Justin Thomas slipped at the worst time on Friday afternoon.
Thomas, after missing the fairway with his tee shot at the 18th at TPC Sawgrass, then hit his approach shot into the water along the opposite side of the green. It was his only blemish on what was nearly a historic day.
That left him with a bogey on the final hole, but Thomas still carded a 10-under 62 — which matched the course record and sent him flying up the leaderboard at the midway point of The Players Championship. Had he been able to simply par the last, the record would’ve been his.
“I didn’t know,” Thomas said of his mindset at the 18th with the record in sight. “I just wanted to make another birdie, and then once I missed the fairway, birdie is kind of out of the question … I’m in no way, shape or form letting that dwell on the great round I had today.”
While the 11-birdie round is remarkable on its own, it came after what was a disastrous start for Thomas on Thursday. He posted an opening-round 78 with three bogeys and three double-bogeys. The 16-shot improvement over the first two days was the biggest jump in the tournament’s history.
In total, Thomas climbed up more than 100 spots on the leaderboard. He safely made the cut at 4-under on the week, but he trails co-leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia by seven shots entering Saturday.
“I’m just happy to have a tee time tomorrow,” he . “I was losing to I think everybody that was playing golf yesterday at one point.”
Thomas has won 15 times in his career on the PGA Tour, though he hasn’t won since the PGA Championship in 2022. He missed the cut at The Players Championship last year, but he entered this week with three top-10 finishes already this season — including a runner-up finish at The American Express.
Even though a win this week may already be out of reach based on where he stands on the leaderboard, Thomas is very content with his position entering the clubhouse. It wasn’t his score that was the best part of Friday’s round, he said, but rather the fact that he simply kept his head down the entire way.
“It was just staying present, just focus on what I’m doing, not focusing on what could be, where the ball could go, anything,” Thomas said. “It’s just as much of a skill as it is being able to hit a wedge a certain distance or control your distance.
“I hadn’t done it that well in a round in a really long time, so I’m probably more proud of that than I am of the score today.”
