By SCOTT HAMILTON
shamilton@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5533
Evidently there's not much trash talk going on in the Thompson clan. Even though both his younger brother and sister have already claimed victories at Harbour Town Golf Links this year, Nicholas Thompson says there weren't any digs from his siblings as he prepared for this week's Verizon Heritage.
Not even any advice on how to tame Pete Dye's seaside masterpiece from 14-year-old sister Alexis or 16-year-old brother Curtis, each of whom won their divisions in the Verizon Junior Heritage in February via a playoff?
"I mean, it's a wonderful win for them, but it's not the same," Thompson said. "It's a little bit tougher competition out here."
That's for sure.
Though the oldest member of the Thompson kids has as much street cred as his siblings when it comes to amateur accomplishments -- he was a member of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team in 2005, a second-team All-American in 2002 and third-teamer in 2004 while at Georgia Tech, where he finished fifth on school's all-time career scoring average list -- the pro game has not come quite so easily.
He rolled through PGA Tour qualifying school in his first attempt to earn his card for the 2006 season. Thompson spent 2007 on the Nationwide Tour before playing his way back to the PGA Tour last year. But he has only seven top-10 finishes in 79 PGA Tour events dating back to the rookie season of 2006 and none thus far this season. During his most recent outing, earlier this month at the Shell Houston Open, Thompson tied for 11th.
If he's to turn things around this week he'll have to do so on a fairly unfamiliar course. This marks only Thompson's second visit to Harbour Town, the first coming last year when he finished 71st at 8 over.
He appeared to have the course figured out for the most part Thursday. Playing in the tournament's first group off the No. 1 tee, Thompson reeled off 15 consecutive pars before bogeying two of his next three holes.
"I don't feel bad (about my game), I feel good," Thompson said. "I played a lot better than what I shot today. I just had a rough time reading the greens. I hit a lot of good golf shots, I just couldn't get much to go in."
A run by Thompson today and into the weekend likely won't result in his family providing that missing advice in person. He said his family probably won't leave their home in Coral Gables, Fla., to join him this week on Hilton Head Island, noting his siblings' own busy playing schedule.
"They've been traveling so much," Thompson said. "They were thinking about coming up for the weekend, but I don't think they'll even be able to do that. They've been traveling a lot and they've got a long summer ahead of them. There's no point in them all traveling out to come watch me play when they could be at home relaxing, practicing."
Comments (0) |
By submitting your comment, you are agreeing to islandpacket.com's user agreement.
@Nyx.CommentBody@