Win or lose, Lexi ready to make even more memories at ANA

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Lexi Thompson broke through spectacularly to win a major championship at the ANA Inspiration five years ago.

She controversially lost a heartbreaker here two years ago.

The win trumps the loss in her memory bank.

“I’ve played here since I was 14,” Thompson said Tuesday. “Just to be back brings back so many great memories. I just love this golf course. I get to hit driver everywhere.”

That’s the thing. The Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills suits Thompson’s big game. Even with the course lengthened, modifications moving three tee boxes back and even with the fairways slightly squeezed, she will be playing bomb and gouge again.

“A few of the fairways were brought in, but I think it just makes it more challenging,” Thompson, 24, said. “At the same time, you want to get it as far down there as you can. Even if you do hit it in the rough, you want to have a shorter club in, because the rough is thick on some of those holes. You want as short a shot in as you can.”

So it’s going to be bombs away again.

“I get to play aggressively out here,” Thompson said. “I get to take my driver, and with the setup of the golf course, aim up the right side and hit my draw out there.”

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Thompson reigned as the top American in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings for most of the past three years - until Nelly Korda passed her two weeks ago. Korda is No. 8 this week, Thompson No. 9. The Dinah Shore Course sets up the possibility of another showdown between the two. Thompson outdueled Korda in a final-round pairing to win the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship last year. With their combination of power and accuracy, they’re two of the best total drivers in the game, .

Korda, 20, will be playing the ANA for just the fifth time. Her tie for 13^th last year is her best finish in the event. She’s just coming into her own on the game’s biggest stages. She logged her first top-10 finish in a major in her young career at the U.S Women’s Open last season.

For Thompson to win, though, she might have to get through yet another Korda. Jessica, Nelly’s older sister at 26, is No. 11 in the world rankings and looking to win her first major.

Thompson, however, is more proven at Mission Hills than either Korda.

After her victory in 2014, Thompson finished seventh, fifth and second, with that runner-up finish coming in the year she was blindsided by a four-shot penalty in the final round. She followed that up with a T-20 last year, but she’ll be looking to get back in the Sunday hunt again this week. She’ll have a familiar face alongside as she tries to do so. She has rehired Benji Thompson (no relation) as caddie, with her brother, Curtis, back focused on his own pro career. Benji was on Lexi’s bag when she won the ANA.

“It's just great to have him back on the bag,” Thompson said. “He has an upbeat personality, very positive. He has an aggressive personality out on the golf course.

“I think he brings out the best in my game. If I'm ever questioning a shot he's like, `You got this. Show me what you got.’ It's just kind of a good personality for me, to have out there. It's a good change.”

A change she hopes ends the same way it did five years ago, with the two of them diving into Poppie’s Pond together.

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