The Young Shall Inherit the LPGA Tour

    

The longer a Tour or sport hangs onto the old guard and promotes older starts and neglects the new ones the more the public will have a hangover with the sport when that athlete fades away or retires. The PGA Tour found that out with Tiger Woods and everyone, he is not coming back to the degree he used to dominate. The NBA found that out with Michael Jordan and any sport that leans on anyone for a long period will find the same problem.

   So it is refreshing that when 16-year-old Lexi Thompson of xx won last weeks 1.3 million  Navistar Classic in Prattville, Alabama by five strokes. Thompson has the matriarch of the LPGA Tour going to bat for her. Juli Inkster thinks Lexi Thompson has proven she's ready for LPGA Tour membership. When a 16 year-old can win against champions such as Inkster and Paula Creamer among others do you really have to go to Tour qualifying school? Why she needs to go is because any golfer under age 18 needs to go and earn their way onto the LPGA Tour.  



"She has kind of proven she can play out here," said Inkster, who at 51 was the oldest player competing. "She's proven she can handle the social part of it. I think they should give her full (membership).

"It's kind of silly, isn't it? I think it makes us (the LPGA) look bad, too. Now, you have to go to qualifying school? To me, that's silly."

     Rules are always a two-edges sword because they fit most people or athletes but the exception always comes along and then they are either altered or abolished depending how much pressure there is to change them. Michelle Wie created a firestorm several years ago when it looked like she would accomplish what Lexi Thompson did last week and at a younger age.


Lexi as a preteen



LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan stood his ground after her victory in regards to letting her skip the rest of qualifying school. "Should Lexi qualify for LPGA membership via her Q-School performance, she will be an LPGA member for the 2012 season," Whan said in a statement.

Paula Creamer held the previous record for winning when she was age 18 in 2005. Thompson is used to running away with victories or breaking records. The LPGA already granted her petition for qualifying school, and she won the first stage by 10 strokes in July with two more to go. She is used to crushing the competition. "Seven years I've held that record. That's pretty good," Creamer said. "A lot of records are broken sooner than that. At 16, my goodness. She's played so many years out here."
"We haven't even really talked about that yet," said Scott Thompson, her father and caddie. "We'll worry about that as it comes, so we'll see." The victory brought a piece of history and $195,000. "This has been my dream like my whole life," Thompson said. "It's the best feeling ever."

A huge key for her will be being accepted by the players on the tour. For now she is sheltered and is home schooled at her Coral Springs, Florida home and has her father as her caddie and advisor. She's still a kid having fun. She spent the evening before the tournament at Outback Steakhouse with fellow teen golfer Janie Jackson talking about boys and teenage topics.
The longer Thompson can do that and leave the pressure and details to her parents the better off this former AJGA golfer will be in the future.