84 Lumber Classic Round One: Storming start by rookie Thompson as Ryder Cup players leave their game at home

Look through rookie Nicholas Thompson’s PGA Tour record this season and you’ll see missed cut after missed cut after finishes in the 70s and 80s. It’s been getting better - he hasn’t missed a cut since early August and he’s been finishing as low as the 40s. And there’s that one T6 at the BC Open courtesy of a final round 64, the only clue to yesterday’s storming start by the American.

His scorecard is busy - only five pars - and the stats tell a surprising story of the triumph of accuracy over distance - on a day when the course was playing longer.

There are a few perspicacious souls who foresaw Thompson’s desperate desire to avoid a return to Q school - he’s about $325.000 short of the line - and lumped on him at more than 700. They’ll have huge smiles on their faces now he has come down to 25.

This might be the time for them to take at least some profit. something that might apply to backers of the other relative unknowns at the top.

Thursday was a dream day for going low after more than an inch and a half of rain turned the greens into pussy cats. It has me scratching my head over the performance of some of the bigger hitters like Brett Wetterich and Kevin Sutherland.

The rain is now expected to stay away and the wind to dry up the course, making things a whole lot trickier. I assume it is this that makes Vijay Singh still the favourite at a price almost identical to the start, even though he’s seven shots off the pace. That strikes me as odd given that two of the guys up above are Rory Sabbatini and Sean O’Hair, with even David Toms one stroke ahead of him.

Chris DiMarco is the biggest disappointment. You might expect him to fight to make the cut, but thoughts of next week’s battle seem to be playing tricks with these guys.

Oh, and I see Michelle Wie’s 5 over. Nothing new there then.