SAN DIEGO – The beard works.
Michael Thompson, who makes one think of Grizzly Adams when they take a glance, began growing his now very thick beard before last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs began in August. And no, he hasn’t thought about shaving.
“Turns out my wife loved the beard so I’m keeping it,” he said.
Although he missed the cut last week in the American Express, the two-time PGA Tour winner tied for fifth in the Sony Open in Hawaii two weeks ago and put himself into contention again Wednesday in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
With eight birdies and zero bogeys, Thompson signed for a 64 on the North Course, which played three strokes tougher than it’s tournament companion, the South Course (which hosted the 2021 U.S. Open).
Billy Horschel, who shot 63 on the North, grabbed the first-round lead. Stephan Jaeger and Kevin Tway each shot 65 on the North. The best round on the South was a 6-under-par 66 turned in by world No. 1 Jon Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open. Luke List, Peter Malnati and Cameron Tringale each shot 67 on the South.
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Defending champion Patrick Reed shot 72 on the South.
“I hit it great off the tee, put myself in really good positions, and the few times I was off, for the most part I was able to give myself a chance to save the hole, so I think that was the key,” Rahm said. “Nothing was really bad. I feel like everything was feeling good, everything was coming out and feeling the way it should and it showed in the score.”
Thompson wasn’t expecting anything to feel good heading into his round.
“I was really quite surprised with how I played today because my practice leading up into today wasn’t that great. I didn’t play great last week, but something clicked, and I made a bunch of putts and I was hitting my lines, so nothing to complain about,” Thompson said. “I really just was working with my coach, Ken Reeves. We’ve kind of simplified what I need to do in my golf swing to be able to hit it solid and hit it a little bit straighter and trying to stay focused on just those three key things that I have and work on them constantly.”
OK, but back to the beard.
“Man, I haven’t been mistaken for anybody,” he said. “It’s just more people just, they think I’m a rookie because I look so different. You know, I’ve probably gotten more comments of, ‘What hockey team do you play for?’”
Horschel, on the other hand, is clean-shaven and would not be mistake for a hockey player. But he does good work with his golf sticks. The world No. 23, who won the BMW Championship in Europe in September and was the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, is in a good position to win his seventh PGA Tour title.
He made nine birdies and felt a lot better than he has of late.
“So I slept bad coming back from Hawaii from the Sony Open. What was that, 10 days ago? I’ve been dealing with it all last week,” Horschel said. “And my physio at home, Brian Smith, we did some work last week. Felt pretty good, flew out here Saturday. Practiced Sunday, felt OK. And then after my practice on Monday or during my practice Monday, it just felt like it was locking back up a little bit.
“We’ve been working on it for two days straight. I mean, needling, everything you can possibly think of to try to get it to loosen up. It’s more or less a trap. Not too bad, but it’s more or less a trap in the feeling I get going down my shoulder.
“I don’t really take a lot of medicine and somehow he said, ‘Hey, I think we just need to take some ibuprofen and to reduce this inflammation.’ Took that late yesterday morning and it made a world of difference last night.”
Horschel was understandably concerned heading into the round, but the back never tightened up.
“Hopefully we got through the tough of it and now we’re on the downhill side and I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was even going to tee it up today when I woke up. Even when I was hitting balls I still wasn’t sure whether I was going to tee it up.”
He was rewarded for getting to the first tee.
“I hit it really good,” he said. “I think the longest putt I made was probably on my second hole, I made it from about 25 feet. Everything else was, you know, inside 10 feet, inside 15 feet. Hit some really good iron shots, which I haven’t done well the last couple years. My iron game’s really been holding me back, so it was nice to see some of the work, like I said, we did last week come to fruition this week.”
