The Youngest Qualifier

When I saw an article in the Miami Herald recently about a 12-year-old trying to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open, I remembered something Herb Krickstein told me two years ago. Herb is the grandfather/coach/Svengali of Morgan Pressel, now an LPGA star, who was the youngest girl ever to qualify for the Open at the age of 13 in 2001. Herb had said, "There's another girl in South Florida, who may be even better than Morgan, and she's only 10."

He meant Alexis Thompson, now 12, who barely missed qualifying for the Open by one stroke in 2005, and who this year had a great chance to qualify for the Open, which would make her the youngest girl ever to qualify. A few days after I read about Alexis, I hustled up to The Country Club at Heathrow, in Heathrow, Fla., to watch her 36-hole qualifying bid, the first time she would ever play 36 holes in one day. The top eight finishers in a field of 48 women would qualify and play at the U.S. Women's Open, which begins Thursday, June 28, at Pine Needles, in North Carolina.

Before Alexis tees off at 8:15 a.m., on June 11, a hot, sweltering, breezeless day that will reach 97 degrees by noon, she is warming up on the driving range with her friend, Madison Pressel, Morgan's 15-year-old sister. Alexis is tanned and rangy, with the long knock-kneed legs of a colt. Madison is shorter and stockier than her sister, but with the same peaches-and-cream complexion. Alexis and Madison are being watched over by their fathers.

Scott Thompson is his daughter's coach and caddy. He's a gruff, burly man with a goatee who looks like a South Florida fishing boat captain. He is very protective of his daughter's privacy, and lately this has gotten him some bad press, which has shocked him. Watching his daughter warm up, he says, "Aw, I don't expect her to make it. She's only 12." He excuses himself, saying, "I gotta go tune up my daughter."

Mike Pressel is blond and blue-eyed, like his daughters. He's wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt as big as the sail of an ocean-going schooner. Mike is the anti-Scott Thompson. He has been trying to promote his daughter in the media by doing for Madison what Herb did for Morgan. Alas, his attempts so far have been in vain. Genes, it seems, go only so far. Madison looks like a smaller version of Morgan, but she doesn't have her older sister's game.

Alexis tees off with her playing partner, Courtney Swaim Trimble, the 28-year-old assistant golf coach at Auburn University; there are only four people watching her on this possibly momentous day. I am standing near her Uncle Kenny, who is Scott Thompson's brother, and two male fans who are about 28. One of the fans asks me, "Why aren't other reporters following her?" I shrug. He says, "My own pro didn't know about her. I had to tell him, 'Jeez, she's the best female golfer in the world under 13.'"

Alexis sinks a 12-foot put to birdie the first hole and salvages another birdie on the second when she hits an approach shot from the rough, down an embankment, to within five feet of the pin. Her four spectators applaud and Uncle Kenny shouts, "Yes!" Alexis smiles at us and walks to the next hole with a determined stride, her eyes focused straight ahead. A USGA official who has been watching her says, "She's some 12-year-old. That's a tough kid."

Alexis pars the next 14 of 15 holes, bogeying only the fifth. She salvages a par on the seventh with a tough six-foot put, and on the eleventh with another tough, five-foot put. On the thirteenth hole, she drives into the rough behind some trees and hits a beautiful approach shot over them. Uncle Kenny calls out, "Beautiful! That's a golf show from a 12-year-old!" Her father, Scott, wipes his brow with a towel and says, "We dodged a bullet."