Another young stud will be arriving on the PGA Tour in short time. Stanford standout Michael Thorbjornsen officially secured his PGA Tour card after finishing atop the PGA Tour University rankings for the Class of 2024. Thorbjornsen will be able to accept PGA Tour membership upon turning professional and will be eligible for all full-field open events for the remainder of the 2024 season and the 2025 season.
"PGA Tour U is, I think, one of the best programs in all of sports," Thorbjornsen told the PGA Tour. "What they've done, creating a pathway to the PGA Tour and to these different Tours underneath it, it's huge. It gives students and us golfers reasons to stay for four years, and you can't really pass up on the opportunities that they present to you."
Thorbjornsen rose to the top spot in the PGA Tour U standings courtesy of three wins over the last two years at the collegiate level as well as four made cuts at the professional level. The Massachusetts native memorably finished finished in solo fourth place at the 2022 Travelers Championship after gaining entry into the field via a sponsor's exemption. Last summer, he also notched a top-20 result at the John Deere Classic a few months after claiming the Pac-12 Championship.
In addition to his strong play in the United States, Thorbjornsen has also found his footing on European soil. The 22-year-old has teed it up the past two years in the Dubai Desert Classic finishing T20 in 2023 and T11 in 2024.
Thorbjornsen battled back-and-forth with Georgia Tech's Christo Lamprecht for the top spot in the Class of 2024. After enduring injuries at the start of the year, he found his groove winning the Cabo Collegiate in early March before rattling off five straight top 10s to end his year before this week's NCAA Division I National Championship.
"Christo has been a huge part in my success this spring pushing me, even though we're not together and I rarely see him," Thorbjornsen said. "Finishing in that No. 1 spot is massive, so just doing everything you can every single day, making sure you're getting 1% better every single day, is huge."
The 22-year-old joins Ludvig Åberg as No. 1 players to earn their playing privileges via PGA Tour U. Åberg has found plenty of success in his young career with wins on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. He also starred on the European Ryder Cup team last fall and finished runner-up to Scottie Scheffler this spring at the Masters in his major championship debut.
Thorbjornsen will hope to follow in the Swede's footsteps beginning potentially at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at the end of June. There is a chance he gets things going even sooner as he plans to qualify for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 and make his fourth start in the championship.
