Never leave the media center to go visit the Fan Shop. That’s all I can say.
When I left, the tournament was moving along with nothing spectacular happening. I was thinking that it was a good time to write about Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy who had made big moves and seemed sure to advance on the weekend. Some total stranger approached me on the way back, gave me a high five and said, “it’s her!”
I have no idea what that was about, but he seemed happy enough. I have only been to Publix this week, and nothing extraordinary happened there.
When I got back from the Fan Shop, Justin Thomas was lighting the course on fire, on his way to what would become a course record tying 62. He even had a chance for a 61.
To tell you how far back he was, at the start of his Friday round, that he wasn’t even on the big media center leaderboard. He had posted a 78 in the first round, and he would need to really golf his ball in an extraordinary fashion to make the cut.
By this time, Rickie Fowler had joined Smylie Kaufman and Kevin Kisner at their 17th hole gab fest, and everyone was waiting to see what Thomas would do. Could he get the 61 or couldn’t he?
“That was one of the best rounds I've played, for sure,” Thomas said after play. “I just got it -- mentally it was the biggest thing. 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. 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.”
His choice of rinse and repeat was unfortunate as his opportunity for a 61 went away with a semi-catastrophic shot at the 18th.
After a tee shot that bounded just into the right rough, he was left with a challenging situation. He needed to get at least near the green and would have to manufacture some kind of slicing, bouncing running shot to do it.
Unfortunately, his attempt hooked a little instead of slicing. When it did that, it bounced the wrong way, scared a bird that was perched on the bulkhead of the water hazard and plopped into the drink. Bye-bye 61. Still a 62 is nothing to sneeze at, and it vaulted Thomas from 134th place, where he was at the start of the day, to 29th place. He was not going to let the last hole ruin his joy in the rest of the round.
“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,” he explained.
Interestingly, the player he tied for the 62 was Tom Hoge, who was playing with Justin Thomas that day.
“I've had some really good rounds out here and gone really low now a handful of times,” he said. “I know how to do it.”
Thomas shot a 59 in the Sony Open in 2017 and went on to win that tournament.
“This course is just so unique, and I've always liked it,” he added. “You can make so many birdies, and four par-5s, chances to make eagles, but you can make a double so fast out here if you get it out of position or just don't hit the ball where you should.”
Wind, he noted, just adds to the treachery. And it is supposed to be windy Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, as most avid golf fans know, is moving day, when players are trying to move up the leaderboard to give themselves a chance for victory on Sunday.
It would be hard for Thomas to move up as much as he did today, but nothing’s impossible. The rest of the field should be paying attention when he tees it up tomorrow because he’s already won here once. He knows how to do it again.
