The LPGA Tour’s newest, and youngest, member may be on the lookout for a new caddie sometime in the midst of her 2012 rookie season. For now, Lexi Thompson’s father, Scott Thompson, will continue looping for his talented teenage daughter, but the golfer is keeping her options open.
“I haven’t looked at anybody else, and right now he’s the best for my game. He knows it maybe better than I do,” the younger Thompson told us by phone on Tuesday. “I may be looking for a full-time caddie sometime in the middle of next year.”
Scott has been on Lexi’s bag since well before she turned pro in the middle of last year. By all accounts, the arrangement has worked well for both.
“We’ve been getting along really well,” the 16-year-old golf sensation said. “He’s done it my whole life. I feel really comfortable with him on the bag. He gets all my yardages and I have so much trust in him.
“It’s a whole comfort thing,” Thompson added. “He knows my personality and how I work on the golf course.”
A father shouldering the bag for his daughter is hardly unique. Jessica Korda’s dad, former tennis star Petr, stalks the fairways with his tour rookie daughter. Former teen prodigy Michelle Wie had her father on the bag for a while, although that on-course alliance reportedly did not end well.
There is not even a hint of anything but a strong working relationship between the two Thompsons. It may just be time for the golfer, who has high aspirations, to hire a professional bagman.
“We do really get along but I’ll maybe just be looking for somebody else,” Thompson said. “Right how, [my father’s] the best for my game.”
As for the expectations she has for herself, Thompson said she’ll play in the tour’s 2011 season-ending CME Group Titleholders event next month in Orlando and the Dubai Ladies Masters in December, but her sights were set on next year’s Rookie of the Year award.
“I definitely want to be rookie of the year,” said Thompson, who sports blue on Sundays and foresees cross-over promotions with fellow Cobra-Puma Golf teammate, PGA Tour fave Rickie Fowler. “That’s definitely one of my goals for next year.”
Tour commissioner Mike Whan welcomed the 16-year-old golf sensation to the LPGA last month, but Thompson chose to defer membership so she could vie for rookie honors.
“We definitely wanted to wait for next year to become a full member,” said Thompson, who’s an old hand at being the “youngest golfer ever” since she achieved that milestone by qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open at the age of 12. Since then, Thompson made history as the youngest golfer ever to win a tour event, when she captured the Navistar LPGA Classic in September.
Thompson, ranked 47th in the world, has relied on sponsor’s exemptions for playing time on tour. Now that she’s joined the club, she’ll play in some 20 events next year and will kick off her 2012 campaign with the Women’s Australian Open and ANZ Ladies Masters.
The teen, who receives her schooling online at home, puts in a solid six to seven hours of golf work each day. She practices for about two and a half hours in the morning, plays 18 holes or more in the afternoon, works out for another hour and a half, and hits the school books at night.
It’s a rigorous commitment, but one that Thompson clearly relishes.
“I love it,” she told the hosts of Fox & Friends Tuesday before putting on a ball-striking clinic on the sidewalks of New York. The talk show was just one of several media commitments Thompson has honored since Whan announced she would join the LPGA.
It’s not all fairways and greens for the teen sensation, however. The hero of last year’s Curtis Cup matches at Massachusetts’ Essex County Club still finds time to hang out with friends and enjoy the life of a 16-year-old. In fact, if the big-hitting 5-foot, 11-inch golf star somehow can’t make it on the links, she may try her hand at music videos with good friend and competitor Tiffany Joh.
The two golfers clearly enjoyed each other’s company during the final round of the Navistar event and Joh, whose humorous “Grip It” video featuring cameos by several LPGA players went viral that week, suggested that Thompson take her turn in front of the camera.
“She said I should be in the next [video] so I feel pretty honored,” Thompson said with a laugh. “I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty excited.”
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the The A Position, Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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