Sad News: Lexi Thompson got unexpected pregnancy which read her to….

“Lexi! LEXI!!!” they yelled, one after the next, a never-ending stream of souvenir flags and selfie requests testing the limits of the ropeline, little arms poking through like little bayonets, each pointed square at Thompson’s chest. Every autograph signed and photo taken spawned another three, and before long the crowd began to feel less like a group of individuals and more like a steadily growing, amorphous blob of wanting. But it did not matter. For a few moments, Lexi wanted, too — not the crowd’s attention or admiration, but to break the bubble between her world and theirs.

And so she did.

If there is a way the crowds will remember Thompson, it is for her patience. Patience that has allowed her to host thousands of autograph sessions like this one throughout a 17-year competitive career, which she announced Tuesday will conclude at end of this season. Patience that has allowed her to connect with tens of thousands of people outside of the ropes, many of them young women, with a small gesture of goodwill. And patience that has allowed her to do all of these things even in the wake of some of the golf world’s most unimaginable lows — lows that she addressed for the first time during a press conference announcing her retirement on U.S. Women’s Open Tuesday.

“Being out here can be a lot,” she said through tears. “It can be lonely. Sorry if I get emotional. I said I wasn’t going to.”

I still remember the first time I witnessed Lexi’s gift for patience. It was at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles, minutes after Thompson had fallen short again on the biggest stage in the women’s game, finishing T20 in a bid to undo the previous year’s collapse. She signed autographs for close to 30 minutes then, tears streaming down her face, stopping only once each of the girls inside the child-only area had received her attention. I remember the most recent time I’d witnessed it, too, at the Solheim Cup in Spain last September. Another devastating defeat, more tears, and one more similarity: a few dozen young girls who departed with autographs and smiles.

Those scenes felt remarkable at the time and this one, Tuesday morning, felt remarkable too, given Thompson was announcing her decision to retire from a “full-time playing schedule.” She’s a baby by professional golf standards, just 29 years old in a sport where many players don’t hit their primes until well into their 30s. But she’s an ancient 29 by life experience, 17 years into a career that has brought her fabulous wealth and, on more than one occasion, unfathomable heartbreak.