LPGA Founders Cup Tee Sheet: Did Lexi Thompson Pull a Tom Brady?

Now that the season has commenced, the LPGA has been keeping busy. Tournament of Champions was a hit, but this week, it’s time for the first full-field event—The Founder’s Cup. Founders Cup is designed to be a culmination of the past, present and future of women’s golf honoring the 13 Founders of the LPGA. In many ways, this event carries a lot of weight, not just because of the historical thread, but because this week marks the beginning of what we now know to be a special run for world No.1 Nelly Korda, despite Rose Zhang winning last year’s Founder’s Cup. Korda is the defending course champion—but more on that later.

There’s another American golf star who is making an appearance in the field this week that generated a bit of buzz online.

Is Lexi Thompson back?

Thompson sent shockwaves through the golf world last year, ahead of the U.S. Women’s Open, in announcing that she'd be retiring at the end of the season. It was all a bit poetic at the time, given how the USWO was the world's introduction to Thompson at just 12-years-old. (Which started a streak of 18 consecutive appearances at the USWO before she turned 30.) There was an outpour across golf, basking in just how much Thompson meant to the game and to fans.

So imagine the surprise when she was spotted at this week's Founders Cup. But quickly, the comments from the X post made those who were unaware that Thompson retired from a *full competition schedule* meaning, we'll be seeing her more than we all think.

In an interview with Golf Monthly Thompson candidly admitted, “It was a lot at times and very stressful. I realized there’s more to life than just professional golf."

She's opting to take the route of less pressure and time on the course, but still craves the taste of competition. Thompson is committed to ten tournaments this season, including two Majors—the Chevron Championship in April and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June.

Did Thompson pull a Brady? Not entirely. Since her announcement last summer, she's always been open about her stepping away, but not fully. We're happy to see her back in action so soon!

Korda defending, while Zhang hits the books

It was around this time last year, at Bradenton Country Club where Nelly Korda quite literally swung her way into the history books. In a playoff victory against Lydia Ko, Korda won the LPGA Drive On Championship. So no, technically she isn’t the defending champion at the Founders Cup this year, but she is the last player on Tour to win at Bradenton CC so this week feels like a defense in a way. And the cherry on top? Korda's playing in front of her home crowd, she lives about 45 minutes away from the club, meanwhile her parents are a measly 15 minutes down the road.

The true tournament defending champ is none other than Rose Zhang, another fan favorite. But sadly the 21-year-old isn't in the field this week to defend her title because she's too busy being enrolled in Stanford's winter semester.

She played in last week's season opener, and gave some insight to just how difficult it is to manage being a professional athlete and keeping up with school.

“It’s a lot of work,” Zhang said. “I think one mistake that I made last year was when I had an offseason and I was at school full time with 20 units. I had a couple hard classes and I lost a lot of sleep. I didn't really take care of myself. I was trying to practice the same amount I was on tour and also being in school in that sense, which was a lot to load.

So this year was more to balance out my entire lifestyle. It’s just a lot of work in school, academia, getting assignments out of the way easier, and then I can kind of lay low, practice a little bit when I feel like it.”

The elephant in the room has *finally* been addressed

Arguably the biggest news to spark this week has been the LPGA's memo on pace of play.

It's the trending topic within golf right now. Everyone has an opinion on it—and with TGL's implementation of a true, visible shot clock, more and more people are asking how the tours are working toward picking up the pace over the weekends.

Monday Q Info on X dropped the news yesterday, giving us a glimpse at what was brought up during a player meeting ahead of this week's tournament.

The new rules include stricter requirements to avoid penalties, the addition of a one-stroke penalty, and narrowing which types of shots receive 10-second allowances. These rules won't be implemented until late March at the Ford Championship in Phoenix, but said the tour won’t officially announce its updated pace-of-play policy until next week.