Nicholas Thompson (born December 25, 1982) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who has played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

and the

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

Early life and amateur career

Thompson was born in

Plantation, Florida Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is a part of the South Florida metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the Everglades Plantation Company, and their unsuccessful attem ...

. Thompson attended from

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. He graduated in 2005 with a degree in business management. He was also a member of the 2002 ACC championship team.

Professional career

In 2005, he turned professional. Thompson won his

card for 2006 by finishing third in the 2005

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

. He made 15 of 32 cuts, with one top-10 finish in 2006 and lost his tour card when he finished 180th on the money list. In 2007, he played on the

Nationwide Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

, winning once, the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, and finishing sixth on the money list, thus earning his PGA Tour card for 2008. He recorded six top-10 finishes in the 2008 season, including a tie for seventh at

The Barclays The FedEx St. Jude Championship, founded as the Westchester Classic in 1967, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. The Championship has a partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with the hospital serving as the to ...

, the first tournament in the 2008 FedEx Cup. With the tie for seventh he jumped to 20th in the FedEx Cup Standings, eventually finishing 41st. Later in the season, he cashed his largest paycheck when he earned $276,000 for finishing in a tie for 2nd at the Ginn sur Mer Classic, a Fall Series event, behind

Ryan Palmer Ryan Hunter Palmer (born September 19, 1976) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early life and amateur career Born and raised in Amarillo, Texas, Palmer graduated from Amarillo High School in 1995. He played colleg ...

. He has now earned over five million dollars since turning professional in 2005. In 2009, Thompson recorded only one top-10 finish, at the Frys.com Open, and kept his Tour card by just two places on the final money list. His next top-10 finish came in 2010 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Since then, Thompson has played on the PGA Tour as a full status member from 2013 to the present, having returned to the Web.com Tour in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he made 20 of 29 cuts on the PGA Tour, with seven top-25 finishes, including a tie for sixth at the Humana Challenge and a solo fourth in the Sanderson Farms Championship. He finished 66th in that season's FedEx Cup, advancing to the BMW Championship. His best finish in 2014 was a tie for fourth at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

Personal life

His sister is

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

star

Lexi Thompson Alexis Noel Thompson (born February 10, 1995) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 12 in 2007 U.S. Women's Open, 2007, she was the youngest golfer ever to qualify to play in the U.S. Women's Open, since broken b ...

. When Lexi became the youngest player to ever play in the U.S. Women's Open in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, Nicholas helped her in practice rounds before going to that week's Nationwide Tour event. His brother Curtis plays on the Web.com Tour.

Amateur wins

*2005 Jones Cup Invitational

Professional wins (1)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (1–0)

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

Nationwide Tour playoff record (1–0)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur *

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland featuring players from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

(winners)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Nicholas American male golfers Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's golfers PGA Tour golfers Korn Ferry Tour graduates Golfers from Florida Sportspeople from Plantation, Florida Sportspeople from Coral Springs, Florida 1982 births Living people