Lexi Thompson surprisingly retired in 2024. How should her career be assessed?

The past 12 months had it all — crazy winning streaks, new major champs, a major-week arrest (!) and more. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are looking back at the most memorable moments from 2024.

No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral | No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye | No. 13— Solheim Cup parking fiasco | No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos | No. 11 — Lydia Ko’s Hall of Fame resurgence | No. 10 — PGA Tour/Saudi PIF merger stalemate | No. 9 — Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain

Biggest golf moments of 2024 No. 8: Lexi Thompson surprisingly retires 

Lexi Thompson, amidst questions about her soon retirement from full-time golf, her future and the overall state of the game, lit up last month at the CME Group Tour Championship.

I’d asked her this:

My 16-year-old nephew is trying to break 80 for the first time and shoots in the mid-80s right now. What’s one quick tip you would give him?

That I would give him to break 80?” Thompson asked. “How long has he been playing?”

Been playing about four years.

“Oh, that’s pretty good then,” she said. “He’s going in the right direction. I always say the biggest tip that helped out the most when I went out and practiced was always have a goal in mind. Always have something you want to improve on. It could be the smallest or biggest of things, the mental side. As we know, golf is such a mental sport. Could be working on the mental side and visualizing shots.

Was Lexi Thompson’s career successful?

Was Lexi Thompson’s career unsuccessful?

Let’s start with the former.

Was Lexi Thompson’s career successful? 

By every measure, yes.

Wins? Thompson won, 11 times in all since joining the LPGA in 2012, including one major (the 2014 Kraft Nabisco). The 29-year-old also posted 91 top-10s and 158 top-25s, and she collected $14.7 million in prize money.

What about fame? Thompson is famous, present tense. Six times she was a Solheim Cup team member. Once, she played against the men, at last year’s Shriners Children’s Open, where she missed the cut by three. She’s a spokeswoman for countless products, and she’s championed mental health awareness. Shoot, she’s mononymous — you likely call her by only her first name, an honor reserved for the Jacks, Tigers and Annikas of the world.