Tag: Michael Thompson

Who is Paresh Amin and what is he doing competing in the 2023 Zurich Classic?

The answer may boggle the mind.

AVONDALE, La. — What is a 43-year-old ex-Army and Navy man who has only made one cut in 28 starts on the GPro Tour the past three years doing making his PGA Tour debut this week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans?

It’s a fair question and the answer may boggle the mind.

Paresh Amin is competing alongside 15-year Tour veteran Michael Thompson at TPC Louisiana in the Tour’s only two-man team event. On Thursday, the pair shot a best-ball total of 1-under 71, which left them tied for 77th out of the 80-team field.

“It was interesting,” Amin told the Times-Picayune. “It went about the way I pictured it. But overall, I thought it was a really good experience.”

Amin received one of 10 sponsor invites into the tournament when Thompson was a late addition to the field and chose him as his partner. They struck up a friendship playing golf at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia, where Thompson used to live and both are members.

“He’s become my really good friend,” said Thompson, explaining why Amin was the first and only person he asked to be his partner in the tournament. “I haven’t had any success with a partner in the team format. If I was going to play a team event, I wanted to be with someone I really liked.

“He’s trying to playing professionally and I wanted to give him a chance to experience a PGA Tour event, meet the equipment reps, meet the caddies. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to but we tried are hardest.”

Amin played high school golf but didn’t touch a club during his 16-year military career. It was his wife, Julia, who encouraged him to take up the game again.

“She told me, ‘You need to get out of the house, you’re driving me nuts,’ ” Amin said. “I had all of these DIY projects around the house, and none of them were finished, so I picked up the clubs and decided to do this for a living.”

Amin has competed on the GPro Tour for the past three years and to say he’s struggled is putting it mildly. He missed the cut or withdrew in all 27 events he entered with a 36-hole cut, recording a tie for 79th in the 2020 Columbia (South Carolina) Open, a 36-hole event. He also shot a not-so tidy 42-over for four rounds at Mackenzie Tour Q-School this year.

“I’m not used to this kind of stuff. When you go on a (military) assignment, you get the call and you fly into another country and you have a job to do,” he explained to Jeff Duncan of Nola.com. “There’s a lot of lag time to golf. There’s all this build-up to this. I felt like I kind of got in my rhythm on the back nine.”

Amin failed to make a birdie in the round but he canned an 11-foot par putt at No. 11 and made a par they used at No. 15 after Thompson made bogey. The team also counted his bogey at the third hole when Thompson made a double.

Sponsor exemptions are just that — up to the whim of the sponsor. Alex Fitzpatrick entered the second round at the Zurich Classic one off of the lead with his brother and was the main reason his big brother, Matt, the reigning U.S. Open champion and winner of last week’s RBC Heritage, signed up to play this week. Sponsor invites always have been a mixed bag with celebrities such as Tony Romo taking up spots that could go to more qualified players and potentially change their lives with a big week. Amin has one of the thinner resumes for a FedEx Cup event that we’ve seen for a sponsor invite in some time.

“These guys out here obviously have an advantage over me,” he said. “They’ve been doing it their whole life. I’m just trying to crack the code and make it full time out here.”

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Valero Texas Open: Harry Higgs in contention, Michael Thompson invoking ‘Bama among 5 things to know after Friday

It’s not just Harry Higgs’ personality that’s entertaining and unpredictable, his golf game has been the same.

SAN ANTONIO — After an unpredictable first day of weather at the Valero Texas Open, the sun emerged just after noon on Friday and the action at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course moved at a standard clip.

After Matt Kuchar and Padraig Harrington set the pace on Thursday, others upped their game on Friday, although the second round of play was not completed. The cut from 144 players will come sometime on Saturday morning.

With just a few days remaining until the eyes of the golf world turn to Magnolia Lane, the final two rounds at the Valero should provide plenty of drama, and, potentially, a dream of a lifetime to someone.

Here’s what you need to know about Friday’s action:

Luke List WDs from Players Championship; Michael Thompson off to great start in surprise appearance

Meanwhile, Michael Thompson’s journey to the first tee was anything but conventional.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Luke List, who won his first PGA Tour title earlier this year in a playoff at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, withdrew after eight holes Friday morning due to a neck injury. He will not be replaced in the field.

Meanwhile, Michael Thompson’s journey to the first tee of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Friday was anything but conventional.

Thompson, a winner of two PGA Tour titles, became the fifth alternate for the Players Championship when Ryan Brehm won the Puerto Rico Open last Sunday.

Then Thompson moved to fourth when Bryson DeChambeau withdrew. Then he became the third alternate when Kevin Na withdrew. He moved to second when Hideki Matsuyama withdrew. Then he was first in line when Aaron Raj withdrew from the alternate list.

The Players: How to watch | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

And then, well before the sun rose Friday morning, Thompson got into the field when Tyler McCumber withdrew with a shoulder injury. Because McCumber did not tee off on Thursday due to weather delays, his first-round tee time was moved to Friday. That proved beneficial to Thompson.

At 7:15 a.m., Thompson teed off in the PGA Tour’s flagship event. And made eagle on the second hole, a birdie on the fourth, another birdie on the fifth before a bogey on the eighth knocked him down to 3 under.

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Lucas Glover, Cameron Young among sleeper picks for the 2022 Honda Classic

Will the Genesis Invitational runner-up raise the hardware at PGA National?

After seeing one of the most loaded fields we’ll have all season long last week at the Genesis Invitational, the group of players teeing it up at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Flordia, in a few days may be underwhelming.

However, that may open the door for an underdog to come out of nowhere and steal a win.

2020 Honda Classic winner and king of the Florida swing, Sungjae Im, enters the week as the betting favorite at +1200 followed closely by local man Daniel Berger at +1500.

Let’s start the list with one of the runner-ups from last week at Riviera Country Club.

Honda Classic: Best bets | Twilight 9 preview podcast | ESPN+ PGA Tour Live streaming info

Five sleeper picks for Honda Classic

Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds a full list.

Cameron Young (+6000)

Genesis Invitational 2022
Cameron Young hits from the eighteenth tee during the second round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Young has never played in the Honda Classic, however, he’s been rounding into form over the last few weeks. Aside from his T-2 finish at the Genesis Invitational, he tied for 26th at the WM Phoenix Open the previous week and signed for a T-20 at the Farmers.

Of the players in this field, over his last 12 rounds, Young is 3rd in SG: Ball-striking and 1st in SG: Off the Tee.

Russell Knox (+6000)

Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Russell Knox of Scotland talks with his caddie, former PGA Tour pro Willy Wilcox, while waiting to tee off on the ninth hole of the first round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course on October 28, 2021, in Southampton. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

Knox has not had success at PGA National in recent years with four of his last five appearances ending in missed cuts. However, from 2014-16 he had two top threes and a top 30.

He’s played well so far in 2022 with a T-7 at the Sony Open and three straight T-33 finishes in his last three starts.

Lucas Glover (+7000)

Lucas Glover hits his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii golf tournament at Waialae Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

This is a man who has loved PGA National over the past several years. In his last five appearances at the Honda, Glover has four finishes of 21st or better, including a top five in 2019.

His last four starts on Tour: T-5, T-33, MC, 37. In a weaker field, he should be able to rise to the top.

Sam Ryder (+10000)

WM Phoenix Open 2022
Sam Ryder hits his tee shot on the 16th hole a shot that would go in for a hole-in-one at the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Zachary BonDurant/AP Images)

Ryder missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open a few weeks ago but has since finished T-23 at the WM Phoenix Open and T-26 at the Genesis Invitational. Last year at the Honda, Ryder played well, eventually tying for 8th.

Michael Thompson (+8000)

Farmers Insurance Open
Michael Thompson acknowledges the crowd after a birdie putt on the 11th green during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course – North Course. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

The bearded one has been a bit inconsistent in 2022. He missed the weekend at Pebble, in Scottsdale, and earlier this year at the American Express, but has also finished T-5 at the Sony Open and T-11 at Torrey Pines.

Thompson won the Honda Classic back in 2013 and has finished T-24 or better in four of his last five appearances.

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Did the Oklahoma Sooners top 100 players from the 2018 recruiting class live up to the billing?

Taking a look back at the Oklahoma Sooners’ 247Sports top 100 players from the 2018 recruiting class and examining how they performed for OU.

Recruiting can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Every team in college football has their misses, even within the top 100. The Oklahoma Sooners 2018 class was the ninth-best in the nation according to 247Sports team composite rankings.

Earlier this week, Max Olson of The Athletic re-ranked the 2018 recruiting class. Olson’s scoring system included postseason awards. He gave points for players starting multiple seasons. In his re-rank, Olson has the Sooners 34th in the nation.

The Oklahoma Sooners have a few players from that class still in Norman or are preparing for the 2022 NFL draft. If several players from the class step into starting roles, it will help Oklahoma move up in the rankings. Players like Nik Bonitto could get drafted in the top fifty and help OU move up in Olson’s rankings.

Much of the reason for Oklahoma’s low ranking is the top of their recruiting lass not panning out. Olson took a look back at the top 100 recruits from the 2018 cycle, providing his thoughts along the way.

Here, we’re looking at what he had to say about the Sooners’ top 100 2018 recruits: Brey Walker, Brendan Radley-Hiles, Ronnie Perkins, Michael Thompson, and T.J. Pledger.

Fear the beard: Unshaven Michael Thompson fires 64, trails Billy Horschel by one after first round of Farmers Insurance Open

“Turns out my wife loved the beard so I’m keeping it,” said Thompson.

SAN DIEGO – The beard works.

Michael Thompson, who makes one think of Grizzly Adams when they take a glance, began growing his now very thick beard before last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs began in August. And no, he hasn’t thought about shaving.

“Turns out my wife loved the beard so I’m keeping it,” he said.

Although he missed the cut last week in the American Express, the two-time PGA Tour winner tied for fifth in the Sony Open in Hawaii two weeks ago and put himself into contention again Wednesday in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

With eight birdies and zero bogeys, Thompson signed for a 64 on the North Course, which played three strokes tougher than it’s tournament companion, the South Course (which hosted the 2021 U.S. Open).

Billy Horschel, who shot 63 on the North, grabbed the first-round lead. Stephan Jaeger and Kevin Tway each shot 65 on the North. The best round on the South was a 6-under-par 66 turned in by world No. 1 Jon Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open. Luke List, Peter Malnati and Cameron Tringale each shot 67 on the South.

Farmers: Leaderboard | Yardage book

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Defending champion Patrick Reed shot 72 on the South.

“I hit it great off the tee, put myself in really good positions, and the few times I was off, for the most part I was able to give myself a chance to save the hole, so I think that was the key,” Rahm said. “Nothing was really bad. I feel like everything was feeling good, everything was coming out and feeling the way it should and it showed in the score.”

Thompson wasn’t expecting anything to feel good heading into his round.

“I was really quite surprised with how I played today because my practice leading up into today wasn’t that great. I didn’t play great last week, but something clicked, and I made a bunch of putts and I was hitting my lines, so nothing to complain about,” Thompson said. “I really just was working with my coach, Ken Reeves. We’ve kind of simplified what I need to do in my golf swing to be able to hit it solid and hit it a little bit straighter and trying to stay focused on just those three key things that I have and work on them constantly.”

OK, but back to the beard.

“Man, I haven’t been mistaken for anybody,” he said. “It’s just more people just, they think I’m a rookie because I look so different. You know, I’ve probably gotten more comments of, ‘What hockey team do you play for?’”

Horschel, on the other hand, is clean-shaven and would not be mistake for a hockey player. But he does good work with his golf sticks. The world No. 23, who won the BMW Championship in Europe in September and was the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, is in a good position to win his seventh PGA Tour title.

He made nine birdies and felt a lot better than he has of late.

Farmers Insurance Open
Billy Horschel hits his tee shot on the 18th hole of the North Course at Torrey Pines during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

“So I slept bad coming back from Hawaii from the Sony Open. What was that, 10 days ago? I’ve been dealing with it all last week,” Horschel said. “And my physio at home, Brian Smith, we did some work last week. Felt pretty good, flew out here Saturday. Practiced Sunday, felt OK. And then after my practice on Monday or during my practice Monday, it just felt like it was locking back up a little bit.

“We’ve been working on it for two days straight. I mean, needling, everything you can possibly think of to try to get it to loosen up. It’s more or less a trap. Not too bad, but it’s more or less a trap in the feeling I get going down my shoulder.

“I don’t really take a lot of medicine and somehow he said, ‘Hey, I think we just need to take some ibuprofen and to reduce this inflammation.’ Took that late yesterday morning and it made a world of difference last night.”

Horschel was understandably concerned heading into the round, but the back never tightened up.

“Hopefully we got through the tough of it and now we’re on the downhill side and I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was even going to tee it up today when I woke up. Even when I was hitting balls I still wasn’t sure whether I was going to tee it up.”

He was rewarded for getting to the first tee.

“I hit it really good,” he said. “I think the longest putt I made was probably on my second hole, I made it from about 25 feet. Everything else was, you know, inside 10 feet, inside 15 feet. Hit some really good iron shots, which I haven’t done well the last couple years. My iron game’s really been holding me back, so it was nice to see some of the work, like I said, we did last week come to fruition this week.”

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Michael Thompson’s amazing shot at the 3M Open: ‘I love bunkers’

Holding a late lead and staring at a long bunker shot, Michael Thompson clutched up and delivered, just when he needed it most at the 3M Open.

Down the stretch at the 3M Open on Sunday, Michael Thompson was holding on to a slim lead but found himself in a bunker on the 16th hole, a long way from the hole.

Not an easy shot by any means but it was no problem from Thompson, who blasted out from 37 yards and parked his ball to about two-and-a-half feet away. He made the birdie putt and then calmly birdied the 18th hole for a two-shot win, his first on the PGA Tour in seven years.

Thompson was no doubt ready for the moment.

“I love bunkers. That was the one thing I did when I was a kid after I got home from school was I would go sit in a bunker for a couple hours and just hit bunker shots,” Thompson said after his round on Sunday. “So I have really good feel in the bunker and good visual for how I want the shot to come off, and for that to happen on the 70th hole, you know, potentially give me a one-shot lead if I make birdie there, it was perfect timing.”

Perfect timing indeed.

Thompson was born in Tucson, Arizona, and while in junior high school, he found an affinity for the sand at a new neighborhood course.

“It was at 49ers Country Club. … My parents moved us out there around 8th grade and I would come home from school and just practice for five hours until it was dark,” he said. “I used to walk to the golf course and then go hit a few balls, but then go putt and hit bunker shots. That was kind of my favorite thing to do. So when I got in that bunker I was nervous, but at the same time I knew the shot that I had to hit and I relied on a lot of those memories for just being in the bunker for hours and hours on end in high school.”

Thompson helped Tucson’s Rincon/University claim the 2002 Class 4A state championship before heading off to Tulane for two years. He would finish his college career at Alabama and remains a die-hard Crimson Tide fan.

3M Open: Leaderboard | Money list | Best photos | Winner’s bag

For viewers who stuck around after the tournament ended were treated to a fantastic interview with Amanda Balionis of CBS, in which an emotional Thompson opened up about his family and what this win means for him, his wife and their two adopted children.

It’s full steam ahead for Thompson, who’s now in the field for this week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He also also earned invites into next week’s PGA Championship, the U.S. Open in September,  the 2021 Players Championship and the 2021 Masters.

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Former NBA All-Star Mychal Thompson, father of Klay, roots for Michael Thompson at 3M Open

The former NBA champion and father of Klay Thompson pulled for Michael Thompson, no relation at the 3M Open.

The only person happier that Michael Thompson won the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities on Sunday may have been Mychal Thompson, no relation, the Bahamian-born two-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and father of NBA All-Star Klay Thompson.

That’s because Mychal, 65, who is a broadcaster for the Lakers and the former No. 1 overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft, took great pride in Michael’s victory – as if it was his own.

There’s a slight difference in the spelling of their first name, but Mychal Thompson, who tweets from the Twitter handle @champagnenuts, was fully engrossed in Thompson’s exploits this weekend as he shared the 36- and 54-hole lead and made birdie at two of the final three holes to clinch a two-stroke victory, his first since 2003, in Minnesota.

3M Open: Leaderboard | Money list | Best photos | Winner’s bag

The 6-10 former center first tweeted on Friday.

And he kept at it, especially on Sunday.

Mychal Thompson was a former All-American for the Minnesota Gophers (1974-78), so all the more fitting that Michael Thompson would win in Golden Gopher country.

This one may be the best of all…

You can just feel the love in these tweets…

No spoilers.

Next year’s 3M Open pro-am — if there is one — needs to bring these two sporting greats of the same name together otherwise what are we even doing here?

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Winner’s Bag: Michael Thompson’s golf equipment at the 2020 3M Open

Check out the clubs Michael Thompson used to win the 2020 3M Open.

The clubs Michael Thompson used to win the PGA Tour’s 2020 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.

DRIVER: Ping G400 LST (10 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus 6 Black X shaft.

FAIRWAY WOODS: Ping G400 3 wood (14.5 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus 7 Black X shaft. G410 7 wood (20.5 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus 8 Black X shaft.

IRONS: Ping Blueprint (4-PW), with KBS Tour S-taper shafts.

WEDGES: Glide 2.0 Stealth (52/SS, 56/SS, 60 TS), with KBS Tour S-taper shafts.

PUTTER: Anser 4.

BALL: Titleist Pro V1.

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Michael Thompson ends seven-year victory drought at 3M Open

Michael Thompson ended a 7-year victory drought on the PGA Tour by shooting 4-under 67 for a two-stroke win.

The long victory drought for Michael Thompson is over in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Thompson, 35, won the 3M Open, his first title since 2013, by shooting a final-round 4-under 67 at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota on Sunday, two strokes better than Adam Long.

Thompson may have enjoyed the best coronavirus break of all players on the PGA Tour, adopting a baby girl, Laurel Marie. On March 18, one week after the Tour suspended play, Thompson and his wife, Rachel and 3-year-old son Jace were in Topeka, Kansas, to witness the induced birth of their second child.

“It was really a joy for me to be able to stay home those first three months of her life and really get to care for her and learn her little nuances and see her smile,” he said. “It definitely puts perspective in your mind when you have kids because golf is very important and it’s what I love to do, but our kids are what we live for.”

Thompson, who entered the week ranked No. 151 in the FedEx Cup standings, showed signs that his game was turning in the right direction with a T-8 finish at the RBC Heritage in June, his best result of the season. He overcame a sluggish start with a three-putt bogey at No. 3 to drop out of the lead, but righted the ship with back-to-back birdies at 5 and 6, rolling in a 21-foot putt at the latter.

Long, 32, who needed a birdie on his 17th hole on Friday to make the 36-hole cut on the number at 2-under 140, made a charge on the weekend that course designer Arnold Palmer would have appreciated. He shot 63 on Saturday and birdied six of his first 12 holes Sunday to grab a share of the lead with Thompson.

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“I kept putting the pedal down and making as many birdies as I could,” Long said.

But Long, who notched his best result among nine top-25 finishes this season, took 3 putts at the 17th hole and despite a closing birdie shot 7-under 64. He came up one stroke short in his bid to become just the fourth player since 2010 to make the cut on the number and win. Among the consolation prizes for Long: the top-two finishers in the top 10 at the 3M Open not already qualified earned an exemption into the U.S. Open in September.

Thompson, who finished tied for second at the 2012 U.S. Open, earned the other spot into the national championship at Winged Foot, where he played in his first U.S. Amateur. He clinched the 3M title with a nifty birdie from a bunker at the short, par-4 16th hole. From 37 yards, Thompson exploded to 2 feet and tapped in en route to a 72-hole total of 19-under 265. It had been 2,702 days since his lone Tour title at the 2013 Honda Classic.

Tony Finau, who fired his caddie this week and had swing instructor Boyd Summerhays on the bag, shot 68 and was part of a nine-way tie for third. Finau has just one victory to his credit at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and has the most top-eight finishes with 25 of any player without a win on Tour in the last four seasons.

Last year’s champion Matthew Wolff made a valiant effort to defend his title with five birdies in his first 14 holes to close within one of the lead, but made bogey at the last to shoot 67 and finished T-12 at 14 under. It marked his third top 25 since the Tour’s return in June.

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