Lexi Thompson reveals how she’s changed her social media habits

It’s been a tough road for top-ranked American Lexi Thompson. A series of personal trials began in 2017 — she endured the ANA rules debacle, her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and her grandmother’s death — which ultimately led to her withdrawal from last year’s Women’s British Open to “recharge [her] mental batteries.”

Last October, Thompson published a lengthy Instagram post that revealed she struggles with her body image. Things seemed to be looking up in November when Thompson won the CME Group Tour Challenge with her brother, Curtis, on the bag. It was the 10th LPGA victory of her career, and her first win since  the 2017 Indy Women in Tech Championship.

But in April, Thompson announced an indefinite leave from social media, citing “hurtful things.” Though she has posted photos since, Thompson was asked if her attitude about social media had changed during her pre-tournament press conference at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.

“I love social media in a way that I get to reach out to my fans, give them an inside look of what my training’s like, what my practicing is like, or even my life off the golf course that I’m a normal 24-year-old girl,” Thompson said. “I love giving an insight of my life to fans that look up to me or just are interested. So that way, I love social media. But the break was definitely needed. I think now I’m just posting and not really looking at the comments and everything. Just trying to look at the positive of everything. I still want to interact with my fans and post pictures, post my Pro-Am pictures and all that, because people love that kind of stuff. So I’m still doing all that. Just I’m not as into reading all the comments or the direct messages or any of that.”

Thompson was pressed to point to something specific that bothered her about her social media interactions.

“It wasn’t really one thing,” she explained. “It was just a matter of people not looking so much at the positive that was going on or how hard I was working. I think that’s what people don’t really realize, how much we sacrifice, how much we put into the game as athletes in general. We’re not perfect. We’re human beings, and we’re going to have bad weeks, bad seasons. We’re not robots. They can’t expect that much from us.”

Thompson is seeking her second career major this week. She tees off alongside defending champ Ariya Jutanugarn and Sung Hyun Park off of tee No. 10 at 8:06 a.m. ET on Thursday.

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