LPGA Tour superstar Lexi Thompson has laid bare just how much she suffered in the immediate aftermath of her most devastating major loss.
Thompson will retire at the end of the 2024 campaign at the age of just 29.
Her career was filled with the highest of highs and lowest of lows.
She won 11 times on the LPGA, clinched a major championship and represented the U.S. at two Olympic Games and at six (soon to be seven) Solheim Cups.
Her critics will argue that she should have won more majors given her obvious talent.
Thompson came agonisingly close on multiple occasions.
She gave up a five-shot lead on the back nine during the 2021 U.S. Open and collapsed again a year later at the PGA Championship, making four bogeys down the stretch as she was pipped by Chun In-gee.
But nothing compares to the pain she endured at the 2017 ANA Inspiration when she was given a four-shot penalty in the final round and ended up losing in a playoff.
The golfer was deemed to have incorrectly replaced her ball during the third round.
The mistake was picked up and called in by a TV viewer.
“They hurt,” Thompson said of those moments in an interview with GOLF.
“Especially ANA.”
Thompson added: “I think I locked myself in the room after it happened. I cried the whole night. I didn’t want anybody near me.
“It was like my dream was just ripped right from my hands, because that was a tournament I always imagined I would win.
“So, to have that taken away for something that I didn’t even realize [I did], that I would never do, and then to be called a cheater and a choker for all these incidents, I’m like, Why do I deserve this?
“I’m out here busting my butt, trying to win these tournaments and come out on the top, with all the training and practicing I’ve done.
“And to not be able to either come down the stretch with a win — and to hear the things people say — it’s just, nobody deserves it.”