Teen phenom roars onto scene at ShopRite LPGA Classic

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - She roared onto the golf resort riding shotgun in a NASCAR beast supplied by her newest sponsor.

A few heads turned on the nearby practice green. A few eyebrows rose.

And, yes, when 15-year-old Alexis Thompson hauled herself out of the rumbling No. 83 Red Bull race car, her mother worried.

Not about the attention, as her baby turned pro; not about the pressure, or the in-your-face entrance, or the cutthroat nature of the LPGA.

Judy was worried that her "Lexi" might botch her entrance.

"I just wanted to make sure she could get out of that car - in a skirt, at that," said Judy Thompson.

That's the only fret the Thompsons had yesterday. They have prepared for the rest.

Lexi will become the youngest women's professional in LPGA history tomorrow when she tees off at the ShopRite LPGA Classic here, at Seaview.

She might look like a college kid, 5-11 with a powerful frame, but she can't legally drive that NASCAR ride. A local winery threw a reception yesterday evening, and Lexi couldn't drink. She's playing on a tour that won't let her compete full time for 3 more years unless she successfully petitions to join before age 18.

But she's seasoned.

Lexi played in the U.S. Women's Open at 12, the youngest qualifier ever. She missed that cut, and the next, at 13, but she made the cut last year at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, and tied for 34th. She tied for 21st at the Kraft Nabisco Championship last year. This year, she finished 16th at the Women's Australian Open, tied for 24th at the Kraft.

She has dominated the amateur ranks for 2 years. She begged her parents for a year to let her play for pay; finally, earlier this year, they agreed.

And, so, yesterday, Thompson held a news conference in her new logo-look: Red Bull visor, pink Puma shirt, white Puma shoes with yellow-and-green Puma stripes and pink shoelaces.

"She's ready," said Scott Thompson, her caddie, and her dad. "Why not benefit from it."

Ready to play, perhaps; but ready to lose precious years of young womanhood?

"I don't feel I'll be missing out on anything," Lexi said. "This is my dream. This is what I've wanted to do my whole life."

All 15 years, 4 months of it.

Michelle Wie was more than 7 months older when she turned pro in 2005. If Thompson arrived on tour with a roar, Wie's landing was seismic. As such, Wie has hardly noticed her tour's Next Big Thing.

"I actually don't know her at all," Wie said, a little icily. "I met her once. She's a very nice young girl."

Young girl? Wie is 20.

She used to giggle. Lexi giggles.

Playing golf under a glare, playing with great expectations and with demanding sponsors, can harden the softest of girls. If Lexi hardens, she will do so in a controlled environment.

Scott is her trainer and her career guide. He oversees the home schooling of Alexis and Curtis, one of her older brothers.

Judy processes insurance claims at a dental office. They live at TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Fla. They moved there more than a decade ago to facilitate older brother Nicholas' budding career - a move that had trickle-down implications.

Now, Nicholas, 27, is on the PGA Tour. He ranks 154th in FedEx Cup points this year, and, according to Scott, he is eager for Lexi to start her career.

Curtis is a 17-year-old junior and hopes to play in college in the fall of 2011.

And, of course, there's Lexi, a sophomore who last attended regular school 5 years ago.

Lexi is hopeful of playing in the maximum six LPGA events via sponsors' exemptions. Worldwide, she might hit a half-dozen more.

With Curtis still at home, Judy can't attend every tournament Lexi plays in, but she'll be at most, she said. And she'll help keep things normal when Lexi isn't on the road.

She will keep her friends, said her manager, Bobby Kreusler, who has represented Nicholas since he turned pro. She will attend prom, she will graduate, she will have the choice to go to college.

And she will play golf - scary good golf, sometimes.

Thompson is nearly as long as Wie, who is to the LPGA what Tiger Woods once was to the men's circuit, but, like Wie as a teen, the short clubs give Thompson trouble.

Thompson shared the 10-under-par, second-round lead with Lorena Ochoa at the Navistar LPGA Classic at Prattville, Ala., in October. It fell apart; Kreusler said she broke her driver late in the second round and the club was reshafted incorrectly. Thompson went 2-over each of the last 2 days and tied for 27th, but it still took five bogeys in the last 10 holes to keep her out of the top 10.

Wie said she wants Lexi to have fun. So did Paula Creamer, who holds the record Thompson will shoot for first. At 18 years, 9 months, Creamer was the youngest to win a tournament.

There is the chance of burnout. Team Lexi is aware of this.

They reviewed the legacies of some of the steady, strong launches and some of the crash-and-burns in women's sports.

The flip side, Kreusler pointed out, is that, forced to play for fun indefinitely, Thompson might see her game decline out of boredom.

Besides, no one bats an eye when female gymnasts and figure skaters forsake normalcy in pursuit of Olympic gold and its trappings.

"That's what we try to tell people," Scott said.

They will be careful, they promise. Lexi won't even try to play full time for 2 years.

By then, the branding should be complete. She hopes to be like Red Buller Camilo Villegas and Puma cutie Rickie Fowler - connections to vibrancy and fun.

"They're young. They're vivacious," Judy said. "She says, 'I'm young. I want to be it.' "

Yesterday, as she climbed out of the race car and posed for a dozen cameras, she was it.

And, yesterday, Judy's worry was wasted.

Lexi wasn't wearing a skirt.

It was a skort. *