PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Justin Thomas was fairly actually final within the subject at The Gamers Championship in ball putting on Thursday. Quick-forward 24 hours and he was first in the identical statistic, a key distinction maker as Thomas fired a course-record-tying 62 at TPC Sawgrass.
And now the previous Gamers 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 an incredible likelihood to interrupt the course document when he stood on the 18th tee Friday, however he rinsed his strategy on the watery par-4 finisher and ended up tied with Tom Hoge for one of the best 18-hole effort at TPC Sawgrass.
Paradoxically, Thomas performed with Hoge when he shot the course document in 2023.
Thomas’ 78-62 round-to-round distinction marked was probably the most improved on this championship’s historical past.
“That was the most effective rounds I’ve performed, for positive,” Thomas mentioned.
Thomas bought off to a scorching begin, birding each of his first two holes Friday. He added birdies on Nos. 5, 7, and 9 — making 12-footers on the previous two holes, and hitting a nippy wedge to simply 15 inches from 87 yards on the par-5 ninth.
Thomas stored the pedal down after making the flip, making 4 birdies in a row from Nos. 11-14.
On 16, he ripped a fairway metallic from the left-side tough — and added a ferocious membership twirl for good measure — earlier than two placing from 72 ft for one more birdie. He added an 18-footer on the long-lasting par-3 seventeenth, as effectively, earlier than stepping as much as the 18th tee — course document in his sights. Thomas hit his tee shot close to the timber on the appropriate aspect earlier than bunting his strategy into the water.
To his credit score, he nearly sunk his par-saving pitch from 54 yards away. It landed 22 inches away and Thomas cleaned issues up for a 10-under 62.
“I simply needed to make one other birdie, after which as soon as I missed the golf green, birdie is sort of out of the query after which I used to be making an attempt to hit one thing wanting the inexperienced there and the tough grabbed the face sufficient to have it shoot out straight left, and with the momentum of that ball, it is clearly going within the water,” Thomas mentioned of what occurred on 18. “However I very simply may have hit it the place I needed to, hit a extremely good pitch or chip and a extremely good putt and never gone in and made the identical rating.
“I am under no circumstances, form or type letting that dwell on the nice spherical I had as we speak.”
This was not Thomas’ lowest-ever rating on the PGA Tour (he’s a part of the unique sub-60 membership, having shot a 59 on the Sony Open in 2017), but it surely was actually one of the best he’s felt mentally by way of an 18-hole ultra-low spherical.
“I felt like I did an unbelievable job of simply staying, holding my eyes ahead, holding my blinders on, not wanting backwards, forwards, something like that,” Thomas mentioned. “It was simply, ‘How can I put this ball within the fairway off the tee, after which how can I make birdie,’ and let’s rinse and repeat. I putted the ball fantastically, too.
“Simply a kind of days. I really feel like I have not completed an important job of that this yr, of once I get it going, holding it going.”
Thomas’ 11 birdies on Friday marks probably the most ever at TPC Sawgrass, a document that he had beforehand shared alongside Colt Knost. Thomas’ earlier low got here 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 largest stage he had ever been on, he mentioned.
Thomas isn’t so firmly within the combine heading into the weekend, nevertheless. He sits seven photographs again of the co-leaders — Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, who’re 11 beneath by way of 36 holes. J.J. Spaun is one again, at 10 beneath, whereas Rory McIlroy, the 2019 Gamers Championship winner, and Collin Morikawa, final week’s runner-up, are amongst these at 9 beneath.
However discovering the weekend means Thomas has an opportunity. Gamers are set to take care of excessive, gusty winds on Saturday after which rain on Sunday, however Thomas mentioned he’s up for the problem.
“I like this problem much more than the problem from yesterday […] I am clearly excited. I am thrilled. Making the reduce is a extremely, actually large deal. You do not have an opportunity to win the match except you do,” Thomas mentioned.
“I am thrilled (with Thursday) and I am going to take as a lot of this as I presumably can, however yeah, as soon as I tee up tomorrow […] that is all I care about, and I am simply going to attempt to get again after it.”
Two Canadians ended up discovering the weekend at The Gamers, with each Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith the final two standing after seven Canadians started the week.
Conners bought off to a pleasant begin, making two birdies in his first three holes, however had a little bit of an up-and-down day in any other case and completed with a 1-under 71. He’s at 2 beneath heading into the weekend.
Pendrith, in the meantime, is at 5 beneath after capturing a 2-under 70 on Friday. He made three birdies on his again 9, highlighted by a 3-footer on the par-3 seventeenth.
“The hardest half about that tee shot is determining the wind as a result of you possibly can’t actually really feel it as a result of it’s blocked by the grandstands. It was just a little bit downwind off the appropriate and I had a superb quantity and for those who fly it just about wherever previous the pin and I knew it will come down. I hit a extremely high quality shot and it was good to make a two there,” Pendrith informed Sportsnet.
Pendrith admitted he thought his day may have been higher (whereas he was thirteenth in strokes gained: off the tee, an enchancment from 61st in the identical stat Thursday, he was 102nd in strokes gained: placing, a drop from third in that placing stat within the first spherical) however he’s glad to have discovered the weekend after lacking the reduce a yr in the past.
“I had some good probabilities and hung in there properly,” Pendrith mentioned. “Made a pleasant birdie on 10 and 17 was good too. So, general, I’m fairly glad and in a great place and looking out ahead to the problem the subsequent two days.”
Mackenzie Hughes had a 40-yard pitch on 18 to attempt to make the reduce, which fell at 1 beneath, but it surely skidded 20 ft previous. 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.
