Sanderson Farms Championship 2024 first round scores, highlights

Michael Thornjornsen’s PGA Tour career is off to a decent start.

He finished tied for second at the John Deere Classic, but he has also missed the cut as many times (4) as he has played the weekend. Earning his card in May after finishing on top of the PGA Tour University standings, adjusting to the professional life wasn’t the easiest for Thorbjornsen. He said his game wasn’t in a good spot earlier this summer.

This week, that seems far from the case.

Thor opened in 9-under 63 and is three behind Skinns heading into the second round. He had nine birdies, nine pars and it added up to a stress-free day that saw every facet of his game perform well. The highlight was holing out from the bunker for a circle on his first hole, the par-3 10th.

“It was a little sloppy on that first hole, but it’s kind of weird starting off with a par-3,” Thorbjornsen said. “But obviously holed out a bunker shot, which was a great shot, to kind of kick-start the round.

“I was a little stray off the tee with the driver maybe the first five, six holes, but really managed to sort that out and hit a lot of fairways on the back nine. Definitely played better on the back nine than I did the front nine, just took advantage of good breaks and made a couple putts.”

This summer, Thorbjornsen felt he got exposed when his game wasn’t where he needed it to be while playing against the best players in the world. In these recent off weeks, he said he’s happy with the work he has put in to fix some of his week spots, and the initial results are positive.

“Understand that to play good golf, you don’t really need something special, just hit fairways, hit greens, and have a couple putts drop here and there, and you’ll produce some good results,” Thorbjornsen said.