Lexi Thompson Receives Sponsor’s Exemption to Play in PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open

For the first time in five years, an LPGA member will be teeing it up at a PGA Tour event.

Lexi Thompson received a sponsor’s exemption into the Shriners Children’s Open, which takes place next week in Las Vegas.

Thompson becomes the seventh woman to play in a PGA Tour event and the first since Brittany Lincicome did so at the 2018 Barbasol Championship. Others who played with the men in recent years include Michelle Wie West and Annika Sorenstam. Just one woman, Babe Zaharias in 1945, has made a cut in a men’s tournament.

Lexi will be teeing it up on the @PGATOUR! 👏

11x LPGA Tour winner Lexi Thompson has received an unrestricted sponsor exemption into the Shriners Children’s Open next week! pic.twitter.com/2QJ8Azar4E

— LPGA (@LPGA) October 4, 2023

“I just learned actually Sunday after my round at Walmart (last week’s LPGA tournament in Arkansas). Just kind of a little blindsided, but obviously very honored just to have the thought that they wanted me to be there,” Thompson said.

TPC Summerlin, the host course, measures 7,255 yards and has a par of 71. Thompson said that she’ll be making use of the big stick.

“I’ve never played there, so will be my first time. Get a few practice rounds in and probably be hitting driver a lot, which is nice,” Thompson said.

Thompson is in the midst of a difficult year on the LPGA Tour, where she missed five straight cuts in July and August. She’s shown flashes as of late, however, as she had a winning record at the Solheim Cup and recorded her first top 10 of 2023 with an eighth last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Thompson has played with PGA Tour players before at the QBE Shootout, which was a non-FedEx Cup stop on the PGA Tour that featured team competition. That event will be known as the Grant Thornton Invitational this December, and each team will feature one PGA Tour and one LPGA player in its new format.

Cover Image via Golf Magazine