amateurgolf.com Player Profile: Alexis Thompson
13 Feb 2009
see also: Lexi Thompson Rankings
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Update 6/5/09: Alexis Thompson continued her excellent play in 2009,
winning the Women's Southern Amateur in Albany, GA. She has a commanding lead in the
amateurgolf.com Women's Player-of-the-Year points race.
Despite only recently turning 14, Alexis Thompson is hardly a new face in the women’s amateur golf scene.
The Coral Springs native has asserted herself as not only one of the top juniors in the country, but one of the top women’s amateurs of any age after a torrid start to the 2009 season.
Thompson, who hardly seems her age due with her 5-foot-8 height and the demeanor which she carries on the course, started the new year with a runner-up finish at the Dixie Women’s Amateur, then cruised to a 13-stroke victory at The Sally.
She then finished ferocious run through the match play bracket of the Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur at the Coral Ridge Country Club, topping Scotland’s Kelsey MacDonald 5 & 4 to take another title.
She finished the Orange Blossom Circuit, which kicks off the women’s major calendar with two victories and a runner-up finish.
“She doesn’t play like a 13-year-old, the way she swings, the way she carries herself,” said Candace Schepperle, who narrowly held off Thompson to win the Dixie. “She’s impressive.”
Schepperle got her first look at Thompson at the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open, where she became the youngest-ever qualifier at 12-years-old. She became the youngest quarterfinalist in the U.S. Women’s Amateur that same year and tied for 3rd in the Dixie Am.
Thompson won the Dixie the following year, in 2008, then captured her most impressive victory to date, a 5 & 4 victory over Karen Chung at the U.S. Junior Amateur.
“Winning this is at the top (my accomplishments) definitely,” said Thompson, whose older brother Nick was a 2005 USA Walker Cupper Nicholas Thompson and currently on the PGA Tour. “Just winning this is huge. Coming home with the trophy means a lot.”
If this is the first you’ve heard of Thompson, get familiar with the name, because we’re sure it will be gracing plenty of trophies in the years to come, and will likely be called out on the LPGA in the future.