Jack’s in Open and pleased as punch
The talented amateur whose path to the Australian Open started with a punch to the chin from a mate.
A prodigious talent called Jack Thompson. A round of 63 at The Grange when he was barely trying. A pissed-off mate. A couple of beers. A couple more. A suggestion that Thompson was wasting his talent by treating the sport as a laugh. A knuckle sandwich to emphasise the point. After shooting the lights out, Thompson’s mate had punched them out. Good point, well made.
The mate apologised. He explained to Thompson that someone had to knock some bloody sense into him. He had a gift that he was pissing up against the wall. Just one-year later, the 20-year-old is the world No 35-ranked amateur. He’s cracked the field for the Australian Open.
While the build-up at The Lakes has been dominated by the Godolphin stable of American imports becoming the headline acts in the absence of Australia’s most successful players, there remains a tale or two. Here’s one now. The last amateur to be given a place in the field … and the story behind it.
“I didn’t really play at all in 2016 and 2017,” Thompson said during a windswept round at The Lakes yesterday. “Maybe once a month I played with my mates and cousins, had fun with them. I didn’t really care.
“Then the circumstance came along. It’s fortunate that it’s turned out the way it has. The circumstance was definitely something that pushed me along.”
The circumstance! Do tell. “I had the 63,” Thompson said. “I knew I could shoot scores like that. I’d done that sort of thing before. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my God, 63’. It wasn’t that big a deal. Nine-under, played well.
“My mate had a party for his 20th. I guess he could see that I could be wasting something. He was saying, ‘Well, at least give it a proper go instead of just having a hit on the weekends’.
“We were joking around to start with. Just a bit of niggle. I walked away. That frustrated him and then he gave me one on the chin. When you’re drunk a bit of aggression can come out and that’s how it happened. We had a chat after and he gave me the biggest pep talk I’ve ever received.”
We’re talking with Thompson while he’s playing the front nine. Haven’t seen him miss a shot yet. “It actually meant a lot to me that someone cared enough and had the courage to do what my mate did,” Thompson said. “He could have said and done nothing and I might have just kept on doing the same thing.
“It’s not to say I wouldn’t have done what I’m doing now, but obviously it had an effect on me. And now I’m playing the Aussie Open. It’s an incredible experience. You wouldn’t think getting a punch would be good for a friendship, but it’s made us closer. It’s our running joke now. He knocked me around and got everything going on the right track.”
Thompson had a decent New Year’s Eve. And then committed to golf. “It was last November when I went in a tournament in Tasmania,” he said. “I finished sixth or seventh and thought, ‘This is all right’. I had fun for New Year’s and did all that.
“Then I said to Mum, ‘I think I could have good year’, and I just really believed in that from the start. I had a really good feeling. I knuckled down, started playing every day and practising properly. I would never have thought I would be here. I’ve got this opportunity. For a new experience, it’s unreal. Hopefully, my first Australian Open isn’t my last. I don’t think it will be.”
Thompson was wished good fortune for his two rounds. Four rounds. Whatever the case might be. “Four,” he replied without a shred of doubt.
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