Thompson’s Treat

Tour’s Oldest Rookie Fulfills His Dream At Age 42
HONOLULU, HAWAII | All those years on back roads, the shared car rides through the night, the paychecks that couldn’t cover expenses and those evenings wondering if playing mini-tour golf could ever be the highway to heaven were still with 42-year-old Chris Thompson as he stood on the edge of Waikiki Beach this week and looked around.
At an age when the arc of a professional golf career tends to bend down, Thompson is at the top of his personal rainbow, having arrived as a rookie on golf’s biggest stage when he’s almost twice the age of many of the players he’ll be trying to beat.

Long after many would have surrendered the dream, Thompson finally finds himself living it as the Tour’s oldest rookie, 19 years down the road.

“It is a profession that not many good players get out of but there are always good players getting into it,” said Thompson, who earned his 2019 Tour card via the Web.com Tour. “It does get harder. I think the more you do anything, you get better, too.

“I c...