Georgia Bulldog group seeing red

MAMARONECK, N.Y. – The phone was in the bag. He put it there before the round, and by golly, it was going to stay there. Instead of snapping a photo, caddie Todd Thompson looked at the leaderboard and burned it into his memory.

Davis Thompson, his 21-year-old son, was at 4-under-par and leading the 120th U.S. Open.

“It was cool to see his name up there,” said Todd, who in his day job is the tournament director for The RSM Classic, the PGA TOUR’s regular stop in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

PGA TOUR UNIVERSITY: Get to know Davis Thompson



Cool? Well, OK, that’s an understatement, but then Todd and his son are understated guys.

Thompson bogeyed three of the last six holes for a 1-under 69 at Winged Foot, just four back of early leader Justin Thomas, while playing partners Harris English and Brendon Todd each shot 68. The all-Georgia group were the only threesome to all shoot under par in the morning wave.

English, who like Thompson lives in Sea Island, Georgia, played a practice round with the kid at Ocean Forest last week as part of their preparation for Winged Foot. The kid won. Todd, who lives in Athens, Georgia, sometimes plays with Thompson when they’re in town, and calls the younger player remarkably poised for his age. Thompson called it, “a comfortable pairing.”

He is the fourth-ranked player in PGA TOUR U, a new program that sends the top collegiate players to the Korn Ferry Tour to begin their professional careers, and the fourth-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, earning his U.S. Open start. But he still looks as guileless as the paperboy, and his nerves needed soothing, at least early in the week.

“Yeah, the first guy I think I saw was Rory,” he said. “That was pretty cool. Growing up, I was around – I was growing up and getting really serious about golf when he was winning all of his majors. So I kind of looked up to him. I'm just very thankful to be here.”

He showed no signs of nerves with birdies on holes 6, 7 and 8, sending shock waves far and wide. On the other coast, Todd Thompson’s boss Davis Love III was in Pebble Beach for the PURE Insurance Championship on PGA TOUR Champions, and cheering through his TV.

“I woke up and my phone was blowing up,” said Love, the 21-time TOUR winner who won the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot. “The whole island is excited for Davis.”

So was Chris Haack, who is going into his 25th year as coach of the Georgia men’s golf team.

“When he was 2 under I was not surprised,” Haack said. “When he went to 3 under, I thought, Awesome! When he went 4 under, I thought, Oh, my God, this is great. He’s a momentum player. He’s not flashy, not very talkative. I just love the work ethic. I’ve had a lot of really good players, and he works as hard or harder than anybody I’ve ever had.”

And as for Thompson? What did he make of being 4 under?

“Just keep everything physical, not emotional,” he said. “Just stay through my routines and just keep doing what I'm doing. Just take it one quality shot at a time, one hole at a time, and not thinking about the future or 18, but staying in the moment.”