Lexi Thompson, energized from a victory on Saturday at the inaugural Indy Women in Tech Championship and a traditional Indianapolis milk shower following her four-shot win over Lydia Ko, looks to chalk up her second LPGA Tour triumph of the season as well as her second career major title this week at the Evian Championship.
Evian Championship 2017: Lexi Thompson headlines the LPGA’s final major of the season
The fifth and final major of the LPGA season tees off this week in France, and US phenom Lexi Thompson is your favorite.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The popular Thompson, the fourth tour player to earn multiple Ws this season (she also prevailed at the Kingsmill Championship in May), leads a star-studded field that includes top-ranked So Yeon Ryu and defending champ In Gee Chun (but, alas, no Michelle Wie, who’s recovering from an emergency appendectomy) into the final major of the season.
But as her vanquished Indy challenger observed, Thompson has to be the player to beat starting Thursday at the Evian Resort Golf Course in Evian-les-Bains, France.
“Lexi played great,” Ko said after faltering down the stretch with a double-bogey on No. 11 on the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club. “She had some three- or four-footers for par and she made all of them, so it just shows you how much confidence she was playing with.”
Thompson, nearly flawless all week, carded just her third bogey of the tourney (her first in 29 holes, on the par-4 11th) on the back nine on Saturday and added another on No. 16. But a closing 4-under 68 added to an opening 63 and second-round 66 got her to 19-under for the week, her second trip of the year to the winner’s circle, and a move from third to second in the world rankings.
Ko, for her part, hopes the Evian will mark an end to her 28-game losing streak. The former teen phenom, who ruled the Rolex Rankings from the top spot for 85 straight weeks until Ariya Jutanugarn deposed her in June, enjoyed one of her most successful outings since making massive offseason changes in her entourage (a new caddie and coach) and golf gear (switching from Callaway to PXG).
The current world No. 8 may have come up short of her 15th career tour victory, but the $186,096 paycheck that came with last week’s runner-up finish earned Ko (the “youngest ever” in so many categories) yet another page in the record books.
The 20-year-old surpassed $8 million in career earnings faster than any other player in LPGA history. Ko needed 93 starts as a professional to bank $8,021,004 — five events fewer than Yani Tseng, who held the previous record— and would eclipse the $9 million mark owned by Lorena Ochoa if she can do so in fewer than 119 tournaments.
Saturday’s outcome was Ko’s best since her T2 finish in April at the Lotte Championship as well as her first top-10 since the middle of June.
But about Lexi and the milk.
Every winner of the Indianapolis 500 since 1956 has taken a gulp of milk. Homogenized, pasteurized, whole, or skim, winners may also celebrate their victories by pouring the laiche over their heads, as Thompson did.
“Kind of regretting it now because I feel really gross,” Thompson said after becoming the first woman athlete in Indy history to take a milk bath — and likely the only winner to use almond milk for the occasion — before the traditional kissing of the bricks.
We’re guessing that a W on Lake Geneva would occasion a sprinkle or two — perhaps a certain French-based mineral water.
