By:
Kevin Cunningham
January 21, 2023
Davis Thompson shakes hand together with his caddie after tying a PGA Tour document on Friday.
Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Pictures
When enjoying a PGA Tour occasion infamous for low profitable scores — as is the case at this week’s American Specific — the one reasonable technique is to be aggressive, fireplace at pins and attempt to document as many purple numbers as potential.
PGA Tour rookie Davis Thompson agrees.
“Watching this match for a pair years now I at all times see the profitable rating being so low,” Thompson mentioned after the second spherical of the American Specific on Friday. “So that you form of actually don’t have a alternative, you simply obtained to maintain hitting greens and giving your self seems and making an attempt to make the putts.”
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However even Thompson couldn’t have predicted simply how profitable his technique can be. The 23-year-old, who hails from Auburn, Ala., made two eagles on Thursday at La Quinta C.C. on his technique to the first-round lead. He added three extra eagles at PGA West’s Nicklaus course on Friday to keep up his lead, besting the likes of World No. 4 Jon Rahm, who sits two photographs again.
Thompson’s world-beating play over the primary two days was not solely ok for the lead, although, it was additionally ok to match an unbelievable PGA Tour document: probably the most eagles by means of 36 holes.
“Yeah, that’s fairly cool. I didn’t know,” Thompson mentioned after his spherical when a reporter acknowledged his record-tying feat. “I form of thought of that just a little bit after I made the putt on 7. However yeah, these are at all times good. In a position to get two-for-one. However, yeah, it’s fairly cool to have some putts drop and make some eagles.”
A have a look at the document books exhibits that Thompson is under-selling his accomplishment fairly a bit.
Solely six different gamers have made 5 eagles by means of the 36 holes of a four-round PGA Tour match since 1983, once they started to maintain monitor: Justin Rose (2022 RBC Canadian Open), Dustin Johnson (2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Championship), Austin Cook dinner (2019 Barbasol Championship), Keegan Bradley and Brandt Snedeker (each on the 2018 RBC Canadian Open) and Davis Love III (1994 Sony Open in Hawaii).
In response to the PGA Tour, Scott McCarron really made 5 eagles by means of 36 on the 1995 American Specific, however again then the match was a five-round affair that includes a 72-hole lower. Regardless of all of the eagles, McCarron missed the lower.
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Actually in accordance with PGA Tour data, of all of the gamers to make 5 eagles by means of the primary two rounds, solely Dustin Johnson went on to assert victory that week.
As for Thompson, he’s going with a with a easy strategy over the weekend in his quest for PGA Tour victory No. 1, with Rahm in scorching pursuit.
“Simply form of reset and refocus for tomorrow. Simply obtained to maintain executing and making an attempt to hit fairways and greens,” Thompson mentioned Friday evening. “It’s simple to have your thoughts race. However I’ve been enjoying this recreation for a very long time, so I form of it’s a continuing technique to form of practice your thoughts to concentrate on one factor at a time.”
Thompson performs PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium course for Saturday’s third spherical, teeing off alongside Will Gordon at 1:42 p.m. ET.
Kevin Cunningham
Golf.com Editor
As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes tales on GOLF.com, and manages the model’s e-newsletters, which attain greater than 1.4 million subscribers every month. A former two-time intern, he additionally helps preserve GOLF.com buzzing exterior the news-breaking tales and repair content material offered by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech workforce within the improvement of latest merchandise and modern methods to ship an enticing web site to our viewers.