Lexi Thompson says cut at PGA Tour event would be top accomplishment

LAS VEGAS — As she might in advance of any other tournament, Lexi Thompson walked TPC Summerlin on Tuesday with her parents, Scott and Judy, following along closely. The 11-time LPGA winner tried a myriad of shots, including two approaches on the par-5 16th hole – one in which she played it safe in three shots, another in which she tried a driver off the deck that cleared a lake but rolled through the green into a bunker.

But while the preparation might be the same, this is no ordinary tournament.

And she knows it.

Thompson, who played a practice round Tuesday with Michael Kim and Ben Griffin, will become the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event when she tees off Thursday at the 2023 Shriners Children’s Open. She was as caught off-guard by the sponsor exemption as anyone, telling media members that she found out just nine days ago during the final round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

But while she’s won a major and has been in the public eye for more than a decade and a half, Thompson said she’d consider a chance to play the weekend at the Shriners as her crowning achievement.

“Definitely at the top. Definitely at the top of my accomplishments. It’s been an honor just to get this invite, but one step, one shot at a time,” Thompson said Tuesday. “That would be an amazing feeling.”

Although it may have seemed an inopportune time to get this call a few months ago, Thompson has seen an uptick in her performances in recent weeks, something she attributes to a small swing change in advance of the Solheim Cup.

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Thompson missed five cuts in a row over the summer and looked like she might be a liability for Team USA when she made the 12-player squad based on her Rolex Ranking. But she undoubtedly found something in September, and it was enough for captain Stacy Lewis to ask Thompson to hit the first tee shot in Spain and anchor her singles lineup Sunday.

After a fifth-place showing at the Volunteers of America last week outside of Dallas, Thompson said she feels comfortable with her game as the big day approaches, although she wouldn’t let on to what she was doing wrong.

“I can’t say,” she said with a wide smile. “No, it was something very simple, but I feel like as golfers and athletes we kind of have our tendencies of always going back to certain things. Even when we are struggling, we always have tendencies of what our swing goes to. Just…