Georgia's Davis Thompson off to record start at PGA TOUR event
Former Georgia golfer Davis Thompson is off to an incredible start at The American Express PGA Tour event in La Quinta, Calif. The PGA Tour rookie is 18-under-par through two rounds thanks in large part to five eagles through 36 holes.
“A lot of great golf shots. A lot of execution,” Thompson told The Golf Channel when he sat down with them on set after his round. “I’m seeing my lines in my putts and they’re dropping the past two days. Just looking forward to trying to do the same thing these next two days … I missed four greens in a row and told myself to just keep giving myself looks. I knew I was putting well. Didn’t really imagine that I’d be 6-under through five holes on the front today, but it was really cool to catch fire on the back nine today. It was really a flip from what happened yesterday.”
To put what Thompson has done in perspective, only 16 players have made multiple eagles in a single round this season on the PGA Tour. He’s done so twice in this tournament.
Thompson made eagles on back-to-back holes on Thursday as a part of his career-low round of 62. Then, on Friday, all three of his came within a stretch of eight holes and brought his total to five.
Thompson is the first player with five eagles in an event since Justin Rose did so during last year’s RBC Canadian Open in June. That tied the record for most eagles in 72 holes at a PGA TOUR tournament since 1983. He’ll look to top that over the next two days as he goes into the weekend near the top of the leaderboard after holding a two-stroke lead following the first round.
Thompson, a PGA Tour rookie, is just 23 years old and turned pro in 2021. His best career finish came earlier this season in September at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, Calif. when he tied for ninth. To date, it’s his only top-10 finish in 19 career starts. He’s finished top-25 three times and made the cut in 12 events including five of the six he’s played this season, his first full one on the tour after earning his card in 2022 on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won the REX Hospital Open last June.
“It’s huge. It gives me a lot of confidence,” Thompson said when asked about what having a win under his belt in professional golf means. “I’ve won in junior golf and in amateur golf, and I was able to get my win last year out in Raleigh. That was a huge confidence booster for me. It’s really been cool to be competing with the best in the world this year.”
During his career at Georgia, Thompson was chosen as SEC Player of the Year (2020-21) and earned some sort of All-American status each of his final three seasons. As a freshman, he matched a school record with a 9-under 63. He won the NCAA Athens Regional as a sophomore for his first collegiate victory before winning the Jim Rivers Invitational individually to help the Bulldogs take home the team title during his junior season. In 2020-21, Thompson won two different tournaments including the NCAA Tallahassee Regional with a career-best 14-under 202 to help Georgia qualify for the NCAA Championships. He was a semifinalist for the Byron Nelson Award and a finalist for the Ben Hogan Award all while twice ascending to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Outside of UGA, Thompson played for the United States on the Arnold Palmer Cup Team twice, helped the U.S. the retain the Walker Cup against Great Britain and Ireland and played in multiple PGA Tour events including the 2020 U.S. Open Championship.
Thompson isn’t the only former Georgia golfer in action this weekend either. Six other Bulldogs – Harris English, Brian Harman, Chris Kirk, Keith Mitchell, Greyson Sigg and Brendon Todd – are also in action, and Hudson Swafford won the tournament last year.
When he earned his card in July, Thompson became the 16th Georgia player that played for head coach Chris Haack to make the PGA Tour joining a group that includes the six others teeing it up this week plus the likes of Swafford, Bubba Watson, Kevin Kisner, Russell Henley and Sepp Straka, among others.
“They’ve been huge,” Thompson said, talking about the fellow Georgia golfers on the Tour. “They’ve been very supportive of me. It goes both ways. They’ve been supportive but at the end of the day they’re competing against me. They give me a lot of great advice, and it’s nice to see a lot of them in the locker room and wish each other good luck. We play practice rounds together.”
Like he said after his first round, Thompson is focused on staying in the moment and not getting overwhelmed by the success he’s had the first two days as he heads into the weekend.
“Your mind can race and think about a lot of different things, but you really just have to be strong minded and legit focus on putting one foot in front of the other and focus on one shot at a time,” Thompson said. “I know it’s cliche to say that, but it really is a good key for success … Might as well keep rolling, stay aggressive, play smartly aggressive. Put the ball in the fairway and put the ball on the green.”
