Thompson Selected To Golf All-America Team

The Golf Coaches Association of America formally announced its 2008 PING Division I First-Team All-America selections on Monday, and University of Alabama senior golfer Michael Thompson was among the golfers selected.

The announcement was informally made during the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships trophy presentation on Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind.

Thompson, a native of Tucson, Ariz., was a second Team PING All-America at Alabama in 2007. He is the 2008 Southeastern Conference Golfer of the Year and was medalist at the 2008 SEC Championships.

He participated in the Masters this year. Thompson was leader of the Crimson Tide team of Coach Jay Seawell that won six tournaments this season and was ranked number one in the nation for much of the year.

Bama finished a disappointing 13th in the NCAA Tournament.

Thompson will play in next week’s U.S. Open as an amateur.

Joining Thompson on the All-America team are Jonas Blixt of Florida State, Indiana’s Jorge Campillo, 2008 NCAA medalist Kevin Chappell of UCLA, Oklahoma State’s Rickie Fowler, Rory Hie and Jamie Lovemark of Southern California, Stanford’s Sihwan Kim, Webb Simpson of Wake Forest, and Georgia State’s Joel Sjoholm (who is coached by Prattville native and former Crimson Tide golfer Matt Clark).

The GCAA will announce its second and third team and honorable mention selections Friday.