NAPLES, Fla. – Time has a funny way of making us forget. Something or someone can become so ingrained in our lives that we lose perspective around them. We forget context.

Take Lexi Thompson. She’s only 30 years old, so her announcement last year that she’d be stepping away from a full-time schedule came as a bit of a surprise. But it’s easy to forget how long Lexi Thompson has been doing this. We forget that 18 years ago, she became the youngest ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at 12. She turned pro at 15. A major, 15 professional wins and a number of close calls followed. For 15 years, doing the same things each year, time hardly seemed to pass.

For half of her life, Lexi Thompson has been Lexi Thompson, professional golfer. She has been grinding for longer. She still is grinding, for that matter. But after a season of trimmed-down schedule, Lexi Thompson isn’t just a professional golfer. She got engaged to her boyfriend, Max Provost, in January. The two will get married in March. She has spent more time with her friends and family. Poured herself into wedding planning. Taken weekend trips and getaways. Time has a different meaning when your focus isn’t singular.

For someone whose life has been spent with a club in her hand, making space for other things has been soothing for the soul.

“It has been nice. It has put my mind at ease,” Thompson said after the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship. “It was a nice balance, especially with getting engaged, wedding planning. I mean, this is my 15th year. I think a lot of people don’t realize how long I’ve been out here and been at the game because I’ve been at the game a lot longer than just professional golf.

“[Golf] has taken a toll.”

When Thompson announced she was stepping away from a full-time schedule last year, she was given tributes and tearful send-offs usually reserved for players hanging up their spikes. But Thompson’s plan is not to stop working nor stop competing. That’s in her DNA. You don’t become Lexi Thompson if it’s not.

So she played 13 events, including this week’s Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. She contended in both the Chevron Championship and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship before stumbling on the weekend. She posted a runner-up finish at the Dow Championship. The work hasn’t stopped. Thompson still trains hard at home – but says her body now feels it more after “everything she’s put it through.” She fired a two-under 70 on Thursday while dealing with a hip injury.

She’s still Lexi Thompson. But the work is no longer all-consuming.

And in allowing herself to be something other than a golfer, Lexi Thompson’s golf has benefited. As the pressure decreased, freedom emerged.

“Yeah [I have been freed up] on the mental side of things,” Thompson said. “I’m not going to lie. I’m pretty hard on myself. I always am because I want the best of myself and I know how much work I put in. I’m never OK with just mediocre golf. But being able to pick and choose my events and have the balance in the off weeks has helped me out a lot because sometimes that’s even more important than practice is to give yourself that balance.”

A year of a part-time schedule has lifted a weight off Thompson. If it were an experiment, it seems to have been successful. All signs point to this remaining the status quo for Thompson until she officially bids the professional game adieu in her own time.

But the 2026 schedule brings a question for the Lexi Thompson who has found peace in the balance. With the Solheim Cup being played in the Netherlands in 2026, will Thompson, who has played in every Solheim Cup since 2013, tweak her pared-down schedule to ensure she makes captain Angela Stanford’s team? Or will she continue to play when she chooses and let the chips fall where they may?

“I mean I love Angela. She’s someone I’ve looked up to for quite a while now,” Thompson said. “Solheim Cup has been my favorite event ever in my career. We’ll see. The first few months, I won’t even play because obviously there’s not really a tournament to play. Then with the wedding and the honeymoon and everything. I’m going to take some time for myself and kind of regroup and see where I want to go.”

That there are no concrete answers now speaks to the impact the change has had on Thompson. Golf used to be everything: The driving force. The guiding light. Her identity. But professional golf can also be isolating and unrelenting. There are many instances where it doesn’t give you back everything you put in, and that can become a burden.

In stepping back (not away), Lexi Thompson, child prodigy and major champion, found what she was looking for – what she needed.

“I’ve learned there’s just more to life,” Thompson said. “With wedding planning and doing all that, there’s just more to it than just the game. If I struggle out here, I try to just remind myself that it’s OK, you’re going to have another day and you’ve done great things out here.”

Lexi Thompson will still be out here like she has been for 15 years. But she won’t always be out here. Her mind won’t be locked on a game that can’t be perfected. After 15 years, Lexi Thompson is allowing herself to be something else.

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