The Ford Championship at Wild Horse Pass offered a $2.25 million purse and attracted a strong field. Lexi Thompson, an 11-time LPGA Tour winner and major champion, made her 2026 season debut in Arizona just three weeks after her wedding. She started with a 3-over 75 while Lydia Ko set a course record with a 60. Thompson responded with a 3-under 69 in the second round, finishing the week at even par. The cut was 5-under, so her tournament ended there.

“Hi Everybody, I will be taking some time away from social media for a bit. So everything posted on this will be from my management team. Thanks for understanding.”

Her statement was brief and gave no further details.

The Ford Championship was Thompson’s only LPGA appearance in 2026. She had planned to play less this season, with her schedule built around her March 8 wedding and the honeymoon that followed. From the start, she made it clear that her personal life would come first, and golf would wait. The Ford Championship marked her return, as she chose to step back onto the course when she was ready. Missing the cut and then taking a break from social media shows just how much she was dealing with in Arizona, and it had little to do with her golf game.

Thompson married Max Provost on March 8 at La Casa Toscana in southwest Florida. Provost proposed on New Year’s Day 2025 in Whistler, Canada. Several LPGA players attended the wedding. Less than three weeks later, Thompson was back in competition in Arizona.

Thompson’s grandfather passed away in late November 2025, near the end of her last season. Four months had gone by when she played at Wild Horse Pass. Grief does not follow a set schedule. For Thompson, who has faced personal challenges in the public eye, the Ford Championship may have been a time when her off-course struggles were greater than the golf itself.

“Not sure exactly when I’ll play again. But what’s more important is being home and doing what’s best for me anymore and being there for my family. RIP Poppop.”

That line, quiet and unresolved with a farewell tucked at the end, is a clear window into where Thompson was that week.

This moment comes after a challenging period for her. In 2025, during her first year of semi-retirement on the LPGA Tour, Thompson made the cut in seven out of 13 events and earned more than $638,000 in official prize money. She had some strong showings, including a tie for fourth at the Meijer LPGA Classic and a runner-up finish at the Dow Championship, where she and Megan Khang lost to a Korean team in a playoff at 20-under par. Still, her world ranking dropped to No. 56 by mid-season, and her last LPGA win was back in 2019. Each year she has played less, the gap between her best and worst performances has grown. Missing the cut at the Ford event, her first start of the new season, continued that trend into 2026.

Thompson has stepped away before when personal and professional pressures have combined.

Lexi Thompson’s grief and golf have collided before

In 2017, the circumstances were louder. She entered the ANA Inspiration as one of the favorites and stood in the lead during the final round when a four-stroke penalty, issued after a television viewer called in a rules infraction from the previous day, cost her the major title. Her mother, Judy Thompson, was undergoing cancer treatment that same year. Then, in September, her grandmother Dorothy “Mimi” Fischi passed away at the age of 92. Mimi had been a fixture at tournaments, a source of consistency in a career that started at 15 and never truly slowed down. Thompson stepped away from social media after the loss, writing that she would miss the good luck texts before rounds and the quiet afternoons together on the patio.

The 2019 hiatus followed a different kind of accumulation. No single event triggered it. Her management confirmed the decision came from years of cumulative online abuse reaching a breaking point after a missed cut in Los Angeles. Her agent described it plainly: drop after drop over a prolonged period, until a person simply cannot absorb another one. In May 2024, she stepped away from a full-time schedule entirely, citing mental health and a desire to build a life beyond the ropes. The wedding in March was part of that life. So is this a break.

Thompson has been through these moments before. She has always come back. Right now, there is no confirmed return date, no tournament target, and nothing from her camp suggesting a timeline. The silence is its own answer, and for a player who turned professional at 15 and has spent 16 years navigating the weight of public expectation, it is not a troubling one.