After firing his fourth opening spherical within the 60s in eight profession Open begins, Justin Thomas was inspired.
“Simply the photographs I’m hitting, the scores I’m capturing, I’m doing a variety of issues quite a bit higher, I might say,” Thomas stated following his 3-under 68 on Thursday at Royal Troon.
However historical past repeated itself a day later.
Thomas backed up with a 7-over 78 that included a 9-over 45 on Thomas’ opening 9, which was lowlighted by a double bogey on the par-3 fifth, the place Thomas’ first two photographs traveled a mixed 174 yards on the 215-yard gap, and a triple bogey on the par-4 ninth, the place Thomas needed to take an unplayable after his tee shot and want 5 strokes to get on the inexperienced.
Whereas Thomas battled with three birdies coming in to make his fourth minimize in his previous 5 Opens (a T-11 at Royal Portrush in 2019 stays his solely end higher than T-40), he nonetheless has not adopted a sub-70 rating with something higher than 77 at this championship.
In Thomas’ first three Open appearances, his first 36-hole spreads seemed like this:
• 2016 – 67-77 (+10 photographs)
• 2017 – 67-80 (+13 photographs)
• 2018 – 69-77 (+8 photographs)
The latter two units of scores resulted in missed cuts, however like this week, Thomas made the minimize at Royal Troon in 2016 earlier than tying for 53rd. At 4 over getting into this Saturday, Thomas is 11 photographs off the lead.
