ago during the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club when Thompson announced she’d be retiring from full-time play on the LPGA Tour at the end of 2024, and she has since been playing a limited schedule. After putting so many years into golf, she said she’s ready to focus on other aspects of her life. She recently got married and has talked about wanting to start a family. She has played in four tournaments in 2026, her best finish coming at the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, where she finished T-12.
Thompson’s record in the U.S. Women’s Open includes a T-2 in 2019, two other top-five finishes in 2018 and 2021, and two more top-10s in 2010 and 2014. The past three years, however, Thompson missed the cut each time.
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Playing 19 U.S. Women’s Opens in a row is an impressive feat, made all the more impressive by the fact that Thompson is only 31 years old. And while ending the streak is an emotional moment for Thompson, she said that she’s not ruling out the chance that she could be back to play another USWO in the future.
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