Golf Channel writer Ryan Lavner has admitted that he does not quite understand what Ian Baker-Finch said about Davis Thompson after the 25-year-old clinched his first PGA Tour title at the John Deere Classic over the weekend.
Davis Thompson capitalised on a brilliant third round performance in Illinois to win by four at the John Deere Classic. In truth, the youngster seemed to quash the field’s hopes of a dramatic finish inside six holes on Sunday, racing to five under par for the day.
He made the turn with a genuine opportunity to shoot the second 59 of the week, but would have to settle for a 64 to win by four. Interestingly, none of the next seven names on the leaderboard shot a higher score on Sunday, but the margin of victory was still a comfortable one.
Thompson has registered three top 10 finishes in a row now, with the US Open being the first of the trio. And he has finished in the top 25 in 11 events this season, so he definitely looks to have enormous potential.
Comparisons between Davis Thompson and Scottie Scheffler criticised
In fact, 1991 Open champion Ian Baker-Finch went on to compare Thompson with the current world number one Scottie Scheffler. Unfortunately, it appears that few are as convinced about Thompson at this stage.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Lavner insisted that comparisons downplay how well Scheffler began his professional career.
“I do want to give IBF the benefit of the doubt here, with these Davis Thompson, Scottie Scheffler comparisons, because, on the surface, they seem wildly unrealistic, if not, total lunacy,” he said.
“I sort of see where he’s coming from in the sense that DT does have, and has amassed, an impressive resume over his career. He’s the former number one amateur in the world coming out of Georgia, he had three college wins, he was on a US Walker Cup team, he’s got his card through the Korn Ferry Tour where he played well during his apprenticeship there. He’s six foot four, he kind of has that prototypical golfer build that’s modern now, he’s soft spoken.
“And I think what IBF was trying to say is that Davis Thompson now, in what is a year and a half, almost two years on the PGA Tour, has three runner-up finishes and he’s been knocking on the door, this could be quote unquote the first of many.
“Except the problem with that is that Davis Thompson has just six top 10 finishes in 60 something career starts. If you compare that to Scottie Scheffler, and what Scottie Scheffler did over the same span, Scottie Scheffler had a 61 percent top 10 rate in his first couple of seasons on the PGA Tour. He has always been this relentless, this inevitable, this mind-numbingly consistent player, so I don’t quite see the comparison there.”
World number one is a freak
Scheffler really does appear to be something of a freak in an era when there seems to be so many truly outstanding players. It is almost underwhelming that he has only won two majors so far in his career, as he appears to be the one who has the game to rival many of the records held by the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.
So it is potentially not helpful to Thompson to put him in the same bracket after his first win, as it has been a slightly inconsistent season, with more cuts missed than top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour.
He clearly has the talent to go a very long way, and it would not be a surprise if he was pushing for a Presidents Cup spot this year. But what Scheffler has done in the early stages of his career has been incredibly special.
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