Michael Thorbjornsen shared with Garrett in May 2025 what life is like on the PGA Tour as a rookie. Michael discusses how he deals with the pressure of Sunday final rounds on the PGA Tour and also reminisces about his favorite college days at Stanford over the years and shares more about his close friendship with best friend and fellow PGA Tour member Karl Vilips.
All right, here with Michael Thorbjornson and man, it’s been a heck of a year for you. I mean, I’m looking at the finishes. You finished T4 in that team event with your buddy Carl Phillips T2 uh recently around that time as well. What do you attribute that to? Um kind of just hard work and I mean the start of the year wasn’t so great. Didn’t really get it all together. I was kind of dealing with an illness as well. Um new caddy. Uh so a lot has changed. I haven’t played these courses before, but I mean I was I was due for some some good results there. I mean, the game has been feeling pretty good. Um, just started working with a new short game coach as well. So, I mean, we’re putting in the work. Just the results will come. And who’s the short game coach and what’s kind of been the the focus recently here? Um, it’s Derek. Uh, I don’t want to mispronounce his name. Uh, um, golf better Tucson. So, he he’s been great. Um, uh, we just started working maybe three, four weeks ago. So, it’s honestly just like talking short game with him. That helps the most. Um, learn a couple new shots here and there, but it’s mostly just kind of my approach to it. And, um, when I have a clear picture, that’s kind of when it pans out the best. And so, what’s different about your approach? Is it more of, like you said, kind of visualizing or just kind of getting in the right head space? Um, kind of just, it’s not really new stuff. It’s kind of okay. What did I do in the past? Like I’m trying to remember like when I was a good chipper, when I was chipping well uh in college kind of what was I doing? We’re just trying to replicate that. Well, it’s interesting. Speaking of college, how often do you get back to Northern California? Like do you get out and you able to play in any of the courses out there? I know it’s it’s hard with the schedule. Yeah, I mean the closest we got was Farmers, but that’s that’s a ways away from campus. Um, but I think Napa’s probably the only tournament that’s pretty close by and that’s in September. What do you miss about college days? Um, just kind of how easy life was. Okay. I mean, you you think it’s pretty hard like kind of going to class and practice and practicing on your own, team practice, traveling for tournaments, but I mean, this is like that but like on steroids in a I mean, you’re playing like four or five weeks in a row and just a lot a lot of mo moving parts. Um, just trying to figure out what works for you out here and trying to find your your rhythm and your schedule that that fits you and suits you. And yeah, I think that that’s the biggest thing. I mean, I I do miss college. I miss my teammates, miss my coach, but I mean, this is reality now. And definitely starting to really enjoy it out here and kind of find my groove. Well, what’s your all-time favorite memory from your days at Stanford? you know, playing golf. Uh, I mean, I got a lot. I mean, the Cabo trip every year was was always the best. Um, it’s I think six of the guys would travel, stay at a really nice house. Um, just beautiful golf course and then the couple days that we teed off in the morning, we would just hang out at the pool. Uh, as well as probably winning pack 12s my junior year. won individually, we won as a team, and that was at our home course, too. So, that that was a pretty special moment. Well, when you get to Sundays on the PGA Tour, as as you hear not even a year on the tour yet, what what is the pressure like? How do you embrace that for your game and for your mental space? Um, yeah, I mean, pressure is totally real out there. I mean, you’ve been dreaming about being in contention ever since you were a kid, starting to watch golf. Um, but I mean it’s the same whether it’s the final round of a college tournament or a junior event or out here on the PJ tour. Like you’re always gonna feel the pressure like you want to win. Um, yeah. I mean, it’s the same type of pressure. Interesting. I think of speaking of Sunday pressure, I think of the deer. Remember last year you had the really strong finish when Davis Thompson won. I texted your coach um, Conrad Ray, you know, from the college team and I asked him, “Hey, what are his greatest strengths? this guy just came out of nowhere and dropped a, you know, a great finish. And he said that mental mental strength, like you were just very res have a lot of resolve in the way you play mentally. How how do you kind of look at that? Yeah, I I think uh if you put yourself in that position a lot of times, it’s not like you’re not going to be nervous or uh not going to feel the pressure. It’s just you learn how to deal with it better. Um, and I feel like I’ve been in that situation a good amount just starting from junior golf when I was really young. probably too young to even know what pressure was and then to like the US junior and then competing in US amateurs, college events, um professional events as an AM. Um so I guess just the more you’re exposed to it, the better you handle it and you kind of learn more about your game and yourself than you would in no pressure situations. Well, speaking of those situations, I mean, you were there with your buddy Carl Villips, who also on your Stanford team. Now he’s out on the PGA tour. He’s a rookie. He’s already won. He’s got one up on you. What do you got to say to that? Well, I mean, yeah, he he has won more than me or he has one. I haven’t won out here, but um I mean, this is just a start for both of us. It’s going to be cool to see who ends up with more wins by the end of our career. Um I mean, I’ll obviously take myself, but I mean, Carl’s one of my best friends. He’s I respect him as a player and as a person tremendously and I think he’s great a great asset to me out there. Um just like throughout this whole journey just I mean we’re pushing each other we’re supporting each other um holding each other accountable as well. Um and I in what way are you holding each other accountable just like with finishes and attitude or Yeah. When it comes to finishes attitude when it comes to practicing I mean cuz out here now like we’re we’re our own bosses and if we don’t want to go and practice then we don’t have to go and practice. there’s no one there’s no team practice that we have to go to or whatever, but I mean car like we we just push each other. We we don’t want the other person to outdo ourselves and um I think that’s great. I mean, if he’s going to practice, I’m going to be going going to go practice and then vice versa. So, we play a lot together back at home in Jacksonville. Um we’ve played a lot together in the past decade and and we’re going to do so for another couple decades to come. like money games on Mondays, Tuesdays, or what do you We don’t really play too much for money. I mean, when we do play at home, we’ll do um just like front back total. Uh keep it very simple. We don’t go crazy or anything. Um and then out here, we we just do a little birdie game, that’s all. Just try and see what birdies we can make out there. I feel like that helps. and then uh forces us to really take our time on on our putts out there because I feel like you can just kind of get a little complacent and just bang a couple putts out there for for speed, but you’re not really putting in as much effort um as you would be during a tournament. Is there something with your putting right now that you’re having slight ad make slight adjustments with to kind of get that stroke as you play these different greens? Like you said, different courses you’re seeing? Um not really. I think that’s the biggest thing. If you have the same stroke, doesn’t matter what green or what um type of grass, like you’ll notice on the first putt, and then you just make the adjustment there. You you kind of want to keep your stroke the same. I’m not trying to change too many things. It’s just sometimes they’re slower, it’s different grass, there’s more grain, but again, everyone has to deal with it. Yeah. And just lastly, you mentioned your caddy. You had a new caddy uh for this year. What do you expect out of him when you’re under pressure? when there’s just, you know, so much on the line, what do you want to hear from him or how do you talk through things? Um, we kind of just want to go through the same rhythm and same process that we do say if it’s the first hole on Thursday or if it’s the last hole on Sunday. Um, I think that’s the biggest thing, just keeping everything the same and consistent. Um, but if he does notice that I’m a little antsy or something, he’ll he’ll talk to me. He’ll pull me aside and just say like, “All right, Michael, just take a deep breath. slow down for a little bit. Um but yeah, I know he we’re comfortable with each other now where I’m comfortable with saying something if if I need if I feel like something needs to be said and same um on his part and that’s I feel like what makes us work really well right now and I I think that’s it’s good to have that in order to have a good relationship with your caddy. Michael, thanks for the chat and good luck this week. Thank you.
