Jan 20, 2023 3 min read

Rookie Davis Thompson made three more eagles Friday for a total of five through 36 holes to tie the PGA Tour record for the most in a 72-hole tournament since 1983, and he still didn’t put any more distance between himself and Jon Rahm at The American Express.

Thompson also carded his first bogeys of the tournament, which were hardly enough to slow him down. One day after making consecutive eagles in shooting 10-under 62 at La Quinta to take the first-round lead, Thompson carded an 8-under 64 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West. He had three eagles, four birdies and two bogeys.

The 23-year-old who played college golf at Georgia was at 18-under 126, two strokes ahead of Rahm, who also shot 64 on the Nicklaus course.

“I just had some good numbers into par-5s and was able to execute my shots,” Thompson said. “I had some putts drop. So it was nice to make some eagles.”

Actually, it’s his entire game that’s going well in the Southern California desert.

“I think putting the ball in the fairway, hitting a lot of greens and really seeing lines well on my putts,” Thompson said. “Just everything is kind of clicking these last two days and I’m just looking forward to trying to keep it rolling tomorrow.”

Thompson will play the Stadium Course on Saturday, which will host the final round on Sunday after the 54-hole cut in this pro-am event, which uses three courses.

Thompson is the second player to have five eagles through two rounds at The American Express. He matched the record set in 1995 by Scott McCarron, who missed the 72-hole cut when it was a five-round tournament.

The other players to make five eagles in a four-round tournament since 1983 were Justin Rose in the 2022 Canadian Open, Dustin Johnson in the 2020 FedEx St. Jude Championship, Austin Cook in the 2019 Barbasol Championship, Keegan Bradley and Brandt Snedeker in the 2018 Canadian Open, and Davis Love III in the 1994 Sony Open. Only Johnson won.

Five players were five shots back of Thompson, including 20-year-old Tom Kim, who had the low round of the day, a 10-under 62 on the Nicklaus Course, and Jason Day, who shot 64 on the Stadium Course. The others were J.T. Poston, Sungjae Im and Tyler Duncan.

Henderson’s start nets lead: One of Brooke Henderson’s goals heading into the newly minted LPGA season was to get herself into contention more often. The Canadian is off to a strong start, building a four-shot lead in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Playing alongside Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, who is competing in the celebrity division, Henderson ran off four birdies beginning at the second hole, was 9-under par by the time she stepped onto the sixth tee and played mistake-free for a 6-under 66 at Lake Nona.

The other 28 LPGA pros in the winners-only field swiftly entered into scramble mode just to keep from losing sight of her. Henderson’s closest pursuers going into the third round are Nelly Korda – at No. 2 the top-ranked player in the field – England’s Charley Hull and Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan. They each shot 69.