GOLFLexi Thompson joins elite group of women who’ve made PGA TOUR

This week, Lexi Thompson will join a select group of women – one that includes just six others, to be exact – who have played in PGA TOUR tournaments. Thompson will tee it up at the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. Thompson, the younger sister of Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR players Nicholas and Curtis Thompson, is an 11-time LPGA winner, including a triumph at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the LPGA’s major championships. Besides Didrikson Zaharias (seven appearances) and Spork and Sorenstam’s lone starts, the other women who have played in TOUR events are Michelle Wie West (eight appearances), Suzy Whaley and Brittany Lincicome, both with one start each.

Of that group, Didrikson Zaharias is considered by many as the greatest female athlete in history. The native of Port Arthur, Texas, with the given first name of Mildred, earned two track and field gold medals in the 1932 Summer Olympics, in the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin and a silver medal in the high jump. She is still the only athlete – male or female – who has ever won Olympic medals in running, jumping and throwing events. She also excelled in basketball, softball, baseball and bowling.

In 1945, Didrikson Zaharias again played in the Los Angeles Open, this time earning her way into the field by qualifying. She shot rounds of 76-81-79 to miss the 54-hole cut. A week later, though, she made history, becoming the first woman to play all 72 holes of a tournament when she fired scores of 77-72-75-80 to finish 33rd at the Phoenix Open.

Earlier in the week, during the tournament’s pro-am, she set the Phoenix Country Club scoring record for women by posting a 4-under 68. A week after Phoenix, Didrikson Zaharias again made the cut, finishing 42nd at the Tucson Open. Her final PGA TOUR appearance came at the 1946 Los Angeles Open, 10 years before her untimely death of cancer at age 45.