photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson prepares to strike his tee shot on the fifth hole at LCC during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson played 96 holes at six different courses in just under 11 hours on Monday, all of them to raise money for the two-year-old Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation.

When asked what got him interested in the marathon afternoon on his day off, Thompson borrowed a line from famed college football coach Mike Leach.

“When it comes to breakfast, the chicken’s involved, but the pig’s committed,” said Thompson, paraphrasing the quote that Leach has used to describe a variety of aspects of his college football from the performance of the referees to the difference between players and fans.

“I’ve been a supporter of Junior Golf for a long time,” Thompson added. “But it just felt like it was time for me to get a little more committed to it and this seemed like a great way to do it.”

His eight separate rounds, which he played 10 strokes under par, helped raise $5,000 for the Foundation, which aims to expose the game of golf to any and every kid in northeast Kansas who wants to learn more about it.

A few of them played the final few holes with Thompson at Twin Oaks Golf Club in Eudora, where Thompson played his final 15 holes of the day — nine on the venue’s regular course and six on the Red Bridge Wee Links course with 2021 girls golf 4A state champion Hayden York, of Tonganoxie. Eudora High sophomore Joellen Vogt and Olathe West freshman Grady Bruns also played the big portion of Twin Oaks with Thompson.

“This was a great event for us to kick off the season,” said KVJGF president Greg Capps after Thompson finished his 96th hole. “There’s a lot going on in the golf business at this time of year, and for him to give up so much time on his day off for this event was just wonderful.”

Thompson, who picked up golf at age 4 and said he really fell in love with it in high school in Independence, played collegiately at the University of Kansas for Ross Randall and has been a fixture in the Lawrence golf community for the past few decades.

He boasts a career-best round of 58, which he carded during a COVID round at the Jayhawk Club last year. And he shot 60 for his best round both at LCC in 2016 and as a professional on the Web.com Tour around that same time.

Thompson’s day started on the 10th hole at Eagle Bend Golf Course at exactly 8 a.m. He played the back tees, kept his score in his head, had forecaddies there with him throughout the day and generally treated the marathon like a walk in the park.

He rocked out to his own Classic Rock playlist on a small speaker in his golf cart early in the day and made conversation with whoever joined him throughout the round to help take some of the monotony away from the outing.

For a player who spent more than 20 years playing on golf’s professional tours — including the PGA Tour in 2019 — the idea of hundreds of swings in a single day is nothing out of the ordinary. But playing that many holes in single session, without much of a break other than the drive time between courses, was new to Thompson.

He said he had no doubt that he used to knock out 54 holes in a single day when he was growing up. But this was nearly twice that amount. And even though some of the holes were quite a bit shorter than those he encountered on tour, those playing shorter distances turned out to be some of his most challenge of the day.

He opened with a 1-under par 71 at Eagle Bend, after starting in conditions that featured a 33-degree wind chill, no less. He followed that up with a 2-under 70 on the Jayhawk Club’s 18-hole course and a 2-under 34 on the Jayhawk Nine.

From there, he fired a 28 on the par-31 Orchards course and an even-par 27 in his first round at The Links in Northwest Lawrence.

The former KU All-American shot a 2-over 72 at Lawrence Country Club and then shot a 2-under 25 on the Wakarusa Pitch and Putt at Twin Oaks before carding a 2-under 16 on the Wee Links course to finish his day.

All of it came in 10 hours and 54 minutes, and, truth be told, the sun was still high enough in the sky when he finished that he probably could have squeezed another nine holes in somewhere.

The largest gallery he played in front of was 16 people on the fifth hole of the Wee Links course at Twin Oaks. And many of the holes were played with just him and another one or two people. That made it easy for Thompson to just swing and move, swing and move, hole after hole all day long.

There was nothing higher than a 6 on his entire 96-hole scorecard, and he recorded 43 3s and 32 4s. By day’s end, before receiving a 12-pack of beer at the “97th hole” from KVJGF board members, Thompson had counted 343 strokes and taken very few practice swings.

He did dial in distances with his range finder and line up putts on the green, but that was the extent of anything even close to resembling his regular routine.

“No strategy,” he said early in the round. “Just tee it up, play it like I’d play it and add them up at the end.

“I enjoyed it. I haven’t been able to play a ton lately so it was good to just get back out here. Obviously, you can’t do this every day, but this was a lot of fun.”

As the spring and summer progress, the KVJGF has plans for all kinds of events, big and small, that are designed to grow the game among young people in the area.

For more information on the nonprofit organization’s upcoming events, and to learn more about the half a dozen youth initiatives the foundation already is involved with, visit their Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation Facebook page.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson prepares to hit his first tee shot of a 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022. Thompson started his day on No. 10 at Eagle Bend and ended at Twin Oaks in Eudora.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson rips his tee shot on the third hole at LCC during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson rolls his ball toward the cup on hole No. 11 at Eagle Bend during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson jokes with David Vaughn after walking off the 13th hole at Eagle Bend during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson prepares to strike his tee shot on the sixth hole at LCC during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson watches his chip shot on the seventh hole at LCC during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson watches his tee shot on the ninth hole at LCC during his 96-hole marathon at all 6 area courses to raise money for the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson, left, chats with Olathe West freshman Grady Bruns as Eudora High’s Joellen Vogt walks to her ball behind them at Eudora’s Twin Oaks Golf Course on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson tees off at Twin Oaks in Eudora with Olathe West freshman Grady Bruns, right, and Eudora High’s Joellen Vogt looking on during his 96-hole marathon on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson rolls one toward the hole at Twin Oaks Golf Course as Olathe West freshman Grady Bruns, left, and Eudora High sophomore Joellen Vogt watch on Monday, April 18, 2022.

photo by: Matt Tait

Lawrence Country Club golf pro Chris Thompson signs his final 96-hole scorecard in the pro shop at Eudora’s Twin Oaks Golf Course on Monday, April 18, 2022. Thompson played 96 holes in just under 11 hours and finished the day 10 shots under par.