By kickntrue on 7/26/10

I was weary of Michelle Wie turning pro at a young age, but for some reason I have no such hesitations when it comes to 15 year old Alexis Thompson. Sure, I could talk about Jiyai Shin winning the Evian Masters yesterday in France and taking over the women's world #1 spot again, but I'm much more interested in the 2nd place finisher, Alexis. She made $242k for her -13 finish (including -5 final round) and now has two top 10 finishes (Women's US Open) in her first 3 professional starts.

I know a lot of people point to the fact that unlike Wie (the most obvious/logical comparison), Thompson learned to win before going pro (whereas Wie was all built on talent), but I'm not going to speculate in that department. What I do know is right now Thompson is a better player than Wie and things are only looking up.

The sad thing for Thompson, and it's all timing and luck, Wie has already made more money from sponsorships than Thompson will probably make in her whole career. Sure the money will come for Thompson, but Wie sort of hit the lottery with her talent and the market at the right time.

Here's one thing I know for sure, when Thompson is playing and near the top of the leaderboard, it makes me want to turn on the LPGA and there aren't too many situations where that is the case.

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photo via Alexis-Thompson.com

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