Davis

Thompson

The 23-year-old popped with a runner-up finish at The American Express but slowed his pace with five straight finishes outside of the top 50 before last week’s early exit at the WGC-Match Play. His potential remains through the roof but we won’t see any of that this week at TPC San Antonio. He currently ranks 43rd in the FedExCup race.

The PGA TOUR rookie made headlines early in the week with a five-pack of eagles in his first two rounds. He slowed his scoring pace but still walked into Sunday with a share of the lead alongside Jon Rahm. Thompson missed two early birdie chances from inside of 13 feet but really made up for it with a 47-foot bomb at the sixth and a 26-foot birdie blast just before the turn. He ended up gaining 1.9 strokes putting today, even with a heartbreaking long-distance miss at the 17th that jammed into the flagstick but didn’t drop. “I usually always leave the stick in from a long distance. I feel like it helps me with my speed. I’ll probably play the “what if” game in my head for a long time, unfortunately. I had a great read. I probably hit it too firm. If it had great speed it would have just hit the flag and dropped. But we’ll never know. I’m proud of myself for this week.” Thompson recorded a pair of top-12 finishes in the fall (Fortinet and Shriners) but this will go in the books as his new career-best finish on the PGA TOUR. The 23-year-old Georgia Bulldog appears to have a bright future ahead of him.

He had given up his overnight lead after playing his first 11 holes in 1 under, before turning on the afterburners. The 23-year-old Georgia Bulldog went birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-eagle on his back nine to shoot 8-under 64 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course. Thompson has played the par 5s - on two different courses - in 12 under par through two rounds. Next up is PGA West’s Stadium Course, which he will play the following two days, as it’s the host course for the final round. The Stadium Course is playing the most difficult of the three layouts, by nearly a stroke more vs. the Nicklaus and more than 0.6 strokes than La Quinta.

The PGA TOUR rookie arrived with a pair of top 15s in six starts this season. He got off to a roaring start this week with the highlight being back-to-back eagles at the par-5 fifth and sixth holes with the latter coming from off-the-green (chip in). “Just got off to a hot start and just kind of coasted on my way in. But, yeah, it’s always good to see some putts go in early and give you confidence to just keep it rolling.” If this lead holds then it’ll be the second time in his young career that he’s held a first-round lead on the PGA TOUR (T58/2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic).

The fresh Georgia Bulldog product played his way to the PGA TOUR through the Korn Ferry circuit and he’s making an immediate impact in his first start as a TOUR member. He pelted 56 greens in regulation on the week, tied for best in the field. That steady striking kept things relatively stress-free but he also gained 3.5 strokes putting. Thompson won an event last year on the KFT and picked up three other top 10s on the season. Top-10 finishes likely won’t be a regular occurrence but he’s proving early that he has the tools to contend on the big stage.

The 25-year-old Dou carded a 5-under 67 during the final round at TPC Colorado to finish at 17-under 271 one stroke ahead of fellow countryman Carl Yuan. “It feels real now,” Dou said of his return to the PGA Tour thanks to his standings on the KFT regular-season points list (currently No. 2). “The first year I got there, I kind of felt I wasn’t ready. But it’s been three years now from that time, and I do feel like all parts of my game are set for the big Tour.” On the season, Dou has made 13 cuts in 17 starts with four top 10s including his win and a solo second at the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. The Dallas, Texas, resident won his first KFT title at the 2017 Digital Ally Open and graduated to the PGA Tour for the 2017-18 season, where he made just four cuts in 23 starts and finished no higher than T-51. He returned to the KFT in 2019 and won his first start of the season at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic. For Yuan, it marks his third runner-up finish of the season and his 14th consecutive event at No. 1 on the KFT points list. Davis Thompson, a PGA Tour University Class of 2021 alum, finished T-6 at 14 under and became the 10th player to earn #TOURBound status this season after crossing the 875-point mark the Tour is using as a fail-safe threshold for players to finish inside The 25 and earn a PGA Tour card at regular season’s end. The KFT season continues July 14 with the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Ill.

Thompson, who led by two strokes after the second and third rounds, closed with a 2-under 69 to finish at 17-under 267 for a one-stroke win over Andrew Yun and Sweden’s Vincent Norrman at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C. “It’s a pretty good dream,” said Thompson, who turned 23 on Sunday. “It’s my best birthday yet.” The victory moved Thompson from No. 38 to No. 9 on the 2022 KFT Regular Season Points List, moving him within 46 points (equivalent to a two-way T-19 finish) of the #TOURBound mark of 875 points, the current fail-safe threshold the Korn Ferry Tour is using to declare players PGA Tour-bound for the 2022-23 season. Thompson, a University of Georgia product and two-time first-team All-American, has made eight cuts in 13 starts this season with two other top 10s, finishing T-5 one week ago at the NV5 Invitational and T-6 at the Huntsville Championship in May. Thompson is in the field for this week’s BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX, hosted by Thornblade Club in Greer, S.C.

The 24-year-old Ralston, who played college golf at Georgia, had also finished T-9 at the Huntsville Championship earlier this month, where he was making his second KFT start and was the fifth-to-last player in the field on his number. It marked his first top 10 and his 7-under 273 was highlighted by a bogey-free 6-under 64 in the third round. He’s missed just one cut in five starts, and he’s in the field for this week’s REX Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C. Also finishing T-5 were Ralston’s former Georgia teammate Davis Thompson, who carded a 62 in the third round, and Mac Meissner, who finished with a 5-under 66. Both Thompson and Meissner, who recorded career-high finishes in Illinois, are Korn Ferry Tour rookies and members of the inaugural PGA Tour University presented by Velocity Global Class of 2021.

The World No. 1150, in the field on a sponsor invite, had gained 4.449 strokes tee-to-green and 2.886 on the green in R1, but posted a -0.440 SG: Tee-to-Green and -1.192 SG: Putting in R2. The good news is, he’s still very much in the thick of it after beginning the lap with a 2-shot lead in just his seventh career PGA TOUR event (third pro). On 11 (of 14) fairways and 15 greens in regulation, he scribbled down 17 pars and one bogey-5 at 13, missing three birdie chances from inside of nine feet, and recorded a -1.632 SG: Total. The Georgia alum finished T35 at the Palmetto two starts ago in his debut among the paid ranks, while his best finish overall is a T23 in his TOUR debut at last season’s RSM Classic while still an amateur (68-70-68-66).