Thompson gets back to the grind
Opinion by Greg Hansen
Completing a remarkable week in which he finished second at the U.S. Amateur, Rincon/University High School grad Michael Thompson returned overnight to Alabama, caught up on sleep and began classwork for his senior season.
Friday, Thompson accompanied his Crimson Tide teammates to Japan for the Topy Cup, a college golf competition. He won't return until Saturday. So much for catching one's breath.
His longtime golf teacher, Susie Berdoy Meyers of the Oro Valley Country Club, put Thompson's rise to golf prominence in perspective.
"I started teaching Michael when he was 14, so this isn't a big surprise to me,'' said Meyers, who played at the UA in the early '80s and spent several years on the LPGA Tour. "When I got my first look at him, I told his dad (Mike), 'Hold on here; this young man has got something.' I knew right away he had the goods."
After finishing fourth in the NCAA championships in June, Thompson probably enters the season as college golf's No. 1 player. He will play at the 2008 Masters and U.S. Open. He has asked Meyers to be his caddie at Augusta National, just as she was at his U.S. Amateur debut three years ago at Winged Foot.
Meyers, who is married to 1994 Arizona Amateur champion Dan Meyers, said that Thompson won't be unfamiliar with Augusta National when he arrives for the Masters.
"Once you are invited, as is Michael, you can play at Augusta any time you want,'' she said. "He is a five-hour drive from Augusta, and the parents of his coach at Alabama happen to live in Augusta, which will give him a place to stay. Pretty nice.''
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