The PGA Tour and the LPGA circuit rarely intersect with each other, but when they do, it makes a lot of waves in the news community. And now, Lexi Thompson has managed to mark her name in the annals of history as she gears up to play at the Shriners Children’s Open, the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, through a sponsor’s exemption.

The LPGA Tour Pro will take on the men’s field on October 12th at TPC Summerlin. Although it is such a vital moment in the history of the sport, there are people who do not share the same view about the sport, like a certain PGA Tour pro who even went so far as to call it a “gimmick”!

PGA Tour pro shares his view on Lexi Thompson participating at the event

The third event of the FedEx Fall season will witness a field of 132 compete for a purse of $8.4 million in Vegas. And the Solheim Cup star would be battling it out with the players in a bid to take a cut of the prize purse, but more importantly, to become a part of a very small list of female golfers who have managed the same. However, when asked about the same by Peter Malnati, he had a different opinion.

The American golfer admitted that the invitation might have been a bit of a stretch. Although he had high praises for the 11x LPGA Tour champ, the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship winner understood the move as nothing short of a “gimmick” by the tournament to “drum up interest.”

Realizing his slip of the tongue, the 36-year-old was quick to correct his statement as he said, “I don’t know that having Lexi play is a gimmick,” while mentioning how the event shouldn’t have a need to do so since they “are actually going to have a lot of meaning.” Adding to his point, the golfer also pointed out how change is a hard thing, alluding to the reimagined fall season.

Nevertheless, Lexi Thompson taking part in the tournament is an iconic moment since she becomes the seventh woman to play in an event on the PGA circuit. The question naturally arises: who are the rest of the professionals?

The six golfers who played on the PGA Tour

Babe Didrikson Zaharias was the first woman to achieve the iconic moment in 1935. Dubbed one of the greatest female athletes ever, she played in a total of seven events on what is now called the PGA Tour. Moreover, Zaharias made the cut twice, in the 1945 Phoenix and Tucson Opens, making her the only woman to do so.

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The list is followed by Shirley Spork, who competed in the 1952 Northern California-Reno Open; Annika Sorenstam, who competed in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial through an invitation; and Suzy Whaley, who qualified for the 2003 Greater Hartford Open after winning the Connecticut PGA Section Championship in the previous year. Moreover, Michelle Wie West also played in the Sony Open in Hawaii at 14 years of age, followed by Brittany Lincicome, who received a sponsor’s invitation to play in the 2018 Barbasol Championship.

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