Out of the ninth-to-last twosome, World No. 177 Michael Thompson painted a day-tying-low 7-under-par 32-31=63 in the final round of the Sony Open, climbing six spots to a season-best T5 on 18-under 262.
This was the 36-year-old’s 11th Sony and fourth top 25, second straight, and his second top 10, first since a previous-best T6 back in 2012. He improves to 2-for-6 on the season, bettering a T15 two starts ago at Mayakoba, and records his first top 10 since T5 at last season’s American Express 23 starts and 51 weeks ago. The Alabama alum, who is in the published field at this coming week’s American Express, sandwiched rounds of 67-69 with bookend 63s, and tallied 21 birdies versus three bogeys. For the festivities, he ranked 3rd in SG: Approach (6.522) and 4th in SG: Around (2.860), but a lowly 52nd in SG: Off-the-Tee (-2.171), including a -0.512 today on six (of 14) fairways. Seven of Thompson’s eight birdies in the finale dropped from inside of eight feet, with his most memorable a bomb from 61'10" at the par-4 10th.