Lexi Thompson battled back to make her first cut since June at the Kroger Queen City Championship, as she showed some signs of form ahead of the Solheim Cup in a fortnight.
The American has endured a tough year on the LPGA Tour with her best finish a T31 at the Founders Cup. Prior to this week, Thompson had featured in 10 tournaments but had made just one further cut, a T47 finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Having shot a one-over 73 on Thursday, Thompson looked likely to miss another cut – her sixth in a row – but battled back impressively to shoot a four-under-par 68 and make the weekend by three strokes.
Despite making four bogeys in her second round, including two in her first three holes, Thompson battled back well with birdies at the fourth, sixth and seventh to end the front nine. What’s more, four further birdies followed on the back nine, with the American now sitting T41 heading into the final two rounds.
The resilient performance may also offer some confidence to US captain, Stacy Lewis, ahead of the Solheim Cup. Thompson automatically qualified due to her world ranking position, but Lewis conceded there were some “concerns” about Thompson’s form heading into the event which starts on Friday 22nd September.
“Talking to her, though, she’s been handling all this remarkably well. I’ve said it before, but you see her off the golf course, and you would never know she’s struggling like she is right now,” Lewis told reporters on a conference call last week.
Thompson has already competed in five Solheim Cups
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“We are going to rely on her behind the scenes, too, to help in the team room and be in a different position than she’s been in the past because she probably is the most experienced of anybody on the team.
“We are just going to rely on her differently and hopefully over the next month, with her work that she’s putting in, she gets some things figured out.”
Heading into the weekend at Kenwood Country Club, Thompson starts her third round 11 shots behind leader Peiyun Chein, after she shot a superb second-round 64 to reach -14.
Chein leads by four shots over Morgane Metraux, Ruoning Yin and Ruixin…
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