Golf

Report: Lexi Thompson travel blunder leaves LPGA players without clubs for hours


Lexi Thompson unintentionally caused nearly 40 players to miss out on practice rounds Monday at the Women’s British Open.

Golf Channel reports that an estimated 38 players who had been at the course for hours did not receive their clubs until 5 p.m. due to a bizarre set of circumstances centered around Thompson and her forgotten passport.

According to Randall Mell, Thompson’s bag was one of nearly 40 being driven from the site of last week’s Evian Championship in France to Woburn Golf Club outside London for the Women’s British Open.

Ian Wright, who caddied for Seve Ballesteros, was driving the van. As if this story wasn’t weird enough.

Wright received a call Sunday night after beginning the journey and was told Thompson accidentally left her passport in her golf bag. She needed it to fly out of Geneva and Wright was asked to pull over and wait while her caddie, Benji Thompson, took a cab to retrieve the passport.

It resulted in about a three-hour delay, which meant that Wright had to drive through the night and ended up missing a scheduled ferry ride to England.

Add in some rush hour traffic and Wright didn’t arrive to the course until 5 p.m. Monday afternoon, at which point players in waiting were told it was too late to start a practice round because the maintenance crew needed to get some work done.

Thompson’s agent, Bobby Kreusler, told Golf Channel that Thompson didn’t know retrieving her passport would cause such a lengthy delay. It didn’t make Monday any easier to stomach for players like Ryan O’Toole, who lost out on nearly a full day of major prep.

“I don’t know why the driver would agree to accommodate one person knowing it would punish about a third of the field,” O’Toole told Mell. “The driver should have said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get these clubs to Woburn. If you want the passport, somebody’s going to have to fly there to get it and bring it back.’”

This all occurred just days after Thompson posted a strongly-worded critique of course conditions at the Evian Championship, which she said were so bad that she was thankful to miss the cut.



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