Davison Index

Best-ball title goes to Davison tandem




By Lisa Paine
INDEX Sports Editor

FLINT — A three stroke lead that came off a one-bogey first round that was followed by a bogey-free second round earned Tommy Thompson and Dave Johnson of Davison the City Best-Ball Tournament title last weekend. The pair edged out Joey Stimac and Domonic Genovesi, 129-132.
How the duo ended up as partners was almost as storied as their two-day success on the Swartz Creek Golf Course. Thompson had intentions of playing with last year’s partner and younger brother Jake, but Jake had a previous engagement at his first-ever state high school golf meet that weekend. Johnson found himself without a partner after brother Andy won the World Series of Golf in Las Vegas last month and had to give up his amateur status.
“Andy lost his amateur status, Tom was available, and the rest is history,” said Dave Johnson of the last-minute pairing.
“I didn’t have partner because Jake was at the state tournament. Dad knew, so he heard that Dave needed a partner, so I called him up,” Thompson echoed.
All four are members of the Davison Country Club, with the elder brothers members for more than a decade. That mattered little as everything just fell into place for the Thompson-Johnson pairing. On the first day they carded a 6-under 66 to tie for second place heading into Sunday’s final round.
“We just played steady, had just one bogey on Saturday and just hung in together,” said Johnson. “We knew we couldn’t win the first day, and just tried not to lose it the second day.”
The second day was key, as Thompson went on a birdie spree, carding six, plus an eagle putt on seven. Johnson added two birdies, with the two never recording birdies on the same hole. Thompson finished out the day with an 18-foot birdie putt at No. 17 to seal the deal.
“We didn’t make any mistakes when we were done,” Johnson added.
“For me, he was a real cool guy to play with,” Thompson said. “I hadn’t played with him when I was younger, but he was just real positive, and there was lots of bumping fists. We just really started rolling and shot 66-63 to pull ahead.”
Thompson, a sophomore at Mott, is in midst of a move to South Carolina where he hopes to walk on to a college team once he explores his options. He qualified for the high school state meet his last two seasons and made the All-Big Nine team a couple of years. The 19-year-old has plans of Q-school for a possible career as a club pro. This was his fourth year in the tournament, playing with dad, Matthew, the first two and Jake last year.
Johnson is no stranger to the tournament circuit either, tying for 14th at the Flint All-Star Tournament at Spring Meadows the last weekend of May, and in 2006 he finished second to Grand Blanc’s up-and-coming golfer, Willie Mack III, at the City Am.
“We were two down to the second-place team and just came out firing on Sunday, Thompson said. “It was kind of a fortunate day for us with them making some bogeys and we did well.”



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.