Small Bucket: Nov. 24, 2025

It’s the second edition of The Small Bucket.

In an effort to add more value to a Bay State Golf Membership, a small bucket of thoughts, musings, and stories will come to your inbox 2-3 times a month.

This is in addition to the free Friday newsletter.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this evolves. Feel free to add your own comments at the bottom of the post.

This week, we’re looking at Michael Thorbjornsen’s season and three things that stood out and might have changed the trajectory of his season after a slow start.

Michael Thorbjornsen woke up Sunday morning of the RSM Classic two shots behind the leader and playing in the final group of the final event on the 2025 PGA Tour calendar.

His first win was a realistic proposition after firing rounds of 64-63-68 in the opening three rounds on a course that suited his game as a bomber.

A win would have done a few things. It would have pushed him into the top 60 on the FedEx Cup standings, granting him an exception into the first two signature events of the 2026 season. That’s a big deal because there’s a lot of money and points up for grabs in the AT&T Pebble Beach Open and the Genesis Invitational.

Instead, he shot a final round 69 and couldn’t keep up with the eventual winner, Sami Valimaki. He finished in an eleven-way tie for seventh place, five shots behind Valimaki.

The bright side?

Thorjbornsen has his PGA Tour card for the 2026 season, and he seems far more comfortable on the PGA Tour now than he did in March. It didn’t look great when I dove into some of his stats this past March.

During the season, he earned $2.2 million. His best finish was runner-up in the Corales Puntacana. He had four total top-five finishes, including T4 in the two-man event, the Zurich Classic, with Karl Vilips. He made 18 of 26 cuts. He also made 15 of his last sixteen cuts, missing just one cut from April to the end of the season

So what might have changed for Thorbjornsen?

Here are three things that stand out.

• Comfort on the PGA Tour

• Ball striking

• Settling on a caddie

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