Michael Thorbjornsen officially secured his PGA Tour Card as the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University Class of 2024. Last year in August, he went through surgery on his left ankle. Already suffering from a stress fracture in his back, the 22-year-old had no clue when he would get back to playing golf. Forget getting into the Tour!

“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,” was what he said on receiving his card. Here’s all you need to know about the new addition from Stanford on the PGA Tour.

Michael Thorbjornsen was born in 2001 in Cleveland, Ohio. He started playing golf when he was just two years old. Even before joining Stanford University to be a part of the Stanford Cardinal Men’s golf team for his collegiate golf career, he had already acquired his first accolade in the sport. In 2018, while he was completing his schooling at Wellesley High School, he won the US Junior Amateur in 2018, which helped him qualify for the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Although he made the cut, he finished with a disappointing position of T79.

After joining the college in 2021, he had already won at the Western Amateur and Massachusetts Amateur the same year. Thorbjornsen continued vying for the US Open trophy, attempting to make the cut in 2022 and 2023, but still missing out. After grabbing his Pro Card, he is now eligible to play in all the upcoming events on the tour. However, his mission remains the same – to grab the win at the US Open. He will thus be taking part in the final qualifying event on June 3 in New Jersey.

Thorbjornsen might be very close to achieving his dream at this moment, but his journey was anything but easy.

Michael Thorbjornsen’s journey to the top

Michael Thorbjornsen was having an extraordinary summer as he qualified for the US Open, tying for 17th position at the John Deere Classic. He reached match play at the Western Amateur and that was when he suffered a back injury, which made him withdraw from the championship.

He was put in a back brace, crutches, and walking boots for the next six weeks, but the process took an extra four weeks. “It was all kind of a blur. I played a lot of video games. I went to all my classes. I was a better student,” added Thorbjornsen. He came back to the greens in January with the DP World Tour and finished with a T11 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

After finishing at T71 and T17, at the Amer Ari Invitational and The Prestige, he finally managed to win at the Cabo Collegiate in February. That was when Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht passed him in PGA Tour U. “Christo has been a huge part in my success this spring pushing me, even though we’re not together and I rarely see him,” said Thorbjornsen.

Although he has not completely recovered yet, with on-and-off pain in his back, he is glad to be pursuing his passion after so many months. And well of course, being able to play on the PGA Tour with a year-long exemption was just the push that he needed!