Michael Thompson shot a solid even par 70 during the first round of the AT&T National on Thursday. The even par round was good enough to put him in a tie for 29th.
The general consensus from the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania is that the AT&T National is playing more like a US Open than US Open just completed at Congressional. Fast, hard greens, firm fairways and difficult hole locations are making players work for every shot and the high scores from round 1 reflect the how tough the course is playing. Only 28 of 120 players were under par and the average score was 71.5 on the par 70 course.
Michael's round contained two birdies and two bogeys. Michael did exactly what you need to do on this course: hit fairways and greens in regulation (GIR). For the first round, Michael hit 10 out of 14 fairways (T18th) and hit 16 out of 18 GIR (T2nd). The solid round came on the heels of his PGA Tour best ever 62 in the final round of last week's Traveler's Championship.
Michael will be teeing off from the tenth hole on Friday in the last group of the morning at 8:59am ET.
Television Coverage
The AT&T National will be covered on the Golf Channel and CBS this week. Here's the upcoming television coverage schedule:
One of the added benefits of last week's fourth place finish for Michael Thompson was a spot in this week's 120 man field AT&T National. Normally on the PGA Tour, finishing in the top 10 gets you into the following week's tournament. However, that wasn't the case for this week's tournament since it is a smaller field invitational. However, the Tiger Woods Foundation extended a sponsor's exemption to Michael after his final round 62 last week.
Via Twitter, Greg McLaughlin from the Tiger Woods Foundation said
Just called Michael Thompson (62 today) and gave him an exemption for next week. He was happy. Well deserved. No top 10's here b/c of Invit.
Michael will be teeing off from the first hole on Thursday in the last group of the day at 1:39pm ET.
Television Coverage
The AT&T National will be covered on the Golf Channel and CBS this week. Here's the television coverage schedule:
The Boston Globe wrote a nice article on Michael Thompson Thursday and posted it on their website (http://www.boston.com/). Here's a brief highlight:
The Travelers gives us an opportunity to meet someone new, such as Michael Thompson. Before the 26-year-old came out of nowhere and shot a 62 to finish a career-best fourth on Sunday, his was a name we didn’t know. As it turns out, he’s got a nice little story.
Maybe we should have known Thompson, because he advanced to the final of the 2007 US Amateur, losing to Colt Knost at the Olympic Club. That run got him into three professional events in 2008: the Masters (73-78, missed cut), the US Open at Torrey Pines (74-73-73-72, tie for 29th), and the Travelers Championship (65-67-72-73, tie for 59th), which extended him a sponsor exemption.
So what did it look and sound like at your house as you were watching Michael Thompson blaze a trail up the leaderboard during Sunday's final round at the Traveler's Championship?
Here's what it looked and sounded like in Phoenix (where the Thompson Tide crew are vacationing) when Michael stuck his tee shot on 16 within 14 inches of the hole.
Keep in mind that we were trying to be quiet since we thought that we might use some of this "high quality" phone video for the website. You should all be very happy that the PGA Tour website had lots of video we could post!
And to answer the question, "Yes Reid, that was almost a hole in one!"
Epiphany Leads To Success by Randy Roberts and Roz Roberts
Two weeks ago Friday, Michael Thompson had just missed the cut at the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic. Nonetheless Michael was not discouraged. On twitter he declared "For those of you tweeters who might be freaking out about my missing cuts, do not fret. I had an epiphany today and I promise there is better golf to come!".
The tweet proved to be prophetic as he rebounded this week and shot all four rounds in the 60's (a PGA Tour first for him) including a PGA career best 8 under on the final day, leading to a solo 4th finish at the Travelers Championship. He had an amazing final round in which he shot 6 under on the closing 9 holes. The stretch included two amazing approach shots on 16 and 18. Video of the birdie on 18 is included above. The birdie on 16, in which he landed his approach within 14 inches was one of the PGA Tour's "Top Shots of the Day".
In an article posted on PGATour.com, he said his epiphany was regarding his driving, which he had been working on with swing coach Susie Meyers.
“My putting’s always been my strength, but off the tee I’ve struggled, and in the last month or two, I’ve really come into my own in terms of being able to hit fairways and get myself in position to hit good shots,” Thompson said.
The excellent finish this week will vault him up the rookie reshuffle list about 15 spaces, which will in turn lead to additional opportunities to play in more tournaments. Additonal opportunites have already presented themselves, as he was invited to play in next week's AT&T National. He had been scheduled to have a week off, but as all rookies on the PGA Tour know - plans change. The 4th place finish also vaults him up the official money list to 119th which is important because the top 125 money leaders at the end of the year earn a PGA Tour card for the following year.
Golfers and fans alike have been congratulating Michael all afternoon. Follow the Twitter feed on the right side of this page to see the most recent messages. You can also follow this link to look through the Twitter feed history: Thompson Tide Twitter Feed
Links
In case you missed them (or just want to see them again) here are the links to this week's scores. We've also included the link to the reshuffle list and the rookie rankings list which have been updated: Leaderboard Scorecard Reshuffle List PGATour.com's Rookie Rankings
Articles in Which Michael is Featured
There's been several articles written about Thompson's success at the Traveler's Championship already. Here's the ones we've found. We'll post additional links as we find new things.
