PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Justin Thomas was quite literally last in the field at The Players Championship in ball striking on Thursday. Fast-forward 24 hours and he was first in the same statistic, a key difference maker as Thomas fired a course-record-tying 62 at TPC Sawgrass.
And now the past Players champion has a ton of momentum and confidence as he heads into the weekend in northeast Florida.
Thomas, who has three top-10s already this season, had a tremendous chance to break the course record when he stood on the 18th tee Friday, but he rinsed his approach on the watery par-4 finisher and ended up tied with Tom Hoge for the best 18-hole effort at TPC Sawgrass.
Ironically, Thomas played with Hoge when he shot the course record in 2023.
Thomas’ 78-62 round-to-round difference marked was the most improved in this championship’s history.
“That was one of the best rounds I’ve played, for sure,” Thomas said.
Thomas got off to a hot start, birdieing both of his first two holes Friday. He added birdies on Nos. 5, 7 and 9 — making 12-footers on the former two holes, and hitting a nippy wedge to just 15 inches from 87 yards on the par-5 9th.
Thomas kept the pedal down after making the turn, making four birdies in a row from Nos. 11-14.
On 16, he ripped a fairway metal from the left-side rough — and added a ferocious club twirl for good measure — before two-putting from 72 feet for another birdie. He added an 18-footer on the iconic par-3 17th, as well, before stepping up to the 18th tee — course record in his sights. Thomas hit his tee shot near the trees on the right side before bunting his approach into the water.
To his credit, he almost sunk his par-saving pitch from 54 yards away. It landed 22 inches away and Thomas cleaned things up for a 10-under 62.
“I just wanted to make another birdie, and then once I missed the fairway, birdie is kind of out of the question and then I was trying to hit something short of the green there and the rough grabbed the face enough to have it shoot out straight left, and with the momentum of that ball, it’s obviously going in the water,” Thomas said of what happened on 18. “But I very easily could have hit it where I wanted to, hit a really good pitch or chip and a really good putt and not gone in and made the same score.
“I’m in no way, shape or form letting that dwell on the great round I had today.”
This was not Thomas’ lowest-ever score on the PGA Tour (he’s part of the exclusive sub-60 club, having shot a 59 at the Sony Open in 2017), but it was certainly the best he’s felt mentally through an 18-hole ultra-low round.
“I felt like I did an unbelievable job of just staying, keeping my eyes forward, keeping my blinders on, not looking backwards, forwards, anything like that,” Thomas said. “It was just, ‘How can I put this ball in the fairway off the tee, and then how can I make birdie,’ and let’s rinse and repeat. I putted the ball beautifully, too.
“Just one of those days. I feel like I haven’t done a great job of that this year, of when I get it going, keeping it going.”
Thomas’ 11 birdies on Friday marks the most ever at TPC Sawgrass, a record that he had previously shared alongside Colt Knost. Thomas’ previous low came when he was a rookie in 2015. His 10-birdie effort there helped him shoot a third-round 65 and get him into the penultimate pairing for Sunday — by far the biggest stage he had ever been on, he said.
Thomas isn’t so firmly in the mix heading into the weekend, however. He sits seven shots back of the co-leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, who are 11 under through 36 holes. J.J. Spaun is one back, at 10 under, while Rory McIlroy, the 2019 Players Championship winner, and Collin Morikawa, last week’s runner-up, are amongst those at 9 under.
But finding the weekend means Thomas has a chance. Players are set to contend with high, gusty winds on Saturday and then rain on Sunday, but Thomas said he’s up for the challenge.
“I like this challenge a lot more than the challenge from yesterday […] I’m obviously excited. I’m thrilled. Making the cut is a really, really big deal. You don’t have a chance to win the tournament unless you do,” Thomas said.
“I’m thrilled (with Thursday) and I’ll take as much of this as I possibly can, but yeah, once I tee up tomorrow […] that’s all I care about, and I’m just going to try to get back after it.”
Two Canadians ended up finding the weekend at The Players, with Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith the last two standing after seven Canadians began the week.
Conners got off to a nice start, making two birdies in his first three holes, but had a bit of an up-and-down day otherwise and finished with a 1-under 71. He’s at 2 under heading into the weekend.
Pendrith, meanwhile, is at 5 under after shooting a 2-under 70 on Friday. He made three birdies on his back nine, highlighted by a three-footer on the par-3 17th.
“The toughest part about that tee shot is figuring out the wind because you can’t really feel it because it’s blocked by the grandstands. It was a little bit downwind off the right and I had a good number and if you fly it pretty much anywhere past the pin and I knew it would come down. I hit a really quality shot and it was nice to make a two there,” Pendrith told Sportsnet.
Pendrith admitted he thought his day could have been better (while he was 13th in strokes gained: off the tee, an improvement from 61st in the same stat Thursday, he was 102nd in strokes gained: putting, a drop from third in that putting stat in the first round) but he’s happy to have found the weekend after missing the cut a year ago.
“I had some good chances and hung in there nicely,” Pendrith said. “Made a nice birdie on 10 and 17 was nice too. So, overall, I’m quite happy and in a good spot and looking forward to the challenge the next two days.”
Mackenzie Hughes had a 40-yard pitch on 18 to try to make the cut, which fell at 1 under, but it skidded 20 feet past. Hughes (1-over 145), Nick Taylor (2-over 146), Adam Hadwin (2-over 146), Adam Svensson (7-over 151) and Ben Silverman (8-over 152) all missed the weekend.
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