Fear the Beard

Michael has been sporting a full beard during his recent tour in Asia.

by Roz Roberts III

We've gotten several comments/questions on Michael sporting a beard during his current tour through Asia and so far we've neglected to comment.  In case you missed it, it is true - Michael has grown out his beard.  I'm not sure this qualifies as breaking news but it has caused at least a mini-stir in Thompson fan base.

During last year's off-season Michael grew out his beard right up until the 2013 season started and then he shaved it off.  He may be following the same schedule this year or he may decide to go Duck Dynasty/Red Sox Nation mode into the foreseeable future.  Either way, we leave the comments to all you Thompson Tiders out there.  Feel free to send us e-mail or comment on Twitter and Facebook.  Just don't expect us to take sides!

Thompson Playing in The Hero Indian Open

Michael's Asian excursion continues this week as he takes part in the Hero Indian Open which is in New Delhi, India. It's an Asian Tour event, and Michael is one of only a small handful of Americans.  In the meantime, the PGA Tour continues it's schedule with the McGladrey Classic.

The Times of India has run a couple of short articles about Michael which you can read here:
Thompson targets top-10 ranking by next year
I'll follow footsteps of Payne Stewart in Indian Open: Thompson

Online Links
Asian Tour website
Hero Indian Open website
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Michael tees off at 10:45 pm PST Wednesday

Thompson Climbing the Leaderboard in Malaysia

by Roz Roberts III

After posting a three over par opening round, Michael Thompson has slowly been climbing a leaderboard after he has posted consecutively better under par rounds highlighted by Saturday's third round four under par 68 and he is now tied for 33rd at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

In his second round, Michael started off with a bogey and a double bogey in his first two holes which had him at 6 over par for the tournament.  Since then he is a total of 8 under par.  After the slow start in round two, he fought back with four birdies to finish the second round at one under par.  In the third round, Michael carded five birdies and a single bogey.

The final round will be aired on Saturday night on the Golf Channel from 11pm - 3am ET.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Thompson Starts Another PGA Season

by Roz Roberts III

Last year, the PGA Tour decided to restructure their season to help give fall events more significance.  The newly created 2013/2014 season got started earlier this month with events earning precious Fedex Cup Playoff points.  Michael Thompson got his new season underway at this week's CIMB Classic in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.  The CIMB Classic is considered a standard PGA Tour event and receives full Fedex Cup points and all money earned will be counted as official PGA Tour earnings.  Those changes have made this event much more attractive to Tour players and so the field is the strongest ever for this event.

Since Malaysia is on the other side of the dateline, Thursday's first round actually occurred on Wednesday night here in the US.  Michael shot a three over par, 75 and is currently tied for 65th.  He is paired with Boo Weekly and Retief Goosen for the first two rounds.

The Golf Channel is carrying live coverage in the evenings.  Second round coverage will be on Thursday night from 10:30PM to 2:30AM ET.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Final Round of the Season

Michael Thompson will be playing his final round of the season on Sunday.  He goes into the final round tied for 63rd at the BMW Championship.  He'll be teeing off at 7:42am with Patrick Reed.

Leaderboard
Scorecard
ShotTracker
Group ShotTracker

Onto the Weekend!

by Randy Roberts

Michael Thompson made the cut at the BMW Championship!  Well, actually everyone makes the cut, since the field only consists of 70 players. Nonetheless, it's always good to be playing on a weekend, cut or not.

Michael will be paired with Chris Kirk for the third round and they'll be teeing off at 8:37am. He'll be entering the day tied for 45th at +2.

Leaderboard
Scorecard
ShotTracker
Group ShotTracker

Thompson to Make First Appearance in BMW Championship

by Randy Roberts

On Thursday, Michael Thompson will be teeing off in his first appearance in the BMW Championship. Reserved for the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup list, he'll be searching for peak performance in order to gain some ground on that list and make it into the top 30 in order to play the final round of the playoffs.

He'll be grouped with Ken Duke and David Hearn and will be teeing off at 11:15am.

Leaderboard
Scorecard
ShotTracker
Group ShotTracker

Thompson Puts It All Together

by Roz Roberts III

Michael Thompson finally put together a complete round in the Fedex Playoffs shooting a bogey free, five under par,  66 to finish the Deutsche Bank Championship in a tie for 53rd.  Only Justin Spieth had a better fourth round.  The strong finish guarantees Michael a spot in the third round of the Fedex Cup Playoffs - the BMW Championship.  It will be the first time that Michael has made it to the third round in the Playoff series.

Michael currently sits 63rd on the Fedex Cup Points list.  The top 70 golfers will play in the BMW Championship in two weeks.  In order to advance to the final round of the playoffs, the Tour Championship, Michael will need a strong finish at the BMW in order to climb into the top 30.  PGATour.com will likely post the necessary finish for each golfer to advance to the Tour Championship in a couple of days but Michael will most likely need something like a top 15 or better finish to climb into the top 30.

Thompson Makes The Cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship

by Randy Roberts

Michael Thompson made his first cut in the 2013 FedEx Cup playoffs! By making the cut, he has given himself a great shot at making it into the next round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the BMW Championship.

His round started off with a little bit of a roller coaster as he went bogey,birdie, bogey, birdie but then he settled in, scoring 3 more birdies along the way. Those were offset by two bogeys to finish at -1 and T-67.

For Sunday's round 3 he'll be paired with Jason Kokrak and they'll be getting an early start at 7:45 am.

To keep an eye on his FedEx Cup ranking, you can view the Projected FedEx Cup Points List. It will update during the round to show where he would place based on the current standings of the ongoing tournament. In order to get into the BMW championship he'll need to finish in the top 70. As he begins on Sunday, he'll be ranked #69.

Leaderboard
Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard
Michael on Shot Tracker
Michael's Group on Shot Tracker

Playoff Round Two Gets Started at The Deutsche Bank Championship

by Roz Roberts III

After a tough second round last week at the Barclay's which resulted in a missed cut, Michael Thompson will be looking to rebound at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  Last week's missed cut dropped Michael to 58th on the Fedex Cup points list.  Only the top 70 players on that list will advance to the third round of the playoffs at the BMW Championship in a couple of weeks.

A rebound is not without precedent this year.   The last time Michael finished last of those who completed two rounds to miss a cut (the Northern Trust Open), he followed that performance with his first victory on the PGA Tour at the Honda Classic.

Michael will be playing with Angel Cabrera and Ryan Palmer for the first two rounds.  They tee off FRIDAY  at 7:52am ET from the first hole.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard
Michael on Shot Tracker
Michael's Group on Shot Tracker

It's Playoff Time!

by Randy Roberts

Michael Thompson has made the trek out to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey to play in the first round of the 2013 FedEx Cup Playoffs, otherwise known as "The Barclays".  The playoff system consists of four weeks of events with ever decreasing fields in order to determine the ultimate FedEx Cup playoff champion.  Here's a quick rundown on the events:

Top 125 - The Barclays
Top 100 - Deutsche Bank Championship
Top 70 - BMW CHampionship
Top 30 - Tour Championship

You can follow the projected FedEx Cup points list at the link below.

2013 Live Projected FedEx Cup Points List

When you look at the list, keep in mind that each event in the playoffs is worth five times that of a normal PGA event, thus players can rocket up the points list with a good performance.

Michael will be grouped with Angel Cabrera and Roberto Castro and will be teeing off at 12:33 ET.

Leaderboard
Scorecard
Michael's ShotTracker
Group ShotTracker
@Live streaming coverage

Another Top 25 for Thompson Heading Into the Playoffs

by Roz Roberts III

For the second time this year, Michael Thompson posted a top 25 finish at a major championship. Earlier this year he finished tied for 25th at the Masters.  This week he finished in a tie for 22nd after a one under par 69 in the final round of the PGA Championship to finish even for the tournament.

Based on the results this week, he moves up to 36th on the Fedex Cup playoff list.  The playoffs start in two weeks at the Barclays for the top 125 players in Fedex Cup points.

The points requirements to qualify for each of the playoff tournaments are as follows:

Top 125 - The Barclays
Top 100 - Deutsche Bank Championship
Top 70 - BMW CHampionship
Top 30 - Tour Championship

2013 Live Projected FedEx Cup Points List

Each playoff event is worth five times the points of a normal PGA Tournament so even though Michael has a good start on Fedex Points he'll need to play well in the playoffs to continue to advance with the ultimate goal of making it to the Tour Championship which is reserved for the top 30 golfers.

Images of Michael Thompson from Round 3 of the PGA Championship

Michael Thompson tees off on hole #3 during the third round of the PGA Championship.

Michael's tee shot came up about 25 feet short.  This birdie putt missed going in by a few inches and Michael tapped in for par.

Michael's tee shot on hole #6.

Michael's birdie putt on hole #6 just slides by the hole.  He went to make par.

Michael watches his tee shot on 11 closely.

The tee shot just missed the hole and came to rest a mere 18 inches from the hole.

Michael tapped in for birdie.

Michael made this 50 foot putt for birdie on hole #15.

Thompson Hangs Tough at PGA Championship

by Randy Roberts

On a day that saw rising scores, Michael Thompson hung on and finished +2 for the day. That leaves him at +1 going into the final day tied for 28th.

He'll be teeing off at 12:15 ET on Sunday and will be paired with Marcus Fraser.

TV
TNT 11:00-2:00 ET
CBS 2:00-7:00 ET

Online Links
Michael's Scorecard
Leaderboard (PGA Tour)
Leaderboard (PGA site)
PGA Live Streaming

Thompson Takes Advantage of Softer Greens, Vaults Up Leaderboard

by Randy Roberts and Roz Roberts III

During today’s second round of the PGA Championship, early rain bedeviled the morning round players while it benefited the afternoon wave which Michael Thompson was a part of.  Softer greens allowed for lower scores, and Michael took advantage.

For most of round two, Michael was sitting a single shot inside the cut line.  While a lot of golfers were taking advantage of calm winds and soft greens, Michael was playing a solid, if not remarkable, round of golf.  He completed his first 11 holes at even par posting a lone bogey against a lone birdie on consecutive holes early in his round and then ran off a streak of seven consecutive pars.

That’s when Michael really started firing on all cylinders, making four birdies in a six hole stretch.  He finished -3 for the day (-1 overall) and vaulted 52 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 22nd.

He'll be paired with Paul Casey for round 3 and will be teeing off at 12:45 ET.

Online Links
Michael's Scorecard
Leaderboard (PGA Tour)
Leaderboard (PGA site)
PGA Live Streaming