July 27 -- Golf’s glitterati -- including U.S. Women’s Open champ Paula Creamer, LPGA Championship winner Cristie Kerr, top-ranked Jiyai Shin, and fan faves Natalie Gulbis and Christina Kim -- are playing in the Women’s British Open. The talk of The Royal Birkdale Golf Club, however, has been the absent 15-year-old golf phenom, Alexis Thompson.
No exemption. You know women’s golf is in trouble (as if anyone needed additional proof) when the star-studded field for this week’s competition can’t block out the nonsensical chatter about the refusal of the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) to let Thompson play in the Open’s final qualifier.
For sure, the LGU was extremely short-sighted in scheduling the first stage of qualifying for the day after the U.S. Women’s Open. Seriously, what were they thinking?
But, the long-hitting Thompson -- who tied for 10th at the U.S. Open -- knew the rules when she turned pro six weeks ago. As a member of the 2010 U.S. Curtis Cup team, the teenage sensation earned an automatic exemption into the final qualifying stage for the Brit’s major championship. As soon as she turned pro, however, that exemption went away.
Blame Michelle. Although the same fate has befallen guys on the PGA Tour, some are blaming Michelle Wie for Thompson’s exclusion.
It seems the LGU got all manner of flak five years ago for granting Wie, then 15 and an amateur, a “special exemption” into the event. While Wie finished third, the organization apparently bowed to the hostility from others on tour and took itself out of the preferred-treatment biz.
Brickbats. “We have tightened up our regulations since then because of other players’ criticisms over that exemption,” Shona Malcolm, LGU chief executive told The Independent, a U.K. publication.
Thompson, for her part, did not ask for an exemption into the tourney. She wanted a crack at a final qualifier, which took place the day after she finished second to Shin in last week’s Evian Masters. The LGU nixed her request.
While Lexi and her posse pretended not to fault the rules, they were reportedly “upset” that the LGU refused to cough up another exemption.
How ‘bout some cheese with that whine? "The problem was they clashed with the U.S. Women's Open so there was no chance of Lexi making it," a Thompson management spokesperson told The Independent.
"After she finished 10th at the U.S. Open we made repeated requests to the LGU to allow her into final qualifying. They refused. Lexi is obviously disappointed. There was basically no path into Birkdale. All she wanted was the chance to try to qualify.
Blah blah blah. Since they all knew the score before Lexi turned pro, this is really just so much blather. But Malcolm, did herself no favor by snapping back that she was “sure [Thompson] has many Women's British Opens in front of her,” according to The Independent.
Unfortunately, women’s golf is the loser in this ridiculous war of words.
Thompson, will, no doubt, play across the pond in future tourneys. But the distaff side of the tour needs a spark from someone. Anyone. Having the star power of Thompson in the field might even have lured non-golfers into tuning in to see what all the fuss was about.
Rules may be rules, but some rules officials need to read up on them. Read how the Futures Tour CEO admitted officials screwed up when they disqualified Sarah Brown from last week’s The International at Concord tourney.
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