Five Straight Birdies Lift Thompson Into Top Ten

After a four under par 68 in round two, Michael Thompson is currently tied for 6th

by Roz Roberts III

Michael Thompson's second round at the Reno Tahoe Open was fairly unremarkable through the first eight holes of the day.  He had two early birdies but two bogeys, including one on the par five 13th,  left him at even par heading into the par five 18th hole.  That's when the unremarkable turned 180 degrees and became noteworthy.  He started a run of five straight birdies that vaulted him up the leaderboard into a momentary tie for first at seven under par.

He made par at the next three holes and then experienced a bit of a hiccup as he double bogeyed the par five eighth hole which was his seventeenth of the day.  Rather than ending the round on that sour note, he birdied hole #9 to finish the day with a round of 68.  The six under par score over the first two rounds has him in a tie for 6th going into the weekend.

Commenting on his round Michael said "I had a great day. Two bad holes. Both par-5s unfortunately. If I would have played those two holes even par I would be at 9-under right now. It is what it is.
I played great. Had a lot fun out there. Obviously finishing on a birdie is a positive note, so I'll try to keep it going for tomorrow."

So how is Michael feeling going into the weekend near the top of the leaderboard?  "I'm just going to stick with my game plan. I'm starting to get used to how far the ball is flying. There are a lot calculations we have to make on each shot.  But I feel ready to go. After the experience of the Canadian Open being in the lead after two days, being tied for the lead, that was a big learning experience.  Now I'm more prepared, and I'm just going to go out tomorrow and see how I can do."

He'll be teeing off at 1:05pm PT with Chris Riley.

Golf Channel Television Times (all times PT)

Sat, 8/6: 3:30p - 6p

Sun, 8/7:    4p - 6p

Online Scoring Links
If you were following along with Shot Tracker over the last couple of days you know that they were having severe technical difficulties.  They had the front nine and back nine reversed (a result of the tournament flipping the nines to end on a very scorable par 5).  After two days they have fixed the problems.

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