Justin Thomas slipped at the worst moment on Friday afternoon.
Thomas, after missing the fairway with his 18th tee shooting at TPC Sawgrass, then struck his approach shooting in the water along the other side of the green. It was his only imperfection on what was almost a historic day.
This left him a bogey on the last hole, but Thomas has always carded a 10 sous 62 – which equaled the record record and sent him to fly in the classification to the point half of the players’ championship. If he could simply settle the last, the record would have been his.
“I did not know,” said Thomas about his state of mind in the 18th with the disc in sight. “I just wanted to do another birdie, then once I missed the fairway, Birdie is in a way out of the question … I am in no way, I am in no way to let it dwell on the big round that I had today.”
Although the round 11-Birdie is remarkable in itself, it came after what was a disastrous beginning for Thomas on Thursday. He posted a 78 opening round with three bogeys and three double bogeys. The improvement of 16 shots in the first two days was the biggest jump in the history of the tournament.
In total, Thomas has climbed more than 100 places in the ranking. He cut it safely at 4 within the week, but he follows the Co-Leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia by seven shots on Saturday.
“I’m just happy to have a T-shirt tomorrow”, he . “I lost for myself, I think that everyone who played golf yesterday at some point.”
Thomas won 15 times during his career on the PGA Tour, although he did not win since the PGA championship in 2022. He missed the cup at the players’ championship last year, but he entered this week with three top 10 already this season – including a finalist at the American Express.
Even if a victory for this week can already be out of reach depending on his position in the ranking, Thomas is very happy with his position entering the clubhouse. It was not his score which was the best part of Friday round, he said, but rather the fact that he simply kept his head throughout the turn.
“It was just to stay present, to focus on what I do, without focusing on what could be, where the ball could go, anything,” said Thomas. “It is as much a skill as to be able to reach a corner over a certain distance or to control your distance.
“I hadn’t done it so well in a round for a very long time, so I’m probably more proud than me of the score today.”
