Every year, some of the best women golfers in the world head to the Evian Resort Golf Club in the French Alps for the Amundi Evian Championship—one of the five major championships in female golf. With breathtaking views of Lake Geneva, it’s easily one of the most picturesque venues in professional golf. It is also one of the most unpredictable and challenging courses on the schedule. While some of the most competitive golfers will tee it up from July 10 to July 13, one of the biggest stars, Lexi Thompson, will be sitting this one out. As usual!

Lexi Thompson first made her appearance in the major in 2013, where she had an impressive finish of solo third. In 2014, the year that she won the Chevron Championship, she finished tied 10th at Evian but came extremely close to a win in 2015, when she finished solo second. Fast forward, she hasn’t played in the Evian Championship since 2019, but why?

So, in 2019, Lexi Thompson missed the cut for the second consecutive time at the Evian Championship. She had a rough outing and voiced her frustration. “I’m actually thankful that I don’t have to put myself through that for another two days. You’re a beautiful place, Evian, but that’s just too many bad breaks with good shots for me, so bye,” she initially posted. But on facing backlash, Thompson deleted the post and added another to clear out the confusion.

“My words were only directed at my frustration of not playing well in a major and at the unfortunate bounces we all get while playing this crazy game of golf. I didn’t mean it in a mean way at all. Obviously it just hasn’t been the course for me the last few years, but some girls are playing great, and I wish them the best of luck this weekend,” she wrote. While the posts did give a glimpse into how tough that week was for her, it seemed to have left a mark, and she hasn’t returned to the Championship since. This year marks the 5th consecutive row.

While we know of this as a reason, she is also having some downtime, having played for three consecutive weeks.

Lexi Thompson is on a much-needed break

Lexi’s recent loss at the Dow Championship, where she was partnered with Meghan Khang, was heartbreaking. She lost on the first playoff hole to Lee Som-Mi & Im Jin-Hee. Thompson and Khan shot 20-under over four days and came extremely close to the win until a birdie by the opposite team dropped them down to finish as runners-up.

Post this, Thompson did confess to not playing the next five weeks on the LPGA Tour: “I’m not playing for about five weeks. I will be taking personal time off at home and kind of playing once we get back to the states, kind of taking it tournament by tournament,” she said after her loss at the Dow championship.

Thompson announced her retirement from a full-time schedule last year and decided to play only selective events this year — “I did say [I’m retiring] just from a full-time schedule. Just going to take that time for myself, spend it with my family and friends, and really just decompress and make sure that if or when I do decide to play, that I’m ready and I’m in a good mind space.” 

Her target was to play in 10 events this year, and she has already played in 8 events. She will miss most of the European portion of the LPGA Tour in the coming few weeks, as she will even skip the AIG Women’s Open among the next 5 events, besides her decision to skip the Evian Championship.