Mission Accomplished

Michael Thompson hits his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the Houston Open at the Golf Club of Houston. (April 1, 2018 - Source: Stacy Revere/Getty Images North America) 

by Roz Roberts III

Although the ThompsonTide guys have been closely following Michael Thompson's medical extension all year, we haven't been posting much information about it.  Call me superstitious but I didn't want to verbalize anything that might "create a disturbance in the force" which would make Michael feel more pressure than I'm sure he was already feeling.

Coming into this week, Michael had one more start on his extension and he needed 3 more FedexCup points to earn his 2017/2018 full PGA card back.  Basically he had to make the cut as a tie for 68th or better would get the job done.  After a great first round he was set to make the cut, which he did but then an odd thing happened.  A historically large group of 90 players made the cut which meant there was going to be a secondary cut on Saturday.  Michael played well on Saturday and made it past that hurdle as well.  The only remaining hurdle was to finish better than 68th.

Michael had a great round on Sunday and finished tied for 14th.  In fact, Michael was within one hole of finishing inside the top 10 for the first time this year but a bogey on his 72nd hole prevented that from happening.  Despite the bobble at the last, Michael earns a major medical extension which will allow him to set his schedule for the rest of the year since he is now at PGA Tour priority 22 (ahead of the reshuffle list) and he also earns a spot in The Players Championship.

One interesting stat for the week that showed just what a good week Michael had is the greens in regulation.  For the week, Michael finished first in GIR where he hit more than 87% of his greens.

Online Links For Those With a Lot of Time On Their Hands
Medical Extensions
Major Qualifiers
PGA Tour Priorities

Birdies, Birdies, and More Birdies

by Roz Roberts III

Michael Thompson had himself one heck of a round at the Houston Open today.  He shot a five under par 67 and is currently tied for 10th..  Michael was bogey free for the day and made five birdies.  He also hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation.  His lone missed green was actually just on the fringe of the green.

Michael's second round will get under way at 1:40pm CDT with playing partners Keegan Bradley and Sean O'Hair.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Thomson Back In Action Thursday

by Roz Roberts III

It's been over a month since Michael Thompson has played in a PGA Tour event but starting tomorrow Michael will be in action at the Houston Open.  He tees off at 8:50am local Houston time with playing partners Keegan Bradley and Sean O'Hair.

The Houston Open has historically been the final tune-up before the Masters and as such, the course and the greens in particular are setup very similar to Augusta.  The Houston Open's long time slot on tour may be coming to an end next year as the tournament has failed to find a long term title sponsor and the Valero Texas Open will most likely be taking this slot in the schedule next year.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Torrey Time!!!

by Roz Roberts III

It's my favorite non-major week on the entire PGA Tour schedule and tomorrow can't come soon enough!  The PGA Tour is in my home town of San Diego for the Farmers Insurance Open and Michael Thompson is along for the ride.  And that means, so am I!

The Farmers is played at Torrey Pines Golf Course along the beautiful Pacific Ocean and utilizes both the North Course and the South Course.  Each player with play each course once on Thursday and Friday and after the cut the remaining field will play the South Course over the weekend.

The South Course is annually one of the hardest courses on Tour and is long....really, really long.  And it's length gets even more pronounced if there's a wind coming off the ocean.

The North Course has historically been roughly two shots easier than it's big brother to the South but renovations adding length and re-doing some greens evened out the scoring a bit last year.  It remains to be seen if that trend will continue this year or if the North Course will once again play significantly easier as players get more familiarity with the new greens. 

 Michael will tee off in the first group off the tenth hole on the North Course tomorrow at 9:00 am PT.  He is grouped with Ollie Schniederjans and Anirban Lahiri.

Online Links
Leaderboard
Michael's Scorecard

Michael's 2017/2018 PGA Tour Status

Determining Michael's 2017/2108 PGA Tour status

by Roz Roberts III

I've been asked by multiple people over the last six months what Michael's status is for the PGA Tour during the 2017/2018 season.  I'm not an expert on the ins and outs of PGA Tour status by any means (I think you need a PGA Tour PhD to fully understand it all) but here's my current understanding of the situation.

Due to Michael's shoulder injury in June of last year, he was given a 6 event medical extension in the current 2017/2018 season.   I believe the 6 events represent the number of events Michael would have qualified for in the 2016/2017 season if he had not been hurt.  Essentially, Michael is given six events this year to "complete" last year.  If he can earn enough FedexCup points in these events such that his FedexCup point total of the new events, combined with his points he had last year at the point he was hurt, are more than the 125th player on the FedexCup Points List last year then he earns a fully exempt card for 2017/2018.

From his six medical starts, Michael has already used two starts and he earned 49.7 FedexCup points.  He has four more events to earn 37.235 points.  His priority into events is currently based on the reshuffle list where  he is currently 23rd.  If he can make it past the 37.235 point barrier in four events then he will earn his fully exempt card for this year which will give him priority above the reshuffle list.

If Michael fails to earn the needed points in his next four starts he will still have status on tour because he finished 149th on the FedexCup points list last year.

Players who finish 126-150 are granted status in the following year although their priority for entering events is AFTER the players the in the reshuffle list so they are limited for which events they can enter.  They are also granted full Web.com Tour Status.

Here are some useful web pages that I use to track all of this:

Medical List
Reshuffle List
2017/2018 Priority Ranking