With success on links, golfer sets sights on big wins, turning professional

Ten years from now when people talk about the greats of Tech golf like David Duvall, Larry Mize, Bryce Molder and Bobby Jones, there ' s a good chance they will talk about Nicholas Thompson in the same breath.

A four-time All-American, two-time All-ACC player of the Year, the current No. 5 player in the country in the amateur rankings and a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan award, Thompson is among the best athletes Tech has today, but there is something he still has left to accomplish.

" I want ACCs, Regionals and [a] National Championship. I want all three. I want to cover all three, " Thompson said in an interview on Monday. " We just missed it by a hair my freshman year, and I want to do it this year. This is what we have been working for. "

Now the end of the season is finally here and tournament time has begun. The golf team begins it all with a trip to the ACC Championship today, and Thompson is ready for the journey to begin.

" We are playing good enough to where we can win this event, no doubt, and I think a lot of our guys are moving in the right direction, towards winning this event, " Thompson said. " We are all looking forward to it. It is relaxing because it is out in the middle of nowhere. It is like a whole team-bonding experience. "

Tournament time holds some great memories for Thompson. In his first year with Tech, the golf team won the ACC Championship, and it will be something that he will never forget.

" I won the All-American, and I won the Jones Cup, but that is not what I will remember the most in my mind, " Thompson said. " I will remember the ACCs my freshman year. "

As the team approached the last hole of the tournament, Tech was down by one to Clemson. The first four players for Tech then went par-par-birdie-eagle, and Thompson finished it all in dramatic fashion with an eagle of his own.

" It was one of the most amazing things ever. That is one thing I will definitely take from college. That will be my top memory, " Thompson said. " I guess a National Championship this year would beat it, but just how dramatic it was [at the time was special]. "

After the ACC Championship the team will head to the NCAA regionals, which determine the teams who will make it to the NCAA Championship. Every year since Thompson has been at Tech, the golf team has made it to the NCAA Championship match, but regionals are still something he does not take lightly.

" Regionals are more of a grind because there are 27 teams, and only the top 10 make it to Nationals. It is really hard, especially in the East Region because teams are so strong over here, " Thompson said. " You have got to play some golf. It is the one week out of the year that you are required to play some good golf, otherwise you are not making Nationals. "

" In any tournament there are 10 to 15 teams that can win. They just might have their week. Like my freshman year, Minnesota had their week; they beat us by three, " Thompson said. " In golf terminology it ' s essentially how they ' Ham-and-egg ' it. Four guys played well and one guy stunk. "

In a golf tournament five players compete in each round, but at the end of each round one score is thrown out and only four are counted for the total.

" It ' s like you build a bond of brotherhood. Even though me, Mike and Chan were really good friends prior to coming to college, it just got stronger and it ' s like more and more people come into that, like now we have nine, " Thompson said.

To Thompson the team is what makes them each better. Though they are friends in life, when they get out on the links, golf is their top priority.

" You guys are there for each other and you ' re getting each other ' s back, while there is still a sense of competitiveness and you still want to beat each other, " Thompson said. " [They] have got that competitive fire in them, but it is on the golf course and you kind of leave it there. You get beat by someone, you shake it off in an hour or so, and you go eat dinner. "

Individually, Thompson has been named a semifinalist for the Ben Hogan Award, an award presented annually to the top men ' s NCAA golfer.

" It ' s great that it ' s there, and I am a semifinalist. However, I don ' t overly worry about the awards that much. I just let them come or go, " Thompson said. " But it ' s a tremendous honor to make the top-10 for it and it would be a tremendous honor to make the top three. "

Thompson is also just beginning to make plans for what he will do after his stay at Tech.

" I haven ' t decided on when I am going to turn professional, " Thompson said. " I am either going to turn professional after Nationals or after the summer, and then I will be playing in some professional tournaments. "

While going professional may seem like a big change to some people, Thompson takes it all in stride.

" There is no more pressure on me, in my mind, in college or in professional or in junior or in amateur, " Thompson said. " I just got to go out there and play. Give it my best and hopefully that is good enough. "

And while this will be the end of Thompson ' s career at Tech, it will not be the end of his love for Tech golf.

" I would love to see them keep on winning, get better and just keep the tradition of doing the right things, playing good golf and being a good group of guys. I think that is really important, " Thompson said. " Not only do you flourish as a golfer here [at Tech], but as a person you grow up by being around the guys that are on the team. "

But really it will be Tech that misses him the most.

" There have only been two guys in the history of the program that have been four-time All-Americans and he would be the third one, so that pretty much says it all. Nick has just played well ever since he got here, " Head Golf Coach Bruce Hepler said. " He has been a major contributor since the day he walked in here, and I just don ' t know what more you can say about him. We will miss him a bunch. "