Look Who's Climbing the Leaderboard by Playing "Michael Thompson Golf"

Michael Thompson looks over a birdie putt during the second round of the Honda Classic.

by Roz Roberts III

It took a few weeks to knock the rust off, but Michael Thompson's golf game is looking as good as ever.  Michael spent the last couple of weeks working with golf coach Susie Meyers and based on the first two rounds at the Honda Classic the practice is paying dividends.  Michael followed his three under par 67 from the first round with an even better five under par 65.  His 36 hole score of eight under par has him in second place going into the weekend one shot off the lead of Luke Guthrie.

He is playing what Alabama coach Jay Seawell calls "Michael Thompson Golf".  So what is "Michael Thompson Golf"?  It's keeping the ball in the short grass and finding greens in regulation. From there you putt like few people on the planet can.  “I’m a good putter, so if I can get on the green quickly, it doesn't really matter where I am.  I can make putts; I know I can.”

The recipe is working for Michael at the difficult PGA National course.  He's hit 28 out of 36 greens in regulation (T2) and 21 out of 28 fairways (T13).  He's also 16th in the strokes gained putting stat for the tournament.

Michael watches his bunker shot on the 18th hole during the second round of the Honda Classic.

Articles and Videos from Round 2
Guthrie, Thompson dissect PGA National to top of leaderboard
A nice re-cap from one of our favorite Golweek writers Sean Martin

Michael Thompson Interviewed After Round 2 of the Honda Classic
A post round video interview from PGATour.com

Interview Transcript

Round 3 Tee Times
Michael will be paired with current leader Luke Guthrie in the final group of the day.  They tee off at 1:40pm ET.

Round 3 Television Coverage
Michael should get some face time tomorrow since he's in the final pairing.  TV coverage is as follows:

Golf Channel     1-3pm ET

NBC                     3-6pm ET

Online Links

Leaderboard

Michael on Shot Tracker
Michael's Group on Shot Tracker (coming soon)
Live@ Streaming Coverage of holes 3 and 9 (9am-6pm ET)

Sean Martin Features Thompson in His "5 Things" Column

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:

• By Sean Martin
• October 15, 2011 5:51 p.m.

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.”

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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.”

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