It may be just a coincidence, but since the year Lexi Thompson was born — 1995 — the percentage of American junior golfers who are females has doubled.

Obviously, it’s not all due to Thompson — to say the least — but it’s not an overstatement to say that the young Lexi has more than done her part to grow the game, particularly among girls.

For the record, the growth statistic, according to the National Golf Foundation, is this: In 1995, 17 percent of all junior golfers in the U.S. were female. Now, that percentage is 32.7.

Thompson knows the figures, and they bring a smile to her face. On Saturday, the No. 2-ranked female golfer in the world conducted a First Tee kids exhibition — presented by CoBank — at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver. Though the event, which drew more than 200 people, wasn’t limited to girls, they were the vast majority of attendees.

Thompson wants to help golf grow on all levels, and among both females and males, but the trend among girls in the last couple of decades is particularly gratifying for players such as her on the LPGA Tour.

“It’s amazing,” the 22-year-old said. “That’s what we want. We want to see little girls pick up a club early and get involved in the game because it is an amazing sport. You learn a lot about yourself. We want to grow the game, so it’s great to see.

“The thing I’ve noticed is the number of little girls wearing the program shirts or hats that are out following us. There’s so many little girls out following us and that’s what we want to see. We want to see smiles on their faces when we sign something for them or are giving them high-fives between holes. Knowing that they play the game as well, and we have an impact on that, it means the world to us.”

Thompson points to organizations such as The First Tee, PGA Junior League and LPGA*USGA Girls Golf as key reasons the percentage of girls among junior players has grown markedly in the last couple of decades. For her part, Thompson serves as an ambassador for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf. The program features more than 400 sites around the world, reaching roughly 60,000 girls. Just in Colorado, 13 sites host LPGA*USGA Girls Golf programs. There are locations in Aspen, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Evergreen, Loveland and Pagosa Springs, besides seven in the Denver metro area. The CWGA coordinates and helps run the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf program based at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora. For all the Colorado sites, CLICK HERE.

“Obviously I want to accomplish what I do on the golf course, but I want to give back to the game and grow it as well,” Thompson said. “Being part of that program is a huge honor. To get the girls involved in the game at a young age, and to see how excited they are to be involved with it, it means a lot to me to be part of it.

“I definitely embrace it. I notice the little girls that follow me the whole day (during rounds on the LPGA Tour), and I’ll sign and give them golf balls between holes and everything because it means a lot. They took time out of their lives to come out and watch me and support me. The least I can do is give them something signed. I really embrace it because I’m following my dreams and that’s what I want to show to them.”

And, perhaps more than most LPGA Tour players, Thompson can make a connection with girls. After all, at age 22, she’s not very far removed from being a girl herself. But she definitely took a more accelerated route to considerable success in the game than most.

Thompson qualified for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open as a 12-year-old. She won the U.S. Girls’ Junior as a 13-year-old. She turned pro at 15 and won an LPGA Tour event as a 16-year-old. Now, at the grand old age of 22, she owns eight LPGA Tour victories, including one major. Thompson has captured one title this year, with five runner-up finishes.

“My No. 1 goal is to be in the Hall of Fame,” she said. “Besides that, the people I look up to like Nancy Lopez and Juli Inkster, it’s not only because of what they’ve accomplished, but what they do for their fans, for their sponsors and how they’ve grown the game. People look up to them. That’s what I want to accomplish in life. I want people to look up to me and respect the game because they watch me play. I can accomplish all I want on the golf course, but if I give back to my fans and grow the game, that’s all I want.”

Thompson vividly remembers her first up-close interaction with LPGA Tour players, when she qualified for that first U.S. Women’s Open at age 12. And she keeps that in mind when she mixes with youngsters these days.

“At the Open I got to see Annika (Sorenstam) and Lorena (Ochoa) and Juli (Inkster); that was amazing on its own,” Thompson said. “I didn’t talk to them too much — I was a 12-year-old — but to see them on the range and the putting green, I was like, ‘I just watched you guys on TV last week or a few weeks ago.’ I looked up to them. That’s what drove me to be out there. I’m like, ‘I’m playing beside my role models.’ That’s what I want to be to the kids watching me.”

Indeed, whether she’s conversing with girls or boys, Thompson tries to provide a little inspiration to the impressionable kids.

“I always say to the little girls and boys to follow their dreams whether it’s in golf or anything they want to do in their lives — to go after what they want,” she said. “It takes a lot of hard work to achieve your goals in life, but don’t let anybody get in the way of that. Do something that you love; that’s the most important part.”

Although the LPGA doesn’t have a regular tour stop these days in Colorado, it was in this state where Thompson says she was the most nervous she’s ever been. That was at the 2013 Solheim Cup — the women’s version of the Ryder Cup — at Colorado Golf Club in Parker. Thompson was 18 at the time, and playing in the U.S. vs. Europe matches for the first time.

“I remember the first tee shot very vividly” with LPGA legend Lopez in the stands among those leading the fans in support of the U.S. team, Thompson said. “It’s pretty intense, a lot of adrenaline. It was the best feeling to hit that tee shot. Just to hear the USA chants … We didn’t play that well that week, but it was an incredible experience.

“That first tee shot there was the most nervous I’ve ever been. You’re playing for yourself, you’re playing for your team, you’re playing for your country, so there’s a lot more on the line. But I thrive on it. I love it.”

Next week in West Des Moines, Iowa, Thompson will participate in her third Solheim Cup. And if her excitment and that of the other competitors rubs off on girls — and boys and adults — perhaps golf will take another incremental step in the right direction.

Thompson’s exhibition was the second conducted by a big-time player this summer at Green Valley Ranch. David Duval did the honors in June — just as Hale Irwin, Ryan Palmer and Paula Creamer did last year. And on Aug. 25, Mark O’Meara will be putting one on for The First Tee of Pikes Peak at a Colorado Springs site to be determined.
 

With his 70th birthday awaiting him on Wednesday, Hale Irwin realizes the odds of adding to his record win total on the Champions Tour (45) are long. But his renowned competitiveness simply won’t allow him to close that door completely, even though no one older than 63 has won on the circuit.

“To say I can’t win, I’d never say that,” the World Golf Hall of Famer said on Monday in a visit to Colorado, where he grew up and started making a name for himself. “I’ll retire before saying I can’t win.”

Still, there are ways of further building on a legacy that have nothing to do with adding to his record with further victories. That’s where Monday came in. Without question the finest golfer to grow up in Colorado, Irwin came to CommonGround Golf Course to do what he can to pass along some of his values and experience to an up-and-coming generation of talented young golfers.

Specifically, the three-time U.S. Open champion put on a short-game clinic and conducted a Q&A for about 250 people on the eve of the inaugural AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior, presented by MusclePharm. The 54-hole tournament will be contested at CommonGround Tuesday through Thursday.

Asked in an interview later if he felt good about the career he’s had and what he’s accomplished, Irwin said, “I would feel better if we could take this particular event and turn it into something very special for these kids. And hopefully they’ll go out and work in their communities at some point in time and do the same thing and we can grow it exponentially. These kids are our future. It’s not us standing here. If we can help formulate a better citizen — a contributing person to our future — then we’ve done our job.”

Indeed, at some point in the careers of most successful and well-meaning people, their attention turns increasingly toward giving back and doing what they can to effect positive change in the younger generation. And so it is with Irwin. If he can use his influence as a golfer who has won 20 times on the PGA Tour, 45 times on the Champions Tour, an NCAA title, and four Colorado state amateurs, all the better.

On Monday, he was giving some instructions to AJGA competitors and others in attendance about how to be successful at golf. He was also conveying messages about what it takes to be a person of integrity who contributes to society in a larger sense.

“I hope I can pass on at least some of the things I’ve been able to learn through all these years being around golf and the people associated with golf,” Irwin said. “If there’s a lesson to be learned about yourself, I’m sure you can learn it in the game of golf.”

Asked what he hopes the junior players take away from events such as Monday’s, Irwin said, “Be positive about themselves, be positive about things. You can get so caught up in the negativity surrounding what’s happening in the world. Their world right now is golf. As they get older, it’ll expand; it’ll become something else. When you learn as a young person to stay connected to yourself — be true to yourself and do the right things, make the right decisions — then as an adult you’re going to be a contributing citizen rather than maybe being a drag.”

That certainly fits in with the message that the CGA and CWGA tries to impart through their youth programming at CommonGround like the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program (at bottom Hale posed with current Elite Players) and other community initiatives. (Not coincidentally, Hale’s son Steve, beyond being one of the state’s better amateur golfers, also serves on the CGA board of governors.)

But while Irwin and event organizers hope such messages sink in, the Boulder High School and CU graduate also had plenty of helpful tips to convey regarding becoming a better golfer per se and managing expectations. For instance, Irwin told the story about when he was approaching the end of his CU days, he was trying to figure out the best career path for himself. Using his marketing career and going into business was one option. Pro football was another, as he was an All-Big Eight defensive back, though that option was less likely to play out. And then there was professional golf.

“I made this pact with myself that I had to win a major tournament outside the state of Colorado so that it would convince me that I could play on a national level,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to win the NCAA tournament my senior year (1967), and that was the catalyst that got me out there and got me through an eight-round, six-day qualifying event (for the PGA Tour).

“And once I got to the Tour there were some really good players out there, and you have to learn how to play with those guys. I went out and I watched other really good players. I watched Jack Nicklaus, I watched Arnold Palmer, I watched Gary Player, Lee Trevino. And I adapted what I could to my game.”

And the rest is history as Irwin won the Sea Pines Heritage Classic in 1971 for his first PGA Tour victory and captured U.S. Open titles in 1974, ’79 and ’90, becoming the oldest Open champ with the last of those wins, at age 45.

Irwin’s last victory on the Champions Tour came in early 2007, and age, ailments and various other interests likely will lead to him playing considerably fewer Tour events in the not-too-distant future.

“The older I get, the less focused I become, the more interest I have in watching my granddaughter and spending time with my family,” he said. “That’s more important to me than golf right now.

“I’m not looking to break myself playing anymore. Playing badly is not fun. I’ve played at such a high level for a long period of time, and that’s what I’ve grown to accept. To accept anything else, in my world, I’m accepting less than what I’m telling these kids to do.

“What I want to do is go through the summer as best I can, and if these (muscle) issues don’t work themselves out, then next year I’m going to really slow it down. I think it’s time to start enjoying those things I’ve talked about — the people, my family — and start taking advantage of a few trips that my wife and I have put off for so many years and leave the golf clubs behind. There are places we’d like to go and see and do that I don’t get to do because I’ve been so busy all these years.”
 

Irwin, the three-time U.S. Open champion who spent many of his formative years in Boulder, will provide one of the highlights of tournament week as CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora hosts the AJGA event June 1-4.

Two days before his 70th birthday, the former two-sport athlete from the University of Colorado plans to conduct a short-game clinic and do a Q&A with CGA executive director Ed Mate at CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA. Irwin’s son, Steve, serves on the volunteer board of governors for the CGA and has won five CGA championships, including the 2004 Match Play.

The by-invitation-only Hale Irwin event is scheduled for June 1, the day before championship play begins in the 54-hole tournament. The tourney is expected to draw a strong national/international field, along with some of the best players from Colorado — both boys and girls, who will compete in separate divisions.

Having Hale Irwin — the most successful golfer to have grown up in Colorado — on hand for the AJGA tournament will put a nice exclamation mark on the week.

“It’s exactly what we were hoping for,” Mate said. “With his connections to Colorado, this is a great way to honor his legacy in the state. That’s special, especially with this being (the CGA’s) centennial year.”

Appropriately, the Hale Irwin tournament — the first AJGA event held in Colorado since 2013 — is being conducted at CommonGround, which is the home of the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program. The program, which was launched in 2012, is designed to nurture the budding talents of promising junior players in the state.

Irwin is an ideal role model for such players given his background and what he’s accomplished.

In 1962, he captured his first state championship, prevailing in the CGA Junior Match Play. He then won the individual state high school title in 1963, helping his Boulder High squad claim the team championship.

That same year, having just turned 18, Irwin won the first of three consecutive CGA Stroke Play titles, becoming the first person to accomplish that feat. (He’s pictured above on the 50th anniversary of the first of those victories.) In 1966 in his hometown of Boulder, Irwin captured the CGA Match Play championship, in the finals defeating three-time defending champion, current Colorado Golf Hall of Famer and CU teammate Larry McAtee, 5 and 4.

In ’66 as an amateur, Irwin also qualified for his first U.S. Open and went on to make the cut. Later that year, he was named an All-Big Eight defensive back in football for the second time. And the next spring he won the NCAA golf individual title while a CU senior.

All that happened while Irwin lived in Colorado — not the ideal climate for golf. But even with snow on the ground, Irwin practiced, showing competitiveness and resolve that few have matched.

“That just comes down to the ‘These guys aren’t going to beat me’ attitude,” Irwin said a few years ago while in Colorado. “They could certainly outplay me but they weren’t going to beat me. They might win the battle, but I was going to win the war.”

And he did to a large extent. Irwin won 20 times on the PGA Tour, including the U.S. Open in 1974, ’79 and ’90, the last making him the oldest Open champion ever, at 45. Then he’s won 45 times on the Champions Tour — the most ever on that circuit by a remarkable margin of 16. And along the way, he earned his way into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

All in all, the Colorado kid made good.