Lexi Thompson faces rigorous test in LPGA qualifying school

When LPGA commissioner Mike Whan accepted Lexi Thompson’s petition for 2012 membership, he did not give the 16-year-old golf whiz kid automatic entry into any of next year’s events. Indeed, Thompson, who will turn 17 next February, will have her work cut out for her just to make it to the first stage of qualifying school.

If Thompson, who will play in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, makes the cut at the Evian Masters event later this month, the young Floridian will have to hop a plane for home Sunday night, July 24, just to land in time for that Tuesday’s first q-school competition. The first stage of qualifying will take place between July 26 and July 29.

"She’ll be flying all day Monday to hustle back to Daytona [Fla.] to the [Daytona International] tourney site for the first stage," Thompson’s manager Bobby Kreusler of Blue Giraffe Sports told us Tuesday in a phone interview. "So she’ll be arriving and playing without a practice round."

The only way Thompson could earn an exemption from the first of three grueling stages of q-school would be to make it into the top 100 of the world rankings by July 12. A strong showing at this week’s Open would give Thompson "a good chance" of moving up from her current status as 120th in the world, Kreusler noted. 

With the Women’s Open set to kick off Thursday at The Broadmoor’s East Course in Colorado Springs, Colo., Kreusler said it was not his intent to make Thompson the center of attention this week. But word got out about his client’s new standing when the LPGA posted the preliminary field of q-school’s first 150 entrants.

Lexi Thompson faces a grueling challenge to make it through three stages of LPGA Tour q-school (Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Kreusler said the deadline for filing applications for underage players was last Friday and that Thompson submitted hers last week. "We filed that petition by the filing deadline, asking Mike Whan to let Lexi attend q-school and earn her card the old-fashioned way," Kreusler said.

Thompson last year declined to ask the tour for membership, requesting instead additional playing time through extra sponsors’ exemptions. Whan refused that appeal but opened up Monday qualifiers to afford Thompson and others increased chances to make it into tour events.

Kreusler determined that Thompson, who turned professional immediately after leading her U.S. Curtis Cup team to victory last year, had proven herself sufficiently on and off the course to ask for tour membership.

"They [Whan and other tour officials] had a chance to see Lexi for two years as a professional on the golf course..., dealing with other players, sponsors, the media, pro-am partners, and the ups and downs of traveling and playing well and playing badly," Kreusler said.

Thompson’s manager pointed to his player’s poise in handling media demands following her collapse at April’s Avnet LPGA Classic with a final-round 78 after leading the event for 54 holes. An emotional Thompson "composed herself and gave a remarkable live interview" on Golf Channel, met with other reporters, and "signed autographs for 45 minutes," Kreusler said.

"I was genuinely blown away by her ability to do that," he added. "It showed a mental and emotional maturity that belied her age."

Thompson will be the youngest golfer ever to enroll in q-school, Kreusler noted, as well as the only professional player to petition for membership. Golfers under the age of 18 must get the tour’s ok for membership, and the LPGA has offered such affiliations sparingly.

"The LPGA has previously granted players under the age of 18 the ability to compete in the LPGA Qualifying Tournament (Aree Song, Morgan Pressel, Jessica Korda)," Whan said in an e-mail statement to us Tuesday. "Lexi Thompson will also have that same opportunity -- to earn her way to the LPGA Tour, or the LPGA Futures Tour, via the LPGA Qualifying Tournament, a three-stage, 13-round qualifying process."

Team Thompson harbored no illusions about the trials that awaited the 16-year-old, who has been working diligently on a new workout regimen and with swing coach Jim McLean and has missed cuts in her last two events.

"We have no misconceptions about how difficult it is to succeed through three stages of q-school," he said. "It’s going to be along and challenging process."

It was, however, a test that Thompson relished.

"It’s a wonderful situation to be given the opportunity to earn your keep," Kreusler said.