NAPLES, Fla. -- Little dog, big day.
"Five pounds," Lexi Thompson said when asked how much Leo, her recently acquired Havapoo, weighs. "Probably two pounds of fur."
The pet sat on Thompson's lap as she summed up her Sunday, gnawing at a microphone one moment, yawning the next. He made no noise, in stark contrast to his owner, whose four-stroke victory over Nelly Korda in the CME Group Tour Championship was a loud reminder that she is among the LPGA's best despite a trying 18 months that had her questioning where her career fits in her life.
The puzzle isn't completed, but getting Leo four months ago was part of the process of Thompson trying to better figure out who she is. Leo doesn't care what she shoots, although $500,000, the payday for her first victory of 2018 in the LPGA's last event of the year, will buy a lot of kibble.
"He makes her so happy," one of Thompson's friends said to another who held Leo near the 18th green at Tiburon Golf Club as Thompson completed her final-round 70.
"Watch her face light up when she sees him," said the person minding the dog.
Thompson was wearing blue, her preferred Sunday color, but the hue didn't match her mood -- not after seemingly starting to get a handle on the pressures, self-imposed and from others, that caused the 23-year-old to skip the Ricoh Women's British Open this summer to examine her feelings.
"What some people have to realize is just that I'm human," Thompson said. "I'm going to make mistakes. I'm going to miss putts or shots. It happens. I really just try to focus on my goals and expectations, but sometimes those are just way too high. I just had to come to realize that and just be like, 'OK, I'm human and I'm going to make mistakes.' That's what a lot of people need to realize as well."
Golf Channel announcer Karen Stupples, who won a major championship before becoming a broadcaster, believes Thompson's status as the best American in a women's game loaded with international talent had taken a toll on her. "I think she's felt that extreme pressure," Stupples said in an interview earlier this week. "You combine that with all the rulings that have gone against her, the missed putts, there is a constant scrutiny of everything she does. I think the eyeballs she feels burning into her have just been really intense."
Thompson split with caddie Kevin McAlpine to use older brother Curtis on her bag this week, and Curtis, a 25-year-old pro who has played on the Web.com Tour, kept the mood light with humor.
"Basically any line from 'Wedding Crashers,' 'Step Brothers' and 'The Hangover,'" Lexi said of their on-course conversations. "I heard them all. ... Any of the funny lines from any of those movies."
Lexi insisted her brother share the walk to the 18th green, scene of heartbreak a year ago when she lost the tournament by missing a 2-foot par putt.
"He kind of saved me out there," she said of Curtis' importance over 72 holes and especially on Sunday, when Korda gave her little breathing room for much of the final round. "I had so much fun. He just kept me laughing. Even when I struggled on a few holes today he said, 'It's OK, you got this. You'll hit a great shot. Come on, Lexi. You're the best.' That's what I need to hear -- to hear it from him, it's amazing."
Producing positive vibes also was important for Sunday's other winner, Ariya Jutanugarn, who made LPGA history by completing a sweep of the tour's major awards. Jutanugarn tied for sixth in the tournament, high enough to edge Brooke Henderson for the $1 million prize for the Race to the CME Globe. Jutanugarn also secured the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average and took the money title. The world No. 1 already had taken the Rolex Player of the Year for the second time in three years and the Rolex Annika Major Award.
A three-time winner in 2018 -- including the U.S. Women's Open where she squandered a big lead but recovered to win in a playoff -- Jutanugarn has worked hard with her performance coaches on not getting down emotionally during a round. It's still a work in progress but strides have been made.
"This year my goal was to have good self-talk," Jutanugarn said. "I didn't do it 100 percent this year, so I have much room to improve. But I'm really proud. Because even though I had bad self-talk, it was not that bad. I still came back and focused on the things that I can control. I never thought that I was going to miss 10 cuts again. I'm thinking only what I'm going to work on to make myself feeling better."
Happy golfers, smiling scorecards.
It's harder than it sounds, particularly when the sport is such a focus from such a young age in the case of golfers like Jutanugarn, Thompson and so many others. Thompson tried to shrug off a tumultuous 2017 season that included a heavily analyzed rules infraction at the ANA Inspiration as well as the stunning missed putt at the CME Group Tour Championship and play through the turmoil until she couldn't anymore.
"All kind of hit me this year and just kind of got me really down," Thompson said. "I needed that time off to be with my family, to figure out things that made me happy off the golf course because it is hard for me because I grew up in this game. I started when I was 5, tournaments when I was 7, so I didn't really know much different. Golf is my life. It's who I am. But it is just what I do. I'm coming to realize that. [I'm] still not there some days because it is so much a part of my life, but it is just a sport."
Everyone was saying Thompson needed to win this week to extend her tour-leading streak of winning at least once in consecutive seasons to six, but that wasn't so. She already a victory. It just came with a puppy instead of a trophy.
