Sean Martin of
GolfWeek.com (one of the ThompsonTide's favorite golf writers) had a nice piece on Michael as part of his "5 Things" column. Click on the picture to read the whole article. Here's an excerpt:
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Even the
caddies were confused. While waiting for the fairway to clear on the Seaside
Course’s seventh hole, Michael Thompson’s looper started digging around a Ping
staff bag.
“Wrong bag,” Billy Horschel said with
a laugh. Thompson’s caddie had taken a wrong turn while searching for a
supplement to add to Thompson’s water bottle.
Thompson and Horschel, who were
paired in the McGladrey Classic’s final pairing Saturday, have their share of
similarities. Only one player can win the McGladrey Classic, though. The two
SEC alums will play in the final group again Sunday. Thompson, 26, and
Horschel, 24, are both PGA Tour rookies who share a sponsor and won the SEC
Championship at nearby Frederica.
“We’re just two young guys having
fun on the PGA Tour,” Thompson said. “It was just like playing your country
club on a Saturday. It made me feel comfortable.”
• • •
1.) Tide Rolling: Thompson
will start Sunday with the first 54-hole lead of his career. He’s at 13-under
197 (65-65-67) and one shot ahead of Horschel, who shot even-par 70 on
Saturday. A high finish will also lock up Thompson’s card for 2012. He’s 116th
on the money list with $663,265.
A year ago this week, the Alabama
grad was winning a Hooters Tour event in rival territory Auburn, Ala., in
preparation for Q-School.
Thompson, runner-up in the 2007 U.S.
Amateur, turned pro in 2008 after earning low-amateur honors at the U.S. Open
(T-29). He slumped in his first pro season, and had to spend the 2009 and 2010
seasons on the Hooters Tour. He was last year’s Hooters Tour player of the year
before graduating from Q-School.
As Thompson was talking to agents in
preparation for his pro career, one told him he’d have to hit the ball higher
to compete on the PGA Tour.
“That one quote, it totally changed
my whole outlook on the game of golf and how I was going to go about playing
it,” he said. “I changed my whole swing.
“I worked on shallowing out my
swing. I used to come in really steep, take deep divots. I was working on casting
the club, releasing my hands early. That caused my impact to change
dramatically. I felt like I was sweeping the ball, instead of compressing it.
For me, that brought in a duck hook. That duck hook produced a fear of hitting
it left, and then I started hitting it all over the place.”
Thompson even briefly considered
quitting the game during one poor stretch in 2009.
“I told myself, ‘There’s no point.
This is miserable,’ ” Thompson said. “My family, my coach, my friends, my
girlfriend (now wife), everyone encouraged me to keep going, and I knew this is
always what I wanted to do in the long run.”
• • •
