Justin Thomas’ bizarre Open week underscored by quirky document

Golf is fickle, and if there’s any participant from this week’s Open Championship discipline who can attest to that reality, it’s Justin Thomas.

The 2-time main winner went out with a bang at Royal Troon, posting a spherical of three-under 68 to path the opening-round chief, Daniel Brown, by three pictures.

Per week earlier than, Thomas had opened with a scorching 62 on the Scottish Open, solely to fade away with rounds of 72-71-71 to complete T62. However within the first spherical of the 12 months’s closing main, the 31-year-old was completely satisfied together with his efficiency.

“I’m very happy with my recreation and know issues are persevering with to work in the appropriate route,” Thomas stated. “I’ve simply received to maintain attempting to play effectively.”

The spherical was a vivid spot in what has been a considerably up-and-down season to this point — a minimum of, comparatively talking. In 15 occasions, Thomas had missed the minimize 4 instances, however he’d additionally posted 5 top-10s. Given the struggles he endured in 2023, when he missed the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the primary time in his profession, Thomas’ 2024 bounce-back appeared like a profitable one. And the beginning at Royal Troon regarded like a continuation of that effort.

Then got here Spherical 2, and a head-scratching 45 on the entrance 9 en-route to a rating of 78. Thomas plummeted down the leaderboard, however made the minimize. Then, on Saturday, Thomas flipped the script once more, this time going out in 31 in a number of the week’s most troublesome circumstances, finally signing for his finest rating of the week, a four-under 67.

Thomas was out of the blue again within the combine, T10 and 4 pictures off the lead heading into the ultimate spherical. How did he assess the acute turnaround?

“Golf is how I’d sum it up,” Thomas stated on Saturday. “It’s a loopy sport and quite a lot of issues can occur in quite a lot of circumstances. However that’s what I signed up for, I assume.”

Sadly for Thomas, extra “golf” was in retailer on Sunday. The spherical didn’t go as deliberate. Thomas hit his tee shot OB off the primary tee, then needed to bail out of a fairway bunker, resulting in a triple bogey. Issues didn’t get higher from there. Thomas fought again with two birdies, however a further 4 bogeys stymied his efforts, and he ended up with a spherical of 77 to complete T31.

Thomas’ whiplash scoring really earned him a unusual distinction, which golf stats guru Justin Ray highlighted on X.

As Ray famous, Thomas is the one participant in three many years to publish a 10-shot variance between rounds at a significant championship. And whereas it’s actually not the end Thomas hoped for, he can a minimum of focus one optimistic: He’s well-positioned for this 12 months’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, with a present rank of seventeenth.

The playoffs start with the FedEx St. Jude on Aug. 15.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily liable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular initiatives, resembling GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video kind on GOLF.com.