A decade after donning a green shirt and a green cap and performing in front of the largest crowd of his life to date at the 2016 Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club, Michael Thorbjornsen claimed his first PGA Tour title at the Rocket Classic on Sunday.
With the win, Thorbjornsen becomes the first Drive, Chip and Putt National Champion to win on the PGA Tour and the second National Finalist (joining Akshay Bhatia) to earn an invitation to the Masters Tournament.
“Yeah, the feeling's unbelievable. It still doesn't really -- I don't really know how to feel,” said Thorbjornsen, who made additional waves as a junior golfer by winning the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur and making the cut at the 2019 U.S. Open. “I'm feeling a lot of things, I can't really put the words to it. Just extremely, extremely grateful to be sitting here right now. … I mean, this is just like icing on the cake.”
Ten years ago, Thorbjornsen was a tall 14-year-old who advanced through local and regional qualifying to earn a coveted spot at Augusta National Golf Club the Sunday before the Masters.
Competing in the Boys 14-15 Division, Thorbjornsen was on the younger end his age group. But he quickly demonstrated his poise, bombing a drive 251 yards to finish second in the driving discipline and nestling his two chips to a combined 9 feet, 1 inch to take a commanding lead entering the final skill: putting.
With the pressure of being the leader on at the 18th green, Thorbjornsen let the first putt go nearly 5 feet by the hole. He stepped up to the second putt needing a lag putt to tap-in range to secure the win and did so, with his final putt ending 1 foot, 7 inches above the hole. The sixth-place performance in putting was enough for him to finish with 23 total points, edging out three competitors who finished at 22. Thorbjornsen was a National Champion.
“This was great, especially on Augusta National,” said Thorbjornsen in 2016. “Definitely my favorite course of all time. Coming here was such a great experience. It was so nice. … Just walking around here and looking at all of the holes has been awesome. Chipping and putting, especially putting on the 18th green, that was amazing.”
