Saturday, July 2, 2011

Solid Play Leads to Second Straight Working Weekend for Thompson

by Roz Roberts III

After a solid par 70 in the first round of the AT&T National, Michael Thompson was looking to make his second straight cut.  However, round two started off rather slowly as Michael started the day with a double bogey followed by a bogey.  Despite the three over par start, Michael just put his head down and played solid golf.  He was eventually rewarded with back-to-back birdies on holes 16 and 17 and went on to play his final 9 holes at two under par to finish the round at one under par.  The one under round of 69 was good enough to leave him in a tie for 21st and well inside the cut line for the second straight week.

Michael finished Saturday's third round at one over par.  Michael was sitting at 2 over par going into hole #18 when he landed his second shot within 3 feet of the hole which lead to an easy birdie and gave him some much needed momentum heading into the final round.

After the round, via Twitter, Michael said "That birdie on the last hole is going to bode well for me tomorrow! Excited to dominate tomorrow!"

Michael slipped 19 spots into a tie for 40th.  Overall, the scores were significantly lower on Saturday than they had been on Thursday and Friday.  Some players said that the grounds crew had significantly slowed the greens down by heavily watering them overnight, however, everyone expects the greens to be faster and firmer for the final round.
  
For Sunday's fourth and final round, Michael is paired with amateur Patrick Cantlay and Chris Riley.  They tee off from the tenth hole at 9:40am ET.  Cantlay has gotten lots of press recently after he finished as the low amateur at the US Open and made the cut at both the Traveler's Championship and the AT&T National.

Scoring Links
Leaderboard
Michael Thompson Scorecard
Michael Thompson Shot Tracker
Michael Thompson's Group on Shot Tracker

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