U.S. Open sectional qualifying: A closer look

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. Familiarity helped. 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." Yep. Understated. He is not, by the way, named for Davis Love III. Todd Thompson and wife Leigh just liked the name. Their son grew up playing golf and basketball in Auburn, Alabama. When he was 12, Todd turned the golf instruction over to Eric Eshleman, Director of Golf at the Country Club of Birmingham, to avoid mixing up the father-son relationship. Davis Thompson helped lead Lee Scott Academy to six state titles, including individual titles in 2013 and 2015. He was an All-America at Georgia as a junior, and finished T23 as an amateur at The RSM Classic. Today, his legend extends all the way from Auburn to Sea Island. The most famous story might be Keith Mitchell, also a Georgia alum and the winner of The Honda Classic last year, making seven birdies in a match against Thompson - and losing 4 and 3. "He's unbelievably good," Mitchell told the PGA TOUR. English and Todd concur. "He’s just been very disciplined since day one," Todd said. "He doesn’t party. He practices efficiently. He has a very easy-going temperament, doesn’t seem to get too mad." Thompson hit what appeared to be a good tee shot at the par-3 13th hole Thursday, but the ball went too far and he made bogey. Todd got in his ear as they walked to the 14th tee, saying they were all fooled by the wind gust, that he'd hit a good shot, that he should keep his head up. Todd Thompson, who also played for Georgia, tried to qualify for the U.S. Open a handful of times, but never made it. So being on his son's bag has worked nicely on a few levels. "With the rules here for COVID and everything, it was the only way I could get here," he said. "My wife's not happy she's not here, because she would have loved to watch." Love III sees in Davis Thompson a player who will have absolutely no trouble making the transition from college to the PGA TOUR, when the time comes. "He knows how to play golf," Love said. "... I'm impressed with his demeanor; he's very even, doesn't get upset. It's perfect for a U.S. Open, perfect for pressure." Perfect for the TOUR, too, but there's no hurry. Davis Thompson is taking it one shot at a time.

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Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Sanderson Farms Championship in his edition of the Power Rankings.

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Tiger Woods will be surrounded by some familiar faces when he makes his return to competition Saturday for the first round of the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida. In addition to playing alongside his 12-year-old son, Charlie, Woods drew a pairing with the tournament’s defending champions – 2021 PLAYERS champion Justin Thomas and Mike Thomas, Justin’s father and instructor. They will tee off at 12:18 p.m. in the day’s last group off the first tee. Neither the Woods team nor the Thomases were part of Thursday’s pro-am round at the PNC, but Woods, Justin Thomas and Mike Thomas all are scheduled to play on Friday. Woods hasn’t played in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event since last year’s PNC, where Charlie impressed the crowds with some terrific play and ballstriking, highlighted by an eagle-3 he made off his own ball. Woods, a 15-time major champion and co-owner of the PGA TOUR’s victory mark with Sam Snead (82 wins), continues to slowly make his way back from a near-fatal, single-vehicle crash in Los Angeles in February. At his own Hero World Challenge two weeks ago in the Bahamas, Woods said at one point it was “50/50” that his right leg would be amputated. He said he wasn’t sure when he’d be ready to compete. The PNC, which uses a scramble format over 36 holes, seems a wise place to start. He announced Dec. 8 he would play. Thomas and Woods live not far from one another in Jupiter, Florida, and Thomas has come to develop a close relationship not only with Tiger, but also Charlie. Tiger has become something of a big brother to Justin, and he has played the same role for young Charlie. Justin and Charlie have a playful relationship and are known to do plenty of trash-talking to one another. “Probably the coolest thing for me is seeing him spend time with Charlie, just seeing how much he loves being around him on the golf course,” Thomas said recently on GOLF’s SubPar podcast. “He is such a good dad, and he loves being around his kids.” Team Thomas won last year’s PNC on the strength of a Sunday in which they made 15 birdies, shot 57, and beat Vijay and Qass Singh by a shot. The Thomases didn’t pass on an opportunity to use the win as an opportunity to needle Tiger and Charlie. “We had dinner with (Tiger) around the holidays and we both wore our belts over there,” Justin said at this year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. “It was great. We would expect them to do the same thing. … Charlie just kind of laughed when he saw us and Tiger just said, ‘You know, well done, well played.’ And you know, it was all in good fun. But they fully expected it, I think.” Beating Tiger and Charlie was a thrill for Justin, but so was winning alongside his father, who has been his only coach. When he was younger, Thomas would say a highlight of his day would be playing nine holes at twilight with his dad, a longtime PGA club professional, after his dad closed up the shop in Kentucky. “I’m really excited. I’m so fortunate my dad and I get to do that,” Thomas said recently. “We don’t play near as much golf as we used to. In middle school and high school, we would pretty much finish up the day going out and playing nine holes at the end of the day, so for us to not only play golf together but to play in a tournament like a father-son, it’s really, really special.”

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