U.S. Open: Georgia's Davis Thompson leads early, finishes with a solid 69

Stepping foot on a track as daunting as Winged Foot Golf Club for your first crack at a major championship certainly can stir nerves in a guy.

Davis Thompson expected it. The University of Georgia star, who earned a berth into this week’s U.S. Open through his No. 4 standing in the World Amateur Golf Ranking — he’s No. 1 in the Golfweek/amateurgolf.com rankings — knew nerves would be an issue, and when the first person he saw at Winged Foot was one of his boyhood idols in Rory McIlroy, he needed to take a deep breath.

But finding a pair of fellow Georgia alums Harris English and Brendon Todd in his opening-round threesome marked the first sign Thompson might be able to ease into this thing.

“I mean, I play a lot of golf with Harris and Brendon, just them being Georgia guys. So that was a comfortable pairing,” the first-team All-American said. “Yeah, I was a little nervous, but once I hit that first tee shot, I think I was ready to roll.”

And roll he did.

With his father, Todd, on his bag, Thompson jumped atop the leaderboard after posting three straight birdies en route to a 32 at the turn. He buried another birdie on No. 11 to maintain the outright lead for a bit, and although he dropped strokes on three of his final six holes coming home, the 21-year-old was still rightfully happy with a solid 69.

“I got off to a great start. I hit a lot of fairways coming out of the gate, which kind of gave me a lot of comfort at the start. Then I just missed a few fairways coming in and had to hack it out and try to get up and down. Unfortunately, I didn’t,” he said. “But a great start. That was kind of one of my main goals coming into this championship, just get off to a good start and not get behind the 8-ball. I’m excited about the rest of the tournament.”

And it’s not like Thompson simply got lucky. He misread a makeable birdie putt on No. 9, and after a long iron got him out of the rough on No. 16, he three-putted from 70 feet. Those were just two opportunities that could have pushed him higher on the leaderboard, and perhaps pulled him even with English and Todd, who each finished at 68.