Four starts with two made cuts and two missed cuts marked Lexi Thompson‘s 2026 season before the Dow Championship. She stepped away from full-time LPGA competition after 2024, her final full season with 18 starts and four top-10 finishes. Thompson married Max Provost in March and rebuilt her schedule around life rather than leaderboards. And this time, she brought the energy with Megan Khang.

Following the thrilling finale, Thompson shared a celebratory Instagram post. Her caption said everything about her joy and peace of mind in this new chapter:

“Always fun partnering up with @megan_khang for the @dowchampionship ! A lot of laughs as usual, wasn’t our best golf but is always a good time getting to play a team event. So thank you to DOW, all sponsors , volunteers and fans this week for making the event possible. And to all the staff at @midlandcountryc for hosting us and treating us so well 🙂 #teambiggiesmalls”

The Dow Championship at Midland Country Club became her fifth start of the year. It proved she can still compete at the highest level. Thompson played alongside Megan Khang as “Team Biggie Smalls.” The duo made the 36-hole cut and surged into a Sunday sudden-death playoff for the title. They finished as solo runners-up at 20-under par.

Round 1 in the alternate shot format produced a 73, three over par. Foursomes punish rhythm mismatches; Thompson and Khang couldn’t find one early. Round 2 flipped things: a 67, three under, bogey-free in best ball. But even par across 36 holes wasn’t enough at Midland, and they watched the weekend from the wrong side of the cut line.

Khang made it clear how the partnership responds when the golf gets tough. All week, she was hitting approaches into what she called ‘Lexie range,’ about 15 to 20 feet from the pin. That distance is close enough to give Thompson a chance, but it still leaves the pressure on her putter. Khang did not hesitate to address how they work together.

“I think our humor complements each other as well, so we got each other.” She continued to add about their game, “Obviously alternate shot can be stressful, but when you have a partner like that, it’s a lot nicer.”

The Dow result lands inside a season that has been uneven but not without its moments. Thompson’s best finish so far was a T-12 at the Chevron Championship, where she shot a bogey-free 66 on Saturday with her husband and family watching from the gallery. Before the Dow, she had also missed the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open, ending a 19-year consecutive appearance streak that started when she qualified as a 12-year-old amateur in 2007.

“It’s hard to believe that in 2007, as a 12-year-old girl with big dreams, I qualified for my first U.S. Women’s Open. At the time, I was just excited to be there. I remember practicing my autograph in the backseat of my parents’ car on the drive up to Pine Needles Resort. For the first time since that week, I won’t be competing for the U.S. Women’s Open,” she wrote on Instagram.

“Definitely not a great feeling, but I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But I have to remind myself that I’ve played in 19 in a row at the age of 30, and I’m very proud of that.”

The Dow Championship remains the LPGA Tour’s only official team event, played in alternate shot and best ball formats over four rounds at Midland Country Club in Michigan. Unlike standard tournaments, it demands complete trust in a partner’s game.

Thompson and Khang formed their partnership at the 2023 Solheim Cup under captain Stacy Lewis, where they went undefeated in foursomes. They carried that chemistry into the 2025 Dow Championship and pushed into a playoff before falling to Jin Hee Im and Somi Lee on the first extra hole.

This year, they didn’t make it to Sunday, but Thompson’s Instagram post didn’t read like a player chasing results. It read like someone who has decided what the game is worth to her, and found that the laughs with Khang, the volunteers at Midland, and the fans in the Michigan heat are a bigger part of that answer than the scorecard.