U.S. Captain Stacy Lewis watches her team during Day Two of the 2023 Solheim Cup. | Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
Following Friday’s afternoon fourball matches, things got a little testy at the press conference featuring Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson.
Things got a little heated in the post-round presser Friday at the Solheim Cup.
Following a tough loss to Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall, a reporter asked Lexi Thompson what went wrong with her third shot on the 18th green.
“I don’t need to comment on that,” Thompson asserted.
“Excuse me?” the reported responded.
“I don’t need to comment on the chip,” Thompson said. “It was a bad lie, and I did not hit a good chip, but it was pretty much impossible.”
The chip in question was a complete shank at a crucial moment. Thompson and Lilia Vu were tied with Maguire and Hall on the 18th green.
Moments before, Maguire had chipped in for a birdie-four, while Thompson faced her third, having almost made the par-5 in two shots. That is when she shanked it, which proved to be the decisive shot, as Maguire’s chip-in gave Europe its first full point of the Solheim Cup.
Confounding answer from Lexi and subsequent reaction from the US side. It was one of the pivotal moments of the entire day and somehow that’s off limits? pic.twitter.com/9std3LFlmN
— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) September 23, 2023
Sure, the weight of the world was on Thompson’s shoulders, but this juncture proved to be the moment of the day at the Solheim Cup.
Reporters have a job to do, too, and there is zero problem with any credentialed journalist asking a player—or captain—about an instance like this.
Then, U.S. Captain Stacy Lewis chimed in after Thompson finished speaking, saying under her breath that it was “a terrible question.”
Again, media members have a job to do: tell the story of what transpired.
Unfortunately for Thompson and the U.S. team, an unfortunate circumstance occurred on the 18th green. But it is golf. Mishits like that happen. Yet, Thompson and Lewis could have had a better answer about the incident, which, to Thompson’s credit, her delayed response about the lie being bad in the gnarly Bermuda rough proved sufficient.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
