Time to retire from golf? Looks that way, Gamecock great says

If this is the end of the line — the final tournament of his professional golf career — Kyle Thompson is OK with it.

“I’m at peace” with the likelihood that the Wyndham Championship that begins Thursday in Greensboro, N.C., with be his final bow on the PGA Tour stage, he said Wednesday.

Thompson, an All-American at USC whose name is still prominent in the Gamecocks’ record book, goes into the regular-season finale ranked 236 in the FedEx points standings. He needs to reach 200 — a top 15 or better finish — to qualify for the Web.com Tour playoffs and an avenue to retain his PGA Tour card for the 2018-19 season.

“If a good finish doesn’t happen, I’m at the point I want to see what else is out there beside golf,” he said. “I’ve got some options on the table — commercial real estate, insurance, maybe a Chick-fil-A franchise — and we’ll see what happens.”

The frustration that comes with poor play plus the tug of a normalized family life make his decision an easy one, he said. He would have full status on the 2019 Web.com Tour, but tournaments do not begin until January and offer no guarantees in terms of results.

Thompson, 39, has made only two cuts and $24,878 in 21 starts this year. That’s not what he envisioned after a stellar 2017 Web.com season that included a win and two seconds.

“I just haven’t played consistent golf,” he said. “One week I finished near the top in driving accuracy and the next week couldn’t hit the ball on the planet. And my putting” — he ranks 202 in shots gained putting — “has not been good.”

But Thompson, who lives in Greenville with wife Emmi and children Sophia, Sam and Raleigh, looks at the Wyndham as another opportunity. And he has responded before with his back against the wall; he won the 2015 Web.com tourney in Raleigh on a past-champions exemption.

If he falls short, “I’m looking ahead,” he said. “I’m OK with whatever God has in store for me.”