CHARLESTON, S.C. – The first time Lexi Thompson played in a U.S. Women Open, she couldn’t reach the fairway on some of the holes and took aim at the mowed-down walking strips. She was 12 years old and spent the drive up to Pine Needles practicing her autograph in the backseat.

That was then.

The now 24-year-old Thompson will tee it up in her 13th consecutive U.S. Women’s Open this week at Country Club of Charleston. She took a share of fifth at last year’s championship at Shoal Creek, her best finish to date.

Thompson has yet to win a tournament in 2019, her biggest headlines coming when she announced a break from social media several weeks ago.

Thompson has since logged back on to Instagram and Twitter but is being more cautious about what she takes in.

“Honestly, I mean, I love social media in a way that I get to reach out to my fans, give them an inside look of what my training’s like, what my practicing is like, or even my life off the golf course that I’m a normal 24-year-old girl,” she said. “I love giving an insight of my life to fans that look up to me or just are interested. So that way, I love social media.

“But the break was definitely needed. I think now I’m just posting and not really looking at the comments and everything. Just trying to look at the positive of everything.”

Thompson has 417,000 followers on Instagram and 462,500 on Twitter. Her dog, Leo, has nearly 2,500 followers on Instagram and remains quite active.

“It wasn’t really one thing,” said Thompson of what prompted the break. Her agent insisted it had nothing to do with a recent round of golf with President Trump.

“It was just a matter of people not looking so much at the positive that was going on or how hard I was working,” she said. “I think that’s what people don’t really realize, how much we sacrifice, how much we put into the game as athletes in general. We’re not perfect. We’re human beings, and we’re going to have bad weeks, bad seasons. We’re not robots. They can’t expect that much from us.”

Thompson missed her second cut in four starts last week at Kingsmill and went back home to Florida for a cram session with her father, Scott.

“We worked on everything,” she said of their five- to seven-hour sessions.

Sandwiched in between those weekends off came a third at the ANA Inspiration and a T-4 at the Mediheal Championship in Daly City, Calif.

Thompson knew from the moment she first played in a U.S. Women’s Open that this is what she wanted to do. And she grew into well, ranking inside the top five in driving distance at this championship since 2010.

The only thing left for her to do at this championship is win it.