PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Justin Thomas might as well have begun packing. Get ready for the four-hour drive across the state to the Tampa Bay area and the next tournament on the schedule. Chalk it up to a bad couple of days, a common occurrence in professional golf.

Thomas, who won the 2021 Players Championship, shot 78 in the opening round Thursday and it would have been worse were not for two late birdies and a pretty good short game.

“It could have been 85,” he said.

Understandably frustrated, the two-time major champion experienced a remarkable turnaround Friday.

He set a tournament record for one round with 11 birdies and would have set the course record were it not for a bogey at the 18th hole.

Thomas’s 10-under-par 62 matched the record set by Tom Hoge in 2023 and vaulted him from a missed cut to a tie for 29th place, seven shots behind leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia.

“That was one of the best rounds I’ve played, for sure,” said Thomas, who has a 59 at the Sony Open and a 63 at the U.S. Open. “Mentally was the biggest thing. I felt like I did an unbelievable job of just 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.’ 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. I started to get a little defensive, it’s not me.

“It’s just funny, Rev (his caddie Matt Minister) and I talked about this week, when I do get it going, just keep it going. Don't be bashful. I’m obviously playing really well, otherwise I wouldn’t be that many under par. That’s what I did today.”

Thomas hit 11 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens and needed just 24 putts. That was after hitting just six fairways and five greens Thursday when he got up and down for par seven times.

The 16-shot turnaround saw him go from tied for 134th in the 144-player field to a tie for 18th when he stood on the 18th tee.

From there, he missed the fairway and tried to punch-run a shot from the rough up onto the green from 200 yards. But his shot came out left and ran into the water. Thomas managed to get his shot from there up and down for a bogey that got him in at 62.

“I’m in no way, shape or form letting that dwell on the great round I had today,” he said.

Thomas, 31, has won 15 times on the PGA Tour, including two PGA Championships—the 2022 title being his most recent victory.

There have been plenty of ups and downs in the ensuing years—including missing the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2023 and being left off the U.S. Presidents Cup team last year.

Thomas has three top 10s this year and has moved up to No. 9 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He missed the cut at the Players, the Masters and the U.S. Open last year but found some form as the year wore on.

That’s why Thursday’s performance was such a shock.

He made a triple-bogey 7 on the 18th hole—his 9th—as well as two other double bogeys and three bogeys.

When he got to the 8th hole, he was 8 over par for his round—he birdied two holes early in the round—and then made two birdies to finish with 78.

“The score sucked,” Thomas said. “It was absolutely terrible in every way, shape or form. But it was a fluke. It was the worst driving and iron play I’ve had, I think, probably in a round in my career. In a year that I’ve been playing some pretty good golf, I would say throwing that out, it’s an understatement.

“But I was way more frustrated and upset with how I was mentally. I felt like my course management was not—I very clearly was not hitting it well, and I did such an unbelievable job through seven holes of plotting my way around. I was 2 under and I’d hit one green through seven holes. And then 17, I made the wrong decision. And then made the wrong decision off the tee on 18. That’s the kind of stuff that pisses me off.

“If I manage everything well, even as bad as I hit it, I still feel like I could have got it around par. I very easily could have—if I didn’t chip and putt well yesterday I would have shot an 85. I got up-and-down nine or 10 times. It was wild.”

So was his turnaround on Friday.

“He just made it look easy,” said Ludvig Åberg, who played with Thomas the first two rounds. “Obviously he was driving the ball a lot better than yesterday, and took advantage. Putted it really nicely, kept the momentum with a lot of those putts from 10-15 feet. So it was cool.”

As unlikely as it seemed, Thomas now has a chance to get back into the tournament Saturday morning. The wind is forecasted to pick up, with gusts of up to 30 miles per hour in the afternoon. There’s a chance Thomas could make a move before things getting interesting.

“I’m just happy to be playing,” he said. “I got too excited early in the week when I saw that because I love playing in those conditions. I just think you’ve got to be creative, and it’s just tough. But I was far from thinking about that yesterday or last night.

“This course is just so unique, and I’ve always liked it. I’ve always loved it since I first played it because I just think that—you look at guys’ scorecards, the volatility—obviously my last two days it’s not that much ... but that’s not normal. 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.

“When the wind comes out, it just amplifies it.”


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Justin Thomas Torches TPC Sawgrass With Record-Tying 62 in Remarkable Players Turnaround.