Stacy Revere/Getty Photos
In the course of the closing spherical of the John Deere Traditional on Sunday, 2018 winner and PGA Tour Twitter king Michael Kim, as he does so typically throughout occasions, took to Twitter.
However this time, it was a private plea.
“Settle down Davis, no want to interrupt the event scoring file of something,” Kim wrote.
Again in 2018, for his first and solely PGA Tour title, Kim set the John Deere Traditional scoring file with a 27-under 257 complete for 4 days.
Davis Thompson didn’t take Kim’s needs into consideration.
Beginning the day up by two after a glowing 62 Saturday, Thompson stored his foot on the fuel, making birdie on 5 of his first six holes, together with making a 44-footer on the 1st, after which including yet another to show in 29. He tallied two extra birdies on the again 9 to succeed in 28 beneath, besting Kim’s file at taking the John Deere Traditional for his first PGA Tour victory.
“I’ve been working laborious this 12 months,” Thompson mentioned. “It was okay for some time then I form of acquired going this final month and performed effectively final week. Simply tried to maintain it rolling this week; was capable of get the win.”
The 25-year-old will get his breakthrough win in simply his second season on Tour and simply after his second profession runner-up only a week in the past in Detroit. Thompson’s sport had been trending upward because the U.S. Open the place he earned his first top-10 and first made reduce in a serious.
He credited the advance to a brand new set of irons inserted just some weeks earlier than on the CJ Cup.
However his complete sport was dialed within the Quad Cities as he performed the primary 27 holes of the weekend in 15 beneath par to grab a seven-shot lead as he began his again 9 Sunday.
He birdied the tenth gap to briefly convey within the potential of a second 59 this week at TPC Deere Run, however a hiccup and a missed inexperienced on the par-3 twelfth led to a bogey and shortly put that concept to relaxation.
Then famous person rookie Michael Thorbjornsen, making simply his third PGA Tour begin as a professional, completed off a run of six straight birdies to drag inside three photographs.
However immediately, Thorbjornsen bogeyed his subsequent gap, the drivable par-4 14th and two teams later, Thompson got here to the tee and blocked it subsequent to the cart path proper of the inexperienced. Going through a tough downhill pitch shot, Thompson had a deft contact as he flew his ball onto the inexperienced and rolled it to inside three toes of the outlet. Any doubt was ended.
“After which the pitch shot on 14 actually form of — nonetheless strive not to consider the golf event, however, yeah, the pitch shot on 14 actually helped issues,” he mentioned.
In his typical vogue, he didn’t crack a smile.
From there, Thompson parred in his final 4 holes for a 64, the win and the file.
His win additionally continues a enjoyable pattern of the winner of the John Deere Traditional coming from the identical rental home shared by six execs for the week of the event. Thompson even stayed in the identical room defending champion Sepp Straka was in final 12 months. It’s now three wins in a row for the John Deere Traditional’s “Champion Home.”
As is custom, Thompson now has to pay for the home for everybody who stayed there this week.
“I’ll gladly write the examine for that,” Thompson joked afterward.
As an added bonus for the week, Thompson’s win will get him into the Open Championship as the highest two gamers this week earned a spot at Royal Troon. He’ll make his first begin in that occasion in two weeks. The opposite spot went to C.T. Pan because the highest-ranked participant tied for second.