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Lexi Thompson is only 28 years old, but she is one of the most successful active golfers in the world.
The quality and integrity of her game are remarkable, with very few weaknesses in her performance. Her average driving distance is one of her main weapons but by no means the only one.
Lexi Thompson has one of the best driving distance averages on the LPGA Tour, and that has been the case for most of her professional career. Even in her rookie season (2012), she finished second in that statistic with 271.91 yards. She was only 17 years old and had played 23 tournaments at this level.
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Lexi Thompson's worst average driving distance record for an LPGA Tour season was reported in 2015, with 267.64 yards. Despite that, she finished fourth on the circuit, and it is the only season of her career so far in which she has finished under 270 yards.
Her career-best is 278.35 yards, which she achieved in 2021. She finished fourth on the LPGA Tour that season. It was a great year for Lexi Thompson: she played 19 tournaments without a cut and finished in the top 10 ten times, including three runner-up finishes.
On that note, here are Thompson's driving distance averages during her professional career on the LPGA Tour:
- 2012: 271.91 yards (2nd)
- 2013: 271.11 yards (2nd)
- 2014: 270.67 yards (3rd)
- 2015: 267.64 yards (4th)
- 2016: 277.40 yards (2nd)
- 2017: 273.79 yards (3rd)
- 2018: 272.57 yards (4th)
- 2019: 275.96 yards (5th)
- 2020: 270.20 yards (5th)
- 2021: 278.35 yards (4th)
- 2022: 272.84 yards (8th)
- 2023: 270.31 yards (13th).
Thompson excels in another area of the game closely related to the power of her driver: Greens In Regulation (GIR). Her strength in this area has allowed her to remain among the top scorers on the circuit, despite not excelling in other areas such as putting.
In GIR, Thompson has posted scores above 70% for most of her career and has been the LPGA Tour's best on more than one occasion. Excluding the 2023 season, Lexi Thompson's worst year in the GIR was 2014. She tied for 11th that season, shooting 73.44%.
How is the 2023 season going for Lexi Thompson so far?
The 2023 season has been one of the worst of Lexi Thompson's professional career.
In 12 tournaments, she suffered eight cuts, including five in a row between June and August. Her best finish of the year came a week ago at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship (T8).
Her season stats reflect her situation very well. She remains among the best in average driving accuracy, but is far below her potential in the other sections:
- Average Driving Distance: 270.31 yards (13th)
- Driving Accuracy: 62.03% (159th)
- Greens in Regulation: 68.58% (60th)
- Putts per GIR: 1.79 (36th)
- Putting Average: 30.41 (126th)
- Sand Saves: 45.61% (60th)
- Scoring Average: 72.28 (105th)
- Rounds Under Par: 11 (132nd).
Despite this performance, Thompson received her sixth call-up to represent the United States in the 2023 Solheim Cup. At Finca Cortesin, Spain, Thompson didn't make captain Stacy Lewis look bad, finishing the second-best scorer of the American team with three points in four matches.
She also received an invitation to become the seventh woman to tee off on the PGA Tour. It will happen next week at the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas, Nevada.
