New Caddie, New Confidence: Thorbjornsen Finds Major Form at Quail Hollow

23-year-old second-year PGA Tour player Michael Thorbjornsen has put himself in contention in his fourth major start and first career PGA Championship.

After a late 3-under 68 on Thursday afternoon at Quail Hollow, the 2024 Stanford grad briefly found himself at 6-under and in second place for part of this back nine. A pair of back-to-back bogeys on the formidable 16^th and 17^th holes settled him into a 1-under second-round 70 that has him 4-under for the championship and in great shape heading into the weekend.

His best finish in a major was 79th in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he became the second-youngest to make the cut in a U.S. Open. He will be dealing with a different type of pressure as the weekend gets rolling toward Sunday.

Thorbjornsen has been settling into his first full season as a PGA Tour cardholder with a tie for fourth with his best friend and former Stanford teammate Karl Vilips at the Zurich Classic and a tie for second the week before at the Corales Puntacana Championship.

What does he attribute his good recent form to?

“Hard work. The start of the year wasn’t as solid, I was dealing with an illness, had a new caddie and I hadn’t played these courses before, but I was due for some good results which I got,” Thorbjornsen said last week at the Truist Championship. “The game’s been feeling very good. The results will come.”

Speaking of the new caddie, enter 22-year veteran looper Lance Bennett starting in Mexico this year. Bennett has looped for Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, and LPGA major champions Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster, Lorena Ochoa, just to name a few.

Bennett’s been a part of seven wins over the years of his career, five of them with Matt Kuchar and he sees a lot of potential in the 23-year-old.

So, how can he help Thorbjornsen now that we’re getting to the bigger pressure moments of this major championship?

Simply by being confident and relaxed, it seems.

“If a caddie is not comfortable or nervous in a big situation, a player can sense that,” Bennett said. “I always try to be very calm and chill on the course-almost flatline-like. Never too high or too low.

Thorbjornsen says Bennett also is able to read him well as they get in pressure situations and that goes a long way in helping them make measured decisions.

“He's really good about noticing if I'm antsy, and he'll talk to me and not afraid to share that. He tells me to take a deep breath, slow down for a minute.” Thorbjornsen said last week.

Bennett figures he’s caddied at Quail Hollow about eight times in the past, so that experience would figure to be critical these next two days as his guy navigates new territory in the hunt of a major. It was only a year ago that he was finishing up classes at Stanford. Now he’s gotten himself into the mix of a major. The 23-year-old says it's been a significant transition from college to the professional tour schedule.

“I miss just kind of how easy life was. You think life’s pretty hard when you’ve got to go to class and you’ve got to practice, practicing on your own, and traveling to team practice but this is like that but on steroids in a way,” Thorbjornsen smiled. “You’re playing four or five weeks in a row. It’s a lot of moving parts, just trying to find what works for you out here. It’s crazy, we’re like our own CEOs out here now, it’s up to us what we want to do with out time.”

Well, he seems to be headed in a good direction now.